Lately my CD changer has been acting weired. It cuts off the sound to one of the channels. The sound does not disappear completely, the sound level to one channel drops 50-80% over a few seconds. I've been trying to diagnose this problem for days now. At first I was not sure what was causing the problem so I started by swapping left/right RCAs at the amp/HU level and speaker wires. Finally when I swapped the RCAs coming out of the CD changer the problem moved to the other speaker, that's how I found out the changer was at fault.

What is interesting is that I can always make the problem go away by turning the CD changer on/off, switching to radio & back, skipping to the next/previous song or another CD and even by just skipping forward/back in the same song. The problem is always with the same channel and the other channel is not affected at all. Also, it does not matter which CD I'm listening to or what track number.

I've opened up the changer and did not see anything (visually or mechanically) wrong. I cleaned up the beam (manually) just in case but it didn't make a difference.

It's a 10 disk Sony CD changer that is about 4 years old and has survived an accident as well. I really cannot afford to buy a new changer at the moment and would appreciate any tips/ideas.

Thanks for reading!

 

I had a pioneer about as old and moved it around with me for a few years and it had little problems like that progressively until I moved to Japan and installed it in my Starlet. It got worse and worse until it finally wouldn't do anything at all. I checked into getting it fixed but it was going to cost almost as much as a new one so I didn't do it. Never bought another changer since. I think that over time the vibrations can start wearing on the internals and can eventually cause them to fail. That's just my theory.

 

sounds like a loose connection or an internal component that has become somewhat loose.

try opening the changer again, and then checking the connections for the RCA outputs... make sure they are solidly soldered down...

i'm no pro on this kind of stuff so take the following w/ both some humor and some serious thought...

when i have a problem like this, i usually carefully fire the gear up with the box open and everything exposed. i then cautiously and meticulously touch and wiggle all the various components, waiting to hear 'the symptom.' once i find the components that seem to be the source of the problem - if it's on the board, i resolder all the joints for that component (usually means pulling the board out of the case); if on a connector, i try to check all the points on the connector for anything loose or frayed.

then i put it back together and hope it works...
btw, did i mention my method might result in death of the item? and possibly personal injury?
(be careful if you choose to do this... especially around any capacitors on the board... they do hold charge you know...)

but seriously though, be cautious doing it, and if you can't afford to replace it or don't want to replace it, get a pro to look at it... otherwise, my diagnosing failure 'cheat' works quite well... i'm 5 for 6 with it now... and that 6th case just wasn't worth the effort to fix.

 

PJK3: The only problem is that once I open up the changer to the point where I can have a decent look at moving parts I cannot run it any more. I have to disconnect some (very delicate) connectors in order to open up the changer. Even if I can somehow extend the connector's wire, the CD cartridge pretty much blocks all access to moving parts. I will see if I can play a CD without the cartridge, that would help.

It seems like a laser alignments issue but I'm not sure how that would only affect one channel and not both??

Also, the sound does not completely cuts off and there is also some static in that channel. Could it be something heating up? I don't really have a clue but keep the ideas coming cause I'm sure not giving up that easy!

 

No, laser alignment would prevent reading of everything (the left and right tracks are interleaved on the disk). Dropping level and static leads me to believe it's a loose component, either a connector or a cold solder connection. If you can't reach it, not much you can do about it.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MacGyver
[B]No, laser alignment would prevent reading of everything (the left and right tracks are interleaved on the disk).

 

ah, that is a bummer.... sometimes, you can get things into weird arrangements so that it can be kept running while you mess around... but all in all, if you can't get at the components, you're in trouble for being able to try and fix it.

and it may not be the moving parts that are the problem... this sort of issue is likely to come from components actually 'on' the circuit boards.... my first hunch is that you've got a solder joint loose on the circuit board where your connectors are attached.

and Mac's right... the laser just reads a stream of 0's and 1's, which the DAC recreates into a left and right music stream... if the laser was dying, you'd get all or nothing when it kicked on and off... not to mention, i'd probably lose tracking, so you might not even get any audio as the laser constantly tried to find its place again...

 

and what?? no taunting from Mac for my poor man's cheater method of circuit failure debugging??

i expected to get reamed for that one....

 

I moved the changer from vertical to horizontal position and it seems the problem has disappeared! I will live with this for now.

Thanks for all the ideas!

PS: PJK3, Mac is moving to Florida in two days, he's probably busy packing - meanwhile: while the cat is away, the mice will play

 

definitely sounds like something's loose internally then... but, i'm glad you found a good simple solution. hopefully, the problem won't rear it's ugly head again...


and you're right... i forgot his move was right around now...
still, i figured he'd read my little 'cheat' and give me a hard time about it... he must have missed it, or my technique isn't as crude as i think....



naw, he probably missed it.