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In the Forum: Didital Things
In the Thread: How Well Shall a CD Transport "Track" a CD?
Post Subject: Tracking Problems? Here's a Fix!Posted by Paul S on: 1/7/2024
Finally took on my mis-tracking CD transport, an Accustic Arts Drive 1 (Philips CD Pro 2 drive unit). I had looked online and I had the feeling my problem, at its root, might be caked grease on the optical reader rails, as I have had the thing for some time and not used it a lot. Be warned that this job takes steady hands and a clear head, which I pretty much lacked for years, but, if to judge by results, my nerves have gotten good enough again to give it a go. I took apart the box and pulled out the entire Philips CD Pro 2 unit, then I took the unit apart enough to get to the optical reader rails, which were, indeed, gunky. You might use DuPont Krytox 204 grease, but I used G96 gun oil, which I used to clean the rails as best I could without taking the optical reader off the rails. And that did the trick! Going back to early symptoms, when some discs played but other would not, I theorize that the CD Pro can probably read all the discs if it can travel freely on its rails. FYI, I probably should make another post to trumpet Dawn Power Wash for cleaning CDs, as it works great. In fact, I plan to try it on dirty LPs, too.
Back to the Philips CD Pro mechanism, I kept thinking, these things have been used for juke boxes and at radio stations for many years now, so I was slow to act on the notion that the optical reader itself had crapped out. And I am glad I tried the fix I did.
Paul SRerurn to Romy the Cat's Site