Broken Pioneer CD Player, is it fixable? | Vintage Hifi Revival

Found this one on eBay, wasn't all that interested at first, but the seller offered me a good price a figured it'd be worth a shot to repair it. This is the first CD player I've attempted to fix, and I think it went quite well. Granted the largest problem I had to fix could have been caused by me, but hey that's just part of the fun hah.

I don't think I will be picking up any more CD players, unless there is something mechanically interesting with it, since they are fairly simple devices in terms of mechanics. (Incredibly cool electronically however) And CD's, or digital audio in general doesn't have much appeal to me either. It's kinda hollow, with no nuanced differences across devices, while a tape could sound somewhat different depending on the device used.

[jorisdonders]

Underneath the laser assembly and the white piece of plastic is a small anti-vibration spring .... You should reposition that spring or you'll get an annoying skip in the sound of the player .... Good video !
I am an engineer of Pioneer Electronics Europe Service Dept./// After a lens repositioning you should realign the tangential adjustment and the maximum grating signal for an optimal player joy. See the Service Manual for that adjustment(s). For driving the laserblock to the back just use the test mode of the player. This counts for ALL Pioneer CD-players b.t.w.

[dsmaxrocks]

Folks please upvote everything on this channel and comments too. It's helps the algorithm for his channel. These types are videos are great. I'm a locksmith by trade for the last 30 years but also restore old electronics like tape recorders reel to reels etc. I'm no expert just a hobbyist and love videos EXACTLY like he does.
And no, I don't know him and not related 🤣
I just found his channel last week and fell in love with it.
(I also do 3d modeling and animation as a hobby for 20 years hence my name. I've 3d modeled plastic parts too for broken electronic parts and 3d printed them)

[paulcrowder]

I love the format and execution of your videos. I hope you continue to make more!

[dennisw]

I know this is 2 years old, but just in case someone else sees this- here are few hints...
(I was a Pioneer Field Engineer for south central U.S. region from 1981 thru 2003. Taught MANY classes on LaserDisc, CD, DVD and other stuff.) Most other brands will spin up, then turn on the laser and focus on the CD. Pioneer will turn on the laser, focus lock on CD, THEN spin motor. If no focus, it will indicate "No Disk", and CD will not spin.
NOTE: @3:30 the 2 traces near his thumb. These should be soldered (shorted) while ribbon cable is not connected to motherboard due to static discharge.
Should you replace the pickup and decide to perform the "Grating lens Adjustment", please note: use a small <= 1/8 in. screwdriver (-) . This is one of those "what is the SMALLEST amount you can turn the screwdriver" adjustments. This adj greatly effects the tracking ability.
I always had new parts to work with so you are on your own should you decide to glue the lens back on.

[rccc]

These old CD-players have an awesome sound! They really worth the effort. This actually gives me also ideas about some old unit I have. thx.

[michaelcharach]

Loving your videos. It's kind of funny when you think how mechanical CDs actually were. When I think DIGITAL you no longer imagine mechanical contraptions like CD players.

[adaboyz]

If you want a good 80s cd player Technics is your go to. I have a PL-555 from 1988 still going strong. Good job on the fix!

[samray]

Love these vids! I have a Technics RS-TR157 and it’s not able to play tapes anymore and the gears aren’t happy and watching these makes me want to take another stab at trying to fix it every time

[viragovtwin]

Another problem some of these Pioneer CD players had was skipping caused by wobble of the disc motor shaft. The fix was a stabilization kit kit supplied by Pioneer. It consisted of a small neodymium magnet that was glued to the motor as close as possible to the spindle. This minimized the extent of the wobble. I never had a unit come back again for this problem once this fix was applied.

[stephendevore]

As I remember of those players they had only 3 seconds of memory for skipping. This internal memory allows you to not hear the skipping.
Then later it increases to 10 to 15 seconds for the portable models first then the stand alone players.
Skipping was a serious problem at that time.Then sound quality with increases oversampling to increase the quality. Because of the sharp sound Good Video 😎 one thing I just remembered was the high end cd players the disk moved over the laser for better stability. To lower the cost most players were designed for the laser to move.

[JuanManuelify]

Estupendo vídeo gracias por su aportación a la gran abrazo fraternal desde Las Islas Canarias

[guyb]

3:11 if it's from 1987, can then easily be owned by a metal head

[mikeleyshon]

Right on man ! Just finishing up an old BSR record changer tune up, think I'll bring in the old 1990 Panasonic single CD from the garage for a look at what may be wrong (?) Never tinkered with a CD player before, so thanks for the idea !

[Pazman]

The bottom panel of this unit having the hexagon pattern is very unique.

[dsmaxrocks]

Cool! Can't wait to watch this later tonight! You have a great way of making videos 👍

[segfault-berlin]

Something to watch out for in laser based players: the lasers are super sensitive to static shock. The two solder pads on the laser ribbon are for bridging to short the laser out so it can't be damaged by technitans fingers

[dmcintosh]

Those old pioneer CD players are known for the laser lens to fall out. Just never do what I did once was use super glue as it will damage the laser. Another common problem is the capacitors tend to go bad as on one I had it worked when first got it and the next day it wouldn't read a CD do to caps going bad.

[Madrrrrrrrrrrr]

What fixed the motor? Did i miss something?

[dannymormone]

Hello, great video. What’s the CD called that you were testing with at 13 minutes in. Thank you 😊

[mauanderuk]

You missed the solder blob on the ribbon cable you should bridge this when removing the laser to prevent static damage. Sometimes you can adjust the laser (the pot on the ribbon cable) this changes the power to the laser however this is only a temporary fix usually the laser is about to die.