Audio Systems: NAD 514, neverending story, harman kardon cd player, harman kardon cd

Question
Dear Sir,
I had written You twice so far. Fallowing your suggestions, I found service manual for similar model (NAD 5420 ), and tried without any equipment to align laser.There were five varistors,I think the same as in NAD 5420. There was a certain improvement,after this, so CD player could read tracks, find them, without delay, but, after some time of playing, the same cracking sound started coming from the lens. The same things happened playing the first, second or last track.
If you could tell me, since I have found the used laser assembly from one old Harman Kardon CD player, if there was a problem with tracking, so I could continue trying alignment, or I should change laser assembly?
Thank You in advance
Radan

Answer
Congratulations; you are making progress.

Here is the question: Does the cracking (dropout) sound occur at the same spot on the disc?  Does it occur on the same spot on all discs? Or is it a more random event?  If you have a disc that is much worse than another try cleaning that one with warm water and mild dish soap; does it improve?

If you get dropout in same position on one disc but different place on other disc it is tracking still out of adjustment. If it is in the same place all the time on all discs it is mechanical - such as  a friction point or something like that.

Probably, my guess, it is still a tracking problem.  But, unfortunately, when perfectly aligned and the laser is weak it will give the same results as bad tracking!  

Best wishes,
C