OP posted about fixing / replacing his CD player.
If he had wanted to rip his CDs, no doubt he'd have posted about that.
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
@devinplombier Ripping his CDs is replacing his CD player. |
Correct. Generally unless one likes the one box CD player solution, it’s better and much more flexible to have separate transport + DAC. Also, separate DACs usually easily beats CD Player’s internal DACs within the related price points. Finally, you won’t run into this same situation next time. Agree that get an inexpensive CD player to keep playing digital, or no digital until you save enough to get the digital front end. If your wife holds the purse strings, you can unleash your whimpering and puppy eyes 🥺. Good luck. |
@vthokie83 thanks for the AXPONA tip. I’ve started highlighting and mapping the key booths I want focus on first. I’m not sure I mentioned it, but one key objective going to AXPONA (my first audio show) is to see if my 69+ year old tinnitus riddled ears can hear really hi quality music/sounds before I sink more funds into this hobby. |
- 45 posts total