QuestionSalutations Sir. I have a Yamaha CD-37 which responds to a disk insertion by searching around a bit and then registering a "5" or "3" in the track window -and then it just sits there. I ran a "clean up" disk on it to no avail. It is a fine machine and I hate to junk it just to replace it with one of those $69 tin boxes at Bes* B*y. I have to admit, this is a GOOD WILL gem , but it played well for quite a few years. I tested it with old CDs because I read what you said about new cd's. I usually fix my own stuff but cd players leave me under 60 meters of water. What do you think about the problem and repairs?
Now I saw your background and I ask you this: I have a lot of tube equipment and I cringe when I turn a piece on because of the flare up in the tubes which I see the moment I flip the power switch. I have heard that this voltage surge is a shock to the system, especially the tubes. I have put together a limiting devise that consists of a 40 watt (or 60 watt) bulb which I use to shape electrolytic capacitors in the power supply of a pedicel which has been sitting for a bunch of years. The question is: can I use a few of these voltage dropping devices, one for each tube piece being used around the house, with the idea of extending the life of the tubes. Just go through the bulb for the initial 'power on' and then shoot the full house current into the piece.
I hope that there is not a one question rule that I have just broken. I admire the patience which you all show in answering all of this stuff.
Jim
AnswerJim,
The first question I can answer by saying that CD technology is flawed. It is another interim media for getting from pristine vinyl reproduction to pure digital reproduction. By that I mean that there is a limitation and it is in the bit rate as well as the sampling rate. 44k at 16 bit is not outside the limit of human audible perception. Harmonics as well as subharmonics can extent beyond 44K. 16 bit create an artifact called truncating which happens when there is a sharp cuttoff at 20Khz and no information beyond that frequency (LSB's which is the dimension around the music are eliminated - Least Significant Bits). That effect is un natural and harmonic distortion is the net result. It is more complicated but I don't want to get too technical here.
Having said that I want to make a pitch for hard disc playback. Devices like iPods with lossless digital codec files is going to have a cleaner sound using a good DAC then just about any CD player. There is a mechanical sound made by CD players called clock pulses, seemingly inaudible until A/B'd with a hard drive device of the same audio data.
So now we are back to the question about the Yamaha 37. If we were talking about an expensive SACD player, there might be an argument to get it fixed but standard CD technology has become fairly inexpensive if you decide to stick with listening to CD's as opposed to copying them to a hard drive device. I don't recommend fixing it.
Now to the second question. I assume you are referring to audio equipment. Exactly what pedicil are you referring to? It sounds like your a hobbyist. It if makes you happy you should continue to experiment with the vacuum tubes. As far as, will it work and how well it will improve the performance of the component, your guess is as good as mine. I haven't worked with vacuum tubes for more years than I want to say. I have listened to old Marantz vacuum tube amplifiers as well as some very high quality Russian hybrid amplifiers. All very pleasing to my ears but rich for my pocket book.
