Repair or Replace - Marantz CD63se

i predict the concensus is move on.....

I agree, move on. My experience is, if you replaced the laser something else will fail shortly after. It is 12 yrs old, it owes you nothing.

11-02-12: Theo
I agree, move on. My experience is, if you replaced the laser something else will fail shortly after. It is 12 yrs old, it owes you nothing.

Umm, that's 16 years, more than half the distance back to the introduction of the CD in 1982.

At this point you may be better off ripping all your music (with a lossless codec) to a PC or Mac, and then get an inexpensive 3rd party music control software such as JRMC, Audirvana, or Songbird to improve the sound on playback.

I'm getting excellent sound with my MacBook Pro plus portable 500 GB hard drive to hold the music plus Audirvana Plus working as a plug-in to optimize the computer for sound while using iTunes as the user interface. You can further improve the sound with an asynchronous USB DAC such as the Musical Fidelity V-DAC MkII. This will sound worlds better than your 1996 CD player.

Johnny ... And then what do you do when the hard drive crashes and dies? I am in the process of attempting to recover my data from an iMac hard drive that died after 6 years of use. The data had been backed up a little while ago to an Iomega hard drive that has died, as well. It is easier to purchase a new CD player, than recover.

If obsolescence is a concern, then approach this as a bucket list project and buy two cd players so you are covered for the next 20 plus years. Or buy a cd player and a turntable. I am not trying to be a wiseass, but hard drives are such a crap shoot and this is coming from an IT person.

To the original question, your cd player is dead, but fortunately cd players have changed and for the better since Clinton's first term in office. Buy a Rega Apollo (1k) and either an XTZ CD100 (600) or an Emotiva (400) as a back-up. Or a Rega Apollo and a Project Carbon turntable (400).

Rich

Back when your CD player was current, it was an excellent value for the money. CD players have progressed since then. If it was my choice, I would go for a new unit. The transport in your player is still probably competitive but the dac section isn't.

My first choice, if you can find a good used one, is a Rotel RCD 1072. I had one and thought it was great. I wish I never sold mine. Some other excellent choices would be Cambridge, NAD and Marantz. All 3 make something in your price range. For me, I like the Cambridge. Not only for sound quality, but build quality, as well.

I'm sure there are some other brands out there that are excellent too. Other posters will probably recommend some of them. I can only recommend what I have heard myself. You should have no problem getting a CD player that will make you happy.