First, I feel your pain. Try contacting GEORGE MEYER AV in Los Angeles. (310) 820-1113. They keep my PrimaLuna Prologue Premium CD player going. Unless you have one, people probably don’t understand just how good these full tube CD players sound. I wish you well.
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
I think it's a damn shame that one can't get a $3k cd player repaired that was made by a "reputable" company 13 years ago. Or maybe I'm just too old & view things differently. With that said Digital in general has improved by leaps & bounds over the last decade. You probably could find a new CD player for a few hundred bucks that equals or betters your older unit. But it sucks to just end up with a beautiful tube CD player that wants to spend its old age as nothing more than a door stopper or paper weight. This could open the door to a whole new change in your system. The ultimate convenience of streaming. Ripping your vast collection of CD's to play thru your new streamer or digital source. Everything costs money though unfortunately. I hope you find a cheap fix for your CD player.. or good luck with whatever comes next for you. |
Glad to hear you are still interested in CDs... I find them quite durable and reliable and listen to them as background-sound. Fair SQ, but like all recorded media, the better the recording, the better the playback... I have been using an Ayre CD player (I have no affiliation) for nearly a decade and am very happy with the sound, ergonomics and reliability. I mention this only because it is very likely that you can find a great, well made CD player on the after-market that will fill the void and be serviceable for many years. Best of all - because of streaming, most are favorably priced ;-). Good luck. |
@mattw73 Amen brother! You hit my nail on the head in your 1st and last paragraph.
If that fails, I’ve looked up the Primaluna home office contact info in The Netherlands and will reach out to them for help fixing my unit. I really appreciate everyone’s thoughts and recommendations! |
- 45 posts total