Harman/Kardon CD changer problem

[deeder7001]

I have a Harman/Kardon FL8400 5 disc changer. I had to replace the belt on the carousel and to do that I had to take the whole tray out of the CD player. I even removed the carousel itself. Now I can't figure out if the carousel is supposed to be placed a certain way for it to work right or what. Either way I have a nice CD changer that doesn't work. Any help is appreciated as always.

[deeder7001]

I guess if you want something done right you do it yourself. I found that the belt I installed for the carousel was too tight and was partly responsible for the error. The main reason was the gears that lift the lens into place wasn't quite working correctly as the CD player hasn't been used for a couple of years. It's all good now. This thing is awesome.

This CD changer has a digital output and it sounds really nice. Even if it was made in 1995.

[ScorLibran]

Nice.

[deeder7001]

You're going to hate me when I tell you that I got it for free.

[ScorLibran]

Twice as nice.

I had a 400-disc CD changer that I recently sold on eBay. Got lots of good use out of it for almost ten years.

I might get a carousel one day. Even with most of my music ripped to hard drives, it'd still be convenient to have something I can throw several new (or borrowed) discs into quickly, before having to rip them.

[deeder7001]

What brand was the 400-disc changer? I didn't know they had that capacity changer back then.

[rockouthippie]

I use this Phillips Divx DVD player. It'll play CDs, Divx movies and also MP3 DVD's. I sold changers several years ago. The platter changers were ok as long as they weren't gear drive. The vertical carousel changers would jam and usually hurt themselves and/or your CD when they did it.

Cartridge type seemed to be ok.

There was a point though, that they became unpopular, mainly because a lot of them (not all) were twitchy. Enough of the units were a hassle that they got bad press.

I don't even have a CD player anymore. I use a DVD player instead. This Phillips Divx one I have will play MP3 DVDs, which seems to be a good solution if I don't want a computer on.

[ScorLibran]

My 400-disc changer was a Sony, purchased in 1998.

Seemed to be a very good design as it never jammed, through many times of being moved around with discs inside it. Although the risk was always there, of course.

[deeder7001]

@ROH, Cartridge type? Explain a bit please. I haven't looked at CD changers in a while.

[swingdjted]

1995 with a digital out? Must have been expensive – especially Harmon-Kardon – good shit.

My first player with a digital out was maybe 1998 or '99, a Pioneer DV-C503 (5-disc carousel DVD changer). That fucker cost me the equivalent of 300 gallons of gasoline ($300), and now something like that would be maybe the equivalent of 45 gallons of gas ($100). It adds an optical out that I use but doesn’t read mp3’s or other computer formats other than VCDs and SVCDs.

[deeder7001]

Yep. Optical Digital out. My uncle bought it when it was new. He said he paid something like $400 for it.

[swingdjted]

When shopping for components, I always wanted to step up to brands like Denon or Harmon-Kardon, but just couldn't part with the extra money it would cost.

I see Pioneer as better than the other leading brands like Technics, JVC, Sony, Yamaha, Onkyo, etc. but perhaps I'll someday take it a step further and get a Denon or H-K. For now most of my stuff is Pioneer and I like it.

Did your model have the digital out that's RCA cable shaped?

[deeder7001]

Nope. The place where the output is says "Optical Digital output".

The cheapest stereo receiver I saw on the Harman/Kardon site was $350. I haven't done a lot of looking though.

[ScorLibran]

Originally posted by swingdjted
I see Pioneer as better than the other leading brands like Technics, JVC, Sony, Yamaha, Onkyo, etc. but perhaps I'll someday take it a step further and get a Denon or H-K. For now most of my stuff is Pioneer and I like it.

Did your model have the digital out that's RCA cable shaped?

Pioneer is better than the brands you list except for Onkyo and Yamaha - those three brands are about equal in quality. (Although it depends on the component - with some types of components, for instance, Yamaha makes top-end stuff.)

I've always liked Pioneer a lot. I used to have a Pioneer receiver that I was extremely happy with. I wish I still had it, in fact.

And digital outputs that are "RCA cable chaped" are coaxial digital audio outputs (usually with orange color-coding).

