Category: Compact Discs

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My Latest Folly

I discovered I had two leftover shadow box frames from my Minidisc project last year. I thought I’d switch it up a bit so I searched everyone’s favorite auction site for “Parts Or Repair” portable CD players. This one came up for $20 and I figured it was worth it. If it did work—or I could get it working, I could easily flip it (because I didn’t really need another portable player), but if not, I could put one of those shadow boxes to use.

Obviously I couldn’t get it working. The disc would spin, the laser would search for the table of contents and then shut down. I tried adjusting the laser gain and focus controls, but to no avail. It wasn’t a great player by any means, but it was pretty and therefore it went into the “art” category.

This model is a strange beast. It fell in the transition period between the all metal mid 80s players (that I adore despite their lack of skip protection) and the all plastic era of the 90s. The case is all plastic, but lacks any sort of skip protection, and the innards more resemble the metal models than the plastic ones, what with the multiple circuit boards and connecting wires that ran everywhere.

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Ah, Memories…

It was a simpler time. Groceries this week or five new CDs? Decisions, decisions! So…ramen it is! (I had my priorities, after all!)

(Yes, I tagged this in the Decline and Fall of Civilization category because as a society we lost something when music stores died.)

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We All Remember Our First

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This is the device I spent many a summer afternoon listening to Miami Sound Machine on—not the one in my photo the other day. That was my second portable, and as near as I can remember, I didn’t get that one until after I’d moved to San Francisco—although I have no memory of where or when exactly I acquired it. Getting old sucks.

(As cringeworthy to read as they are now, I’m so glad I kept journals of my adventures in The City from 1987 thru 2001. It’s almost as if I knew at the time at some point they’d be the only way for me to verify when shit happened.)

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Why Did An Inveterate Disco Dolly Like Myself NOT Have These In My Collection?

Yeah, I have them on vinyl (of course), but while I thought I had replaced most of my collection of late 70s Cerrone goodness on CD, I went to play Cerrone’s Paradise the other day and realized that I had not. Sure, I had his seminal work, Love in C-Minor, and even a couple of his later releases (Supernature Symphony and Disco Symphony) on CD, but these two (along with The Golden Touch and Cerrone V) were absent. I opted to replace these two now and wait on the others.

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Spring 1986

Almost period-appropriate for the player this morning.

I remember the drummer Enrique “Kiki” Garcia always give me the tingles down there. It’s funny how I realize now that for the most part, all of the actors and musicians who had such a profound effect on me in my 20s and 30s were my peers in age.

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Released 41 Years Ago Today

Dire Straits: Brothers In Arms (1985)

On May 13, 1985,  Dire Straits Released Their 5th Album, “Brothers in Arms.” It spent 9 weeks atop the Billboard 200 album chart, and has sold over 30 Million copies worldwide. It was also the first album to sell over 1 Million copies in CD format.

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Peak Design

Sony D-10

I’ve always thought that the Sony Discman models from the late 80s through possibly the early 90s was when Sony hit peak design. For the most part they were still heavy, all metal cases and high quality components throughout. Sure, this was before the “g-force” technology came into existence so all you’d have to do is give one some side-eye and it would skip, but you couldn’t fault their aesthetic. While Sony marketed them as on-the-go machines, they really weren’t. Portable? Yes—portable as in they weren’t 18-inch wide units you’d find in a home stereo. They were—and still are—perfect for desk use, which is where I use mine. I remember taking my Discman to work and jamming out to Miami Sound Machine on many a hot summer afternoon while drafting construction documents at Kim Acorn Associates in Tucson, Arizona..

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I’m Such A Geek

It Feels Good To Fix Stuff

As you know, a couple weeks ago I acquired a really nice vintage Yamaha CDX-930 single-disc CD player. It—like most players of the era now do—had some drawer issues. Initially I replaced the drawer belt with a slightly smaller one I had on hand. I kept the old belt “just in case,” listening to that little voice in my head for once.

It turns out using a belt that’s too small is just as bad as using one that’s too loose. This belt also proved problematic, so I set about finding the specific belt for this model, something that was easier said than done. Finally I located one from West Coast Belts (a highly recommended place in the audio repair community) and ordered it.

It arrived last week, and the moment I took it out of the package I knew it wasn’t going to work. Yeah, it was the right diameter, but it was substantially thinner than the original (probably 0.5mm vs. 1.5mm) belt. After cleaning the two pulleys in the unit (something I’d failed to do initially), I went ahead and put it in. As I suspected, it still wasn’t what was needed for proper operation. The drawer opened normally, but it still struggled to close.

I went back online and after a lot of searching, located another supplier—in Portugal, no less—who supposedly had the correct size and thickness of belt I needed. I ordered one. That belt currently seems to be visiting every major European capital before heading across the Atlantic, so I have no idea when it’s going to arrive.

I was thinking about this last night and thought I’d try an old trick often used in the YouTube CD repair videos I’ve watched: placing the original belt in boiling water for 5 minutes and then plunging it immediately into cold water to cause the rubber’s “memory” to return to its original size and shape.

Surprisingly this worked—to a degree. It didn’t return the belt to a perfect circle, but the kink in this 45 year old belt was definitely diminished. Once again I took the unit apart and this time put the “rejuvenated” old belt back in, taking care to locate the remaining “kinked” part of the belt on the large pulley vs. the small motor spindle pulley so that it would have an opportunity to spread out and relax a bit more.

Everything worked perfectly. How long this will last is anyone’s guess—just like they caution in the videos—but at least for now it’s working smoothly, and hopefully the new belt coming from Europe will be the correct configuration.

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Further Praise For The Humble Compact Disc

I was chatting with my friend Ken earlier today about our mutually-shared passion for hifi equipment (he was the one who got me hooked on all this shit back when we were in high school), and after him sending me some reviews for impossibly high-end equipment (including the latest Technics turntable), I remarked that since I’ve gotten back into CDs and MiniDiscs over the past couple years, despite my huge vinyl collection, I’ve played maybe two records in that entire time—and that was to dub the records onto MD.

As the discussion progressed, I went on to say that even though I rationally understand how optical digital media works, to this day I’m still amazed that it does at all—especially when considering the level of precision engineering and miniturization  that went into MiniDisc equipment. It’s no wonder that in my nerd world I still sit back in wonder whenever I put on one of those shiny discs and music comes out the other end.

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43 Years Ago The Way We Listened To Music Changed Forever

I honestly don’t, but it was probably something on the Private Music label. I only say that because they were being sold at the same audio salon where I bought the player. The one CD that left a lasting impression when I first got it (maybe a year later) was Ammonia Avenue by The Alan Parsons Project.

The video’s from 1982, but CDs were first released in the US on this day in 1983.

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I Really Need To Stop…

I really need to stop watching those YouTube Japanese CD player repair videos. They keep exposing me to new (to me), really good, music!