My Pioneer survived thousands of miles of outback bumps
@richardbrand in a Holden GTSR one hopes 😃
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.
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- 45 posts total
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 |
When my Sony SCD-1 player died after about 20 years. it was the laser that failed and I could not replace it since Sony no longer had the parts. This was considered the top end SACD player, especially with mods like my model. To replace the Sony, I purchased the GeerFAB D.BOB from Upscale Audio ($650). I also got a $250 used Oppo BDP-103 as a transport. I had a used $500 RME DAC and all 3 of these things work together to play CD (PCM) + SACD (DSD). Not sure if your ROSE DAC would work here but there is another ROSE model listed as working in this setup. This is rather low-cost and sounds excellent. Really only limited by the DAC. I had a Meitner MA3i DAC ($11.5k) on demo for the past 2 weeks. Using the MA3i with the D.BOB was the very best sound I ever heard in my system (via SACD disks). Disk playback is better than streaming in my experience. I also have great streaming. US Audio Mart America’s Newest Online Hifi, Audio & Home Theater Classifieds
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I asked for help here when searching https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/better-cd-sound-the-search https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/sony-sacd-player-scd-xa5400es-yay-or-nay there’s no risk, crutchfield has 60 day returns, try it, https://www.crutchfield.com/p_164CDC34/Integra-CDC-3-4.html It was the dual Wolfson processors that made me give it a try, I’m so glad I did. you will be very pleasantly surprised by it’s sound, the fact that it is so inexpensive and also the ease of a changer is kind of absurd. I play mine thru a Vintage tube preamp upstairs, a Vintage SS receiver downstairs my 1st impressions were "Oh Happy Day,
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- 45 posts total