Question Arcam Solo Music 2017 Model CD Player Fault

[Meruge]

Hello All,
After over 3 years of use, my CD player in the Solo refuses to read discs now, always whirling away until the dreaded "bad disc or no disc" appears on the display. I have tried CD lens cleaners to no avail. Whilst happy to stream all my music for the time being on the Solo, in which it excels I wonder if I can simply attach another CD player to the Arcam and use the line in RCA sockets? I cannot get the player repaired or have a new CD lens fitted anytime soon on account of Covid and living in Portugal!Any advice or suggestions would be gratefully received.

 

[Al ears]

I don't see any reason why you could not attach a CD or even old DVD player to it if you have one.

 

[manicm]

My Solo Mini was doing a similar thing after 9 years - having a hard time reading discs. Don't know if it was dust getting into the slot loading mechanism.

 

[Al ears]

At worst the laser mechanism may need replacing

 

[manicm]

Hello All,
After over 3 years of use, my CD player in the Solo refuses to read discs now, always whirling away until the dreaded "bad disc or no disc" appears on the display. I have tried CD lens cleaners to no avail. Whilst happy to stream all my music for the time being on the Solo, in which it excels I wonder if I can simply attach another CD player to the Arcam and use the line in RCA sockets? I cannot get the player repaired or have a new CD lens fitted anytime soon on account of Covid and living in Portugal!Any advice or suggestions would be gratefully received.

The Solo products were excellent - at the time outperforming their standalone amps IMHO. Portugal has quite a few Arcam outlets. I would hate to see a 3 year old system go to waste, and a separate CD player is superfluous. Try to get it repaired.

And if you cannot why buy another CD player when your Solo has networking capability? I’d rip your CDs and get a NAS instead really.

 

[Meruge]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply. I have an NAS and have a large database of music. However with over 1300 CD's I can't rip them all, hence a short term solution is required until I can get it fixed. I agree the Arcam Solo is a superb AMP and plays streams very well on my network . With quite a few SACD's and HD discs in my collection I will try to get my CD player repaired if financially feasible. Otherwise my question is could I hook up a second hand CD player and use the Arcam Solo as an AMP using the RCA line in sockets?

 

[Deleted member 160668]

Hi Sir,

I'll chip in my two pence here if I may as I've had several Arcam products in recent years...

Not sure on the Solo products warranty details, but their FMJ products come with a standard 5-year no quibble warranty. I used this on my old A29 when I had an issue and have to say the service was absolutely excellent.

Whilst I appreciate it's a massive pain in the arse if you are not in UK, it's worth checking out as they will fix it for free (including all postage costs in my case - this may be same for you too?).

Give them a call. Maybe you can borrow an amp to tide you over??

 

[Meruge]

Hi,
Thanks for your input. I have contacted Arcam directly and unfortunately for me they chose not to assist me further. They deemed the CD failure as "unlucky"and as the 2 year warranty had expired that was that. A disappointing response to say the least!

 

[Al ears]

Hi,
Thanks for your input. I have contacted Arcam directly and unfortunately for me they chose not to assist me further. They deemed the CD failure as "unlucky"and as the 2 year warranty had expired that was that. A disappointing response to say the least!

I would contact the dealer you got it from rather than Arcam themselves

 

[Meruge]

I did , they are no longer in business! ( Creative Audio Shrewbury) Unlucky again there ...

 

[Al ears]

I did , they are no longer in business! ( Creative Audio Shrewbury) Unlucky again there ...

Ah!

 

[Gray]

Unlucky? There's no doubt this particular customer was most unlucky to have chosen to buy Arcam.
So if we get more than 3 years out of a CDP we're lucky are we Arcam?

I ripped around 1000 CDs Meruge, I can understand why you wouldn't want to put 1300 on your NAS.......but once they're there.....

Use a digital input on your Solo to connect an external CDP and you might not be able to tell the difference - apart from the fact that it will actually be working....and last more than 3 years.

 

[Deleted member 108165]

I semi-enjoyed ripping my CDs, especially finding the correct artwork. Wouldn't like to do it all again but once it's done it's done... be sure to keep at least two back-ups just in case. My CD player only gets used for SACD playback now, but I do use its DAC for playing ripped albums.

 

[matthewpiano]

Finding a CD player that lasts is one of the biggest challenges of the format. I'd like to think any good hi-fi component, even with daily use, should last at least 10 years.