[deeder7001]

My grandma's husband has an old Yamaha setup. It's from '85 but it still sounds nice. Only had to replace the CD player(I have the CD player he replaced). My other grandma has an old Pioneer also from around '85. It too sounds nice. So far, everything works and nothing has been replaced including the CD changer(pull out a small box and load the CDs into it and then put it back into the CD player).

[ScorLibran]

Originally posted by deeder7001
(pull out a small box and load the CDs into it and then put it back into the CD player).

We used to call the small box the "shuttle". Not sure if that was a standardized term, though.

[deeder7001]

I thought it was called a magazine or something else.

[ScorLibran]

True, I've heard it called "magazine" as well - and also "cartridge". One of those may have been the more standard term, even when we were informally calling them "shuttles".

[rockouthippie]

Originally posted by deeder7001
@ROH, Cartridge type? Explain a bit please. I haven't looked at CD changers in a while.

I guess magazine is the right word. You stick 5 to 12 CDs in the cartridge and snap them in the player.

Like this Pioneer one:

http://www.logjamelectronics.com/pionjdsixdis2.html

They were popular as CDROMS for computers too.

I think these were the first kind of changer, but it might have been platter type... I know the carousels were later.

I had a Kenwood 100 disk carousel, but it gave out in a couple years.

I still have the reciever though. Boy is it a speaker burner.

[Razzinno]

Originally posted by ScorLibran
I had a 400-disc CD changer that I recently sold on eBay. Got lots of good use out of it for almost ten years.

One of my friends had nothing but Sony for his entertainment system. Since then, he changed brands (Denon, Klipsch, etc.), but that 400-disc CD changer still sits at the bottom of his entertainment center, unused. He lets the 2 year old play with it, pulling out cds that nobody listens to anymore. I guess he figures the money he could get for it plus the price of the cds, is worth the price of a toy?

[deeder7001]

Originally posted by rockouthippie
I guess magazine is the right word. You stick 5 to 12 CDs in the cartridge and snap them in the player.

Like this Pioneer one:

http://www.logjamelectronics.com/pionjdsixdis2.html

That magazine thing looks a lot like my grandma's for her CD changer.

[ScorLibran]

Originally posted by rockouthippie
I guess magazine is the right word. You stick 5 to 12 CDs in the cartridge and snap them in the player.

Oh, I was thinking of the ones that were even older - the ones that only took one CD. The tray that held it we called a "shuttle", and was used both in home entertainment center components and early PC optical disc players. The multi-disc container that came later was indeed called a "magazine".

Originally posted by razzinno
...but that 400-disc CD changer still sits at the bottom of his entertainment center, unused. He lets the 2 year old play with it, pulling out cds that nobody listens to anymore. I guess he figures the money he could get for it plus the price of the cds, is worth the price of a toy?

I sold mine on eBay for just under $100. Even though that's a big difference than the $550 I paid for it new, it was more than I thought I'd get in this day of 400-disc DVD changers costing even less than my CD changer did when it was new.

(I saw a 400-disc DVD changer for about $300 a few weeks ago. I'd actually like to buy one - it'd be nice to have my entire movie collection always loaded and ready-to-go. Although now I should wait for 400-disc HD-DVD or Blu-ray changers to become available for reasonable prices.)

[deeder7001]

Originally posted by ScorLibran
The tray that held it we called a "shuttle", and was used both in home entertainment center components and early PC optical disc players.

I have one of those old CD Roms that have that in my 486.

[swingdjted]

Shit, I remember those shuttle thingies! That was kind of a hassle.

I do have one Yamaha CD player. It is a CDC-715 built in 1991. It's a 5 CD carousel with "Play X-Change", the ability to play one while changing the other 4, something that was a new feature at the time.

It is damn good at reading dirty/damaged CDs as if they were clean but skips easily if I try to DJ with it on a floor that has people jumping on it (like the electric slide where everyone does the same damn step at the same time). Newer players don't skip as easily so I guess it's not so much Yamaha's fault as I'm guessing all brands tended to skip easily back then. Still works well, but I rarely use it.

I have no experience with owning Onkyo products so I guess for me to have said what I said about them was stupid. Sorry about that.

