Maintaining an Elderly Marantz CD56 Transport

[benham3160]

Hello all,

I have a very elderly (and completely stock) Marantz CD56, please don't scoff. I know this is from the dawn of commercial CD players, but it's of great sentimental importance to me, it's provided thirty years of continous service (can't think there have been many days when it hasn't been used for at least an hour or two) and it continues to play with aplomb; indeed I'm so used to the sound of it I can pick out an early 1980s Marantz/Phillips anywhere!

As I'm moving house in the next few weeks this will be going in to storage (work's workshop) now as this is an electronics workshop tI can't think of a better time to give it a 'service.' The transport is getting very noisy when loading or ejecting a disc, the 'disc-drive' motor I'm certain is also getting louder (although I think these had a reputation for being quite noisy out-the-box, there is a definate rotational chuff-chuff type sound, but it's done that to one extent or another since 1984) - it skips tracks with ease however these louder sounds are concerning me.

Now, does anybody have experience of maintaining elderly CD players? Am I best off leaving it or is there some service items I can lubricate/clean/adjust? If the transport does die I'd rather let 'nature take it's course' than start replacing parts in it.

It's not had the cover off in it's existance as far as I know?

Sorry for the weird question!

Andy

(I wonder how many DVD players in daily use will be with us in 2045?)

 

[Thompsonuxb]

Do a search on youtube. Some decent 'fix' videos on there - your player may have one.

 

[Vladimir]

I have experience with these. It's based on the Philips CDPs like the CD650 I owned (and Mcintosh MCD-7007). That Marantz CD-56 uses the very very good Philips TDA1541 chip and CDM-2/10 (or CDM-4/25) swing arm mechanism. That is a CDP with a strong pedigree.

The player certanly needs some maintanance. The loud loading mechanism is due to old grease drying up on the plastic cogs on the back (or the teeth being worn) and the rubber belt is due for replacement. You can buy a new belt in electronics hobby shops no problem, or online from places like Mouser. You can use silicone grease for the cogs, but very little, don't put gobs of it and make sure none ends up on the belt.

The CD mechanism in your player has no rails or thread to move the head, but it uses a magnetic swing arm. Therefore, don't touch anything on it. More of those were killed from clumsy attempts of maintanance rather than actual end of working life cycle. I have several in a cartboard box to prove this. They are very very sensitive and gentle, easily coming of alignment. Realigning them is not easy, you have to use laser and a mirror to get the geometry right. Consideiring you have no issues with reading and tracking, don't mess with it.

Only thing that would do good to the optics is to clean the lense with a cleaning CD kit. You can do it also yourself with distiled water and a q-tip. If you are ham fisted and shaky, opt out for a cleaning CD kit. Doesn't take much to kill the optics.

 

[benham3160]

Thank you very much for the advice both of you!

It seems a mighty fine player (in terms of longevity if nothing else) and this evening I've knocked all of the cobwebs out of it, lightly lubricated the requisite bits and the drawer now slides in and out effortlessly!

Very impressed.

I'm now looking at doing a few of the modifications recomended on various websites, but for the time being it's nice to have the snappy action back!

Cheers,

Andy