I had a Arcam CD73T years ago. I purchased it brand new, and it was a lot of money for me then. Relatively early in its life I had issues with transport noise and eventual transport failure, and it has made me very wary of their CD players since then. The response you've had from Arcam suggesting you have been 'unlucky' should be translated as 'unhelpful' and can only leave the thought that buying one of their players is more of a lottery than it should be.

 

[Meruge]

The response from Arcam was an almost nonchalant corporate shrug of the shoulders. A disappointing response. I will give you a quote from the email which I find epitomizes this attitude:
"I am sorry to hear that your CD mechanism appears to have failed. While it could be said that any failure is too soon as we would hope for customers to enjoy their equipment for as long as possible, a hardware failure is an inevitability. In my time, I have dealt with hundreds of brands and no matter how high end, they can and do fail -- within days, weeks, months or years. "

This will make me more circumspect about purchasing any Arcam products in the future. This is a shame as the Solo Music is an excellent performer, the best AMP I've had at this price, let down by a less than robust CD component.

 

[matthewpiano]

Yes, hardware failure happens, but '...within days, weeks, months or years'???? That certainly is nonchalant, and an unacceptable attitude. It's not as if anything Arcam make is 'cheap'. Good hi-fi is no small investment, and we should be able to depend on long-term reliability. I have a 30-year old Rotel RCD965BX that still works perfectly.

 

[Gray]

Then of course there's the unofficial 6 year rule.
The one that says that an item must be fit for its intended purpose for at least 6 years after purchase.
Trouble is, it is unofficial, but it would seem much more appropriate with 'quality' items.

Some guarantees are nice, but maybe unrealistic. My PMC speakers came with 20 years, can't imagine using that guarantee after 19 years, for any reason.

 

[matthewpiano]

I always find it interesting to see how warranty support has changed in other industries.

In the car industry, affordable brands like Skoda were offering 3-year warranties in the days when bigger brands such as Ford were only offering 1-year warranties. More recently, even longer warranties have been led by Hyundai and Kia (the same company though 5- and 7-year warranties respectively), with only Toyota offering similar from the mainstream manufacturers.

Back to hi-fi, there are things not covered by warranty that you don't get to find out until you've owned the product. I had a Roksan K3 CD-DI. It was a great sounding CD player, but if couldn't cope with any disc outside the 80 minute length limit that's part of the red book standard. The trouble is, there are quite a lot of CDs now that, with all the bonus material, surpass that length. I've found those discs play perfectly on cheaper machines (Rega Apollo, Musical Fidelity M2scd, Marantz CD6007) and on older players (the aforementioned Rotel), but not on the Roksan. Contact with Roksan resulted in the response that their CD transport is a specially designed audio transport that offers better sound than most but which is engineered purely for CDs that fit the redbook standard.

 

[Gray]

I have a 30-year old Rotel RCD965BX that still works perfectly.

Arcam would say you've had lottery winners' luck.
My Marantz CDP is 19 years not out.
If you're reading this Arcam, might be time to re-evaluate your idea of good luck.

 

[Gray]

I always find it interesting to see how warranty support has changed in other industries.

In the car industry, affordable brands like Skoda were offering 3-year warranties in the days when bigger brands such as Ford were only offering 1-year warranties. More recently, even longer warranties have been led by Hyundai and Kia (the same company though 5- and 7-year warranties respectively), with only Toyota offering similar from the mainstream manufacturers.

Back to hi-fi, there are things not covered by warranty that you don't get to find out until you've owned the product. I had a Roksan K3 CD-DI. It was a great sounding CD player, but if couldn't cope with any disc outside the 80 minute length limit that's part of the red book standard. The trouble is, there are quite a lot of CDs now that, with all the bonus material, surpass that length. I've found those discs play perfectly on cheaper machines (Rega Apollo, Musical Fidelity M2scd, Marantz CD6007) and on older players (the aforementioned Rotel), but not on the Roksan. Contact with Roksan resulted in the response that their CD transport is a specially designed audio transport that offers better sound than most but which is engineered purely for CDs that fit the redbook standard.

Must be honest Matthew, I really don't think Roksan are doing anything wrong there. I'm a bit surprised all those others play longer than red book time.
(I've never owned a disc longer than red book, nor been able to record longer on a Philips CD recorder - which uses the orange book standard).