[deeder7001]

Originally posted by swingdjted
Shit, I remember those shuttle thingies! That was kind of a hassle.

I've had a couple of times where I couldn't find that shuttle thing. I was unable to use the CD-Rom because of that.

[cooky560]

I have a technics carousel cd player from the late 80s, very nice machine (5 disk top loader) looked simply elegant, however the carousel now makes a strange noise when rotating between disk 3 and 4, and 4 and 5, does it need a new belt? other than that the unit reads fine, infact it reads more cds than my brand new personal cd player :P

[swingdjted]

It might need the hardware checked out for something slowing it down, either a bad part, foreign object, poor/old lubrication, hardware that is off track, warped/deformed or out of line, or something else.

[cooky560]

thanks for the insight but it raises another question, which is what to do next, do i risk opening the unit, or take it to a local audio repair shop?

[ScorLibran]

That depends on how much it's worth to you to get the unit fixed. Note that this is different than the unit's current value. If there's sentimental value attached to it, that would make it worth more to you than the value some book quotes. I'm talking about opportunity cost, here.

Take it to a repair shop, and before they work on it, ask them how much a diagnosis will cost. (Of course they won't be able to tell you a repair cost before they determine what's wrong with it.) With the diagnostic cost, make a decision whether it's worth it to have them look at it.

Once they diagnose it, then make the same decision with the repair cost they quote.

[swingdjted]

I remember a recent thread about how great old recievers are and now this thread about problems with CD players - I think the inclusion of moving parts really makes all the difference. (*Awaits posts attacking me for being the master of the obvious*) I've tried taking things apart and tinkering with them which can be fun but risky. I'm sometimes pretty good at it - as long as the repair involves a simple solder or replacement of a gear or belt/band.

If you're not comfortable with this I'd do what Scor said. The key thing is, if you don't think you'll be able put it back together right, don't take it apart. If you think you have at least some knowledge and skill with this sort of stuff, and if you think you could at least get it back together to be the way it was before tampering with it, then giving it a look shouldn't hurt.

[deeder7001]

I'll be getting a receiver(Technics SU V78) on Sunday after church. I don't know if it works yet but it's free so we'll just have to see if carrying it 2 miles on my bike is worth it.

[swingdjted]

It would be worth it to me just even if it didn't work - I love messing with old electronics.

[cooky560]

lol, I want to get my hands on a working Pioneer A400, I have been hearing great reviews on the intarwebnet

[burnitdown]

This CD changer has a digital output and it sounds really nice. Even if it was made in 1995.

For pure sound quality, Harmon/Kardon is the best I've found in big stores. Can you still get their amplifiers? The Sony I'm using now isn't so bad but the sound is very much geared toward the average rock listener.

[deeder7001]

I don't think I've ever seen a Harman/Kardon amp in retail stores. You can buy them online from the website.

I just noticed that I've never had to pay for any of my audio equipment(Infinity speakers, Harman/Kardon CD changer, Technics amp (coming Sunday)...).

[swingdjted]

Paid for it all - and I use Infinity too. This model is the first I bought - SM225s that I use in the basement. They're very good at flat sound reproduction, second to none in their sensitivity (meaning even if I hooked them to a shitty boombox amp they'd still sound powerful), and they are strong enough to easily fill a 7 acre backyard party. <3 infinity. I even used to use them for DJ work at weddings and high school events, and they never fell short of performing perfectly, except they're a bitch to carry.

[deeder7001]

I just have a couple of SS 2003s. I see these staying around for a long time to come. Same with my CD player.

[ScorLibran]

I like Infinity speakers a lot, myself. They're some of the best speakers I've ever owned, up there with Klipsch and Criterion.

[swingdjted]

I was wrong, mine are SM 125s not 225s, which is good, because although the 225s are a newer line with a newer look, mine have a more flat response and wider frequency response.



They've been pumping out clear, full, strong sound through many places of resience and places of gigs/parties since 1994.

[deeder7001]

My Infinitys are finally pumping out a lot more sound than they used to thanks to my free amp. I just want to know where I can find information about this amp. All I know is that it's 100w per channel. If anybody has any information about Technics SU-V78, please share. I've already tried Google.