Servicing old gear.

[sq225917]

A while back I thought I'd like a cd transport, and decided to buy an old classic, Audiolab cdm, the original version with cdm 9 Pro mech. I picked one up for £100, gutted it, recapped everything, new belts, drive pulley, drop of oil on the motors, stripped and greased the sled, new bulbs for the display, checked all the rail voltages, checked the eye pattern, dialled it all back to spec, the whole 9 yards.

A few weeks later another came up, so I bought it as a spare and have done nothing to it at all.

Guess what? I can't tell any difference between them into my dac over AES.

Digital either works, or doesn't. There really are no shades.

 

[sergeauckland]

However, the one you've serviced is likely to work reliably for a long time, whilst the spare may or may not, so it was worth doing. You could always do the second one just for fun, given that we've a long cold winter to look forward to.
S.

 

[sq225917]

The plan is to service the 2nd flog it and get a replacement laser from a kodak pcd player.