 

[matthewpiano]

Must be honest Matthew, I really don't think Roksan are doing anything wrong there. I'm a bit surprised all those others play longer than red book time.
(I've never owned a disc longer than red book, nor been able to record longer on a Philips CD recorder - which uses the orange book standard).

I have been in contact with Decca about some of their releases, but they declined to comment. It's mostly classical box sets where this is an issue, but it's annoying that somehow any agreement between the record labels and the equipment manufacturers has drifted away.

 

[tofesd]

I own an Arcam Solo Music since mid of april 2012.
Since its first day in my home the look and feel of the
system seems a little bit faulty to me:
- When switching the unit "on" from stand by mode, it takes 20 seconds until the last DAB station can be heared; in the meantime, the cd transport makes clicking noises and the spindle speeds up several times for 1-2 sec (no disc is loaded).
- switching sources, e.g. from DAB to FM, from DAB to CD, from DAB to USB or from USB to DAB takes 5-10 seconds, the display say "initialising" during that time and no sound is hearable.
- sometimes the unit hangs when switching between sources and needs a hard reset for playing music again
- opening the CD tray takes 4-6 seconds;
- closing the empty CD tray takes 24 seconds until "no disk" can be read in the display. In the meantime, the CD transport spins up several times and makes a clicking noise.
- after closing the CD tray with a disk, it takes 15-20 seconds until the CD is loaded and begins to play
- several CD do not play at all; however, they are fine in my 25 years old Denon DCD-2560 and in my car (Volvo Premium Sound system). In these cases, it takes 35 seconds to load the cd and to show the numer of tracks; when playing, "track 1" is shown in the display, but the time does not count up and no sound comes out.
- Sometimes, DAB preset do not play, i.e. the name of the radio station is shown on the display but no sound. Signal strength is 95%. When switching to tuning mode and navigating to the same station, the unit is running fine. After switching of and on again some hours later, everything is fine again.
- network settings are lost from time to time which means that I have to re-enter the full network information including the WPA network key again

I tried to contact arcam support once a month for a year and did not get any answer. So I decided living with this system. However, I'll never buy another Arcam device and I can not recommend any one to do so.

- Since summer 2022, the systems hangs every second day on wake up from stand by. The display says "initialising ..." and nothing more happens. The unit needs a hard reset to play again.

BTW: My Linn Majic DSM still gets updates after 14 years. Arcam did not roll out a single one. I'm still at release 1.0

 

[plastic penguin]

I own an Arcam Solo Music since mid of april 2012.
Since its first day in my home the look and feel of the
system seems a little bit faulty to me:
- When switching the unit "on" from stand by mode, it takes 20 seconds until the last DAB station can be heared; in the meantime, the cd transport makes clicking noises and the spindle speeds up several times for 1-2 sec (no disc is loaded).
- switching sources, e.g. from DAB to FM, from DAB to CD, from DAB to USB or from USB to DAB takes 5-10 seconds, the display say "initialising" during that time and no sound is hearable.
- sometimes the unit hangs when switching between sources and needs a hard reset for playing music again
- opening the CD tray takes 4-6 seconds;
- closing the empty CD tray takes 24 seconds until "no disk" can be read in the display. In the meantime, the CD transport spins up several times and makes a clicking noise.
- after closing the CD tray with a disk, it takes 15-20 seconds until the CD is loaded and begins to play
- several CD do not play at all; however, they are fine in my 25 years old Denon DCD-2560 and in my car (Volvo Premium Sound system). In these cases, it takes 35 seconds to load the cd and to show the numer of tracks; when playing, "track 1" is shown in the display, but the time does not count up and no sound comes out.
- Sometimes, DAB preset do not play, i.e. the name of the radio station is shown on the display but no sound. Signal strength is 95%. When switching to tuning mode and navigating to the same station, the unit is running fine. After switching of and on again some hours later, everything is fine again.
- network settings are lost from time to time which means that I have to re-enter the full network information including the WPA network key again

I tried to contact arcam support once a month for a year and did not get any answer. So I decided living with this system. However, I'll never buy another Arcam device and I can not recommend any one to do so.

- Since summer 2022, the systems hangs every second day on wake up from stand by. The display says "initialising ..." and nothing more happens. The unit needs a hard reset to play again.

BTW: My Linn Majic DSM still gets updates after 14 years. Arcam did not roll out a single one. I'm still at release 1.0

Wish you guys look at the date of the thread. This goes back to Feb 2021. The OP hasn't been seen since May 2021