Hello,

I own a Denon DCD-810 which plays mostly fine. I’ve cleaned the lens, changed the belt and cleaned / greased the rails and gears on this thing and it can play hours without a hitch.

Now I notice that certain CD’s skip sometimes. Nothing is physically damaged with the CD’s themselves (as far as I can see). The skipping is not always on the same moments but seem to concentrate more on the first few tracks. Although that might also be my perception because usually I just throw in a different CD when the skipping starts.

So having playing Purple Haze for the third time now in a row I started out with skipping and now it plays almost flawlessly. The player has already been playing for more that an hour before so no cold components as far as I know. I can find no relation between the skipping CD’s in age. Old or new both can be jerky.

Does anyone know what could cause skipping on certain CD’s while others play fine for hours on end? I accept my DCD-810 being a fossil as a valid answer ;)

  • @daggermoonEnglish
    2•3 months ago

    How often does it skip? I had a Technics CD changer skip occasionally for no apparent reason. I think the laser was just fucked. I tried cleaning it and it didn’t make a difference. Unfortunately the lasers won’t last forever even if you take good care of them.

    • @HC4LOPEnglish
      1•3 months ago

      Thanks for answering! When it skips it’s usually unplayable. This morning I’ve had a CD (as far as I could see in good condition) that did not play at all. It barely indexed and did not start. Others skip every few seconds and sometimes it even gets less after a few minutes. Also the skipping isn’t always at the same moment.

      Apart from those it plays most CD’s flawlessly. It indexes really fast, also playing starts fast and so is changing to random tracks. That’s what I thought was kinda weird about it.

      • @daggermoonEnglish
        2•3 months ago

        Sorry to tell you but that sounds like a dying laser. If you’re determined to hold on to it you might be able to find an electronics repair shop that might fix it. It would probably involve swapping in a working laser. Honestly it would be cheaper to replace the unit. Those older players aren’t very reliable after all these years. They are beautiful though.

        • @HC4LOPEnglish
          1•3 months ago

          Was affraid of that. Affraid being a big word. I really fell for the look of this player and / or players from that era knowing age could be a problem. I can pick up a replacement laser for this unit for 36 Euro’s while the unit itself cost me around 60 Euro’s. I have put some love into it already and this might be a sunken cost fallacy thing but you can’t put a price on love ;)

          Don’t know what the experiences are with swapping lasers but I’ll look around. Buying something else from this era might just result in the same or different problems anyway. I really can’t see anything modern I like. I can even hate a beautiful machine for the font used on the buttons ;)

          • @daggermoonEnglish
            2•3 months ago

            If you have the technical knowledge to replace the laser it might be worth it. It’s a beautiful machine. I don’t think it’s that difficult. I’ve seen videos of people doing it before. Just make sure to do some research before attempting. I have a vintage Sony player that has the same problem as yours I’ve been meaning to fix as well. I’ll let you know how that goes if I ever get around to it. My main player right now is a Denon DVD-1930CI DVD/SACD player. It’s from 2008 and has held up so far.

            • @HC4LOPEnglish
              2•3 months ago

              Thanks for taking the time to reply. I will look into it. I just have a small stack of CD’s I can’t play so I’ll manage for now. 2008 is like brand new haha. Sony’s look great so good luck!