2-Part Help Needed
I’m hoping this august audiophile community can help me.
For many years now, I’ve really enjoyed listening to music portrayed from my PrimaLuna Prologue Classic CD player (not the earlier Prologue Eight) through a PrimaLuna Dialogue HP Premium integrated amp and Joseph Audio (pre-graphene) speakers. It offers a subtly unique sound that I enjoy as much as I do music from streaming (Rose 150b) or analogue (Linn Sondek LP12).
Unfortunately, the CD player failed last week. It loads a CD, reads it, and displays number of tracks & total play time; but will not play any tracks.
I contacted Upscale Audio (The PrimaLuna US distributor) for advice on how to repair my beloved CD player. Unfortunately, they were unable to help me saying they no longer repaired this vintage ~2012 CD player and specifically “We are unaware of a shop to recommend. The reason we stopped was because the Laser Mechanism was hard to get, and sometimes the repair didn't last.”
1st Help Needed: Can anyone recommend a repair path forward, repair shop point of contact, etc…? I really don’t want to have an expensive 25 lb boat anchor.
Feel free to stop reading here if you don’t want to go down the rabbit hole with me if Help Needed #1 doesn’t bear fruit.
2nd Help Needed: This is a path I really don’t want to go down and one I hesitate to even ask because it opens 3 cans of worms! If there is no practical way on gods green earth the repair my current CD player; what would be a good current production affordable replacement CD player?
- Can of worms #1: should I just buy a CD transport and use the Rose 150b DAC or an all in one player/DAC?
- Can of worms #2: I’m going to the upcoming Axpona after which I plan to replace my PrimaLuna integrated amp. Right now the leading candidate is to replace with a Pass Labs INT-60 integrated to take advantage of its 30 w/ch Class A bias and high (compared to the Primaluna amp) damping factor to achieve a more natural sound, note attack/decay, and tighter bass.
- Can of Worms #3: Budget!! I will already be stretching a retirees budget (and wife’s loving support of my audio obsession) to purchase a new/used integrated amp. Buying a CD player was not in the plan so if I do need to go down this path, I need to make a very cost effective purchase. Used is perfectly ok.
Thank you in advance for any advise you are willing to share (especially in regards to Help Needed #1.
@richardbrand apologies if I wasn’t very clear. A 6-disc CD changer was suggested earlier in this thread, to which I said I would only recommend a changer if one actually had a specific need for a CD changer. I thought I was stating in a subtle and diplomatic way that I do not recommend CD changers, unless one enjoys the lengthy cacophony of plastic gears that accompanies every play, of course 😀
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I must have missed the earlier post. 100% with you for home use, though good for long car journeys. I am missing a couple of disks which might have been swallowed. My Pioneer survived thousands of miles of outback bumps and bull dust. Now I just have three USB dongles with all my music ripped to mp3. Good enough when driving ... |
@devinplombier nothing happens when I press play or try to advance to the next t track. I also agree that at CD changer adds complexity (and additional possible failure modes) which I don’t want. @rocray and others. Thoughts on purchasing a transport only player (and using mt Rose 150 DAC) vs. a cd player (with DAC and transport)? It seems to me I could possibly get a more robust laser and mechanism for the buck going the transport route and get longer term reliability. |
@richardbrand in a Holden GTSR one hopes 😃 |
Would have been one of only 275! No, it was one of the first Toyota Landcruiser 80-series into Australia. I took it to the Land Rover proving ground in the Dandenong Ranges. It was the first Japanese vehicle that could do everything a Land Rover or Range Rover could do, except fall apart! I bought on instinct and specifications back then, too |
