Marantz CD63 ki signature repair or replacement

[Jukebox Graduate]

After 16 years of noble and thrilling service, my Marantz CD63 ki signature has stopped working. I have had an estimate of £140 to repair the player. The question is whether to get the repair carried out or to upgrade.

Suggestions have been made for a replacement

Arcam CD17 - most probably out of my price range

Rega Apollo R - possibly out of my price range.

Marantz CD 6005 - in my price range

Has anybody any other suggestions of a player around £500? Would the suggestions above actually be upgrades? I have not bought a major hifi item for many years so apologies for my lack of knowledge. Should I get the repair done and wait until I have a bit more disposable income to make an upgrade worthwhile?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[BigH]

SOunds quite alot for repair, what are they going to do?

You can buy them on ebay for about £80 and thats the 2 KI version, I think I would look at route.

 

[audioaffair]

Hi Jukebox,

Has your CD63 completely got a faulty DAC chip (break up / distortion of sound)?

If its the latter, and buget is tight, you could always consider using the Marantz as a CD transport, and buy an off board dediacted DAC?

 

[stevebrock]

get the CD6005, then you will have a very good player with a 2 year warranty - yes the Ki is a good player but you could get it repaired, then it could go faulty again - at least you have peace of mind with the warranty.

The Rega & Arcam are better players so you would have to audition them and see what you prefer! The Apollo R would be my choice!

A brand new CD 63 Ki Sig would be the best - but that aint gonna happen!

 

[Jukebox Graduate]

It needs a replacement optical mechanism

 

[plastic penguin]

After 16 years of noble and thrilling service, my Marantz CD63 ki signature has stopped working. I have had an estimate of £140 to repair the player. The question is whether to get the repair carried out or to upgrade.

Suggestions have been made for a replacement

Arcam CD17 - most probably out of my price range

Rega Apollo R - possibly out of my price range.

Marantz CD 6005 - in my price range

Has anybody any other suggestions of a player around £500? Would the suggestions above actually be upgrades? I have not bought a major hifi item for many years so apologies for my lack of knowledge. Should I get the repair done and wait until I have a bit more disposable income to make an upgrade worthwhile?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Problem with old players is if you repair one fault, it'll (possibly) go wrong again. You'll be forever chasing your tail.

Try and look out for a ex-dem Arcam CD17

 

[Superaintit]

The marantz 63 KI player is still well regarded. You probably won't find any better for 500.(IMO)

If I were in your situation I would let it be repaired.

look around if you can have it done cheaper or consider updating the motor as well.

those are the two things that fail after time.

Once updated it should give you years of listening pleasure.

Best is to listen to some sub 500 players: you will know soon enough what to do when you hear what's available.

 

[stevebrock]

The marantz 63 KI player is still well regarded. You probably won't find any better for 500.(IMO)

agreed!

 

[BigH]

It needs a replacement optical mechanism

Thats sounds too expensive I would have a look around for some other repairers.

Modern cdp don't seem to last so long.

 

[Jukebox Graduate]

Thank you for all your excellent advice. I think I will opt to get the player repaired if the drive motor is part of the same mechanism as the optical mechanism. I plan to upgrade properly when my children have finished bleeding me dry of disposible cash!

 

[Electro]

This link may or may not be of any help, but if not it is still interesting .

http://lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/laser/Laserology.html

Your Marantz uses a Philips cdm12.1 mechanism and copy mechanisms can be obtained from China and are very cheap so it might be worth buying one and fitting it yourself .

Here is an example , but there are many more to choose from on ebay .

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/new-Laser-Lens-Head-VAM1202-mechanism-Philips-CDM12-1-CDM12-2-/271187300002

 

[benfozard]

Hi,

Is it the mechanism? If so, these are really cheap. I have one as a spare in case mine ever goes. I think it's a Philips CDM12.1 or something, it cost me about £15.

My KI still sees off most things, it's definitely worth fixing (although as I think has been posted, you may be able to get one for £150 ish). The only thing to challenge it was my Audiolab MDAC.

Ben

 

[BigH]

If you are getting it repaired then I would replace the tray which you put the cd in as that is a common fault and usually the first thing to go, its quite a cheap fix around £50 or you can buy and do it yourself for about £15.

 

[BigH]

For repairs I would get a quote from Fidelity Audio based in Doncaster, they may not be the cheapest but they specialise in cdp upgrades and repairs.

 

[stephennic]

Hi,

I still have the marantz cd 63se, I preferred it to the Arcam cd73t, nad c542, cambridge 640c v2 , marantx cd6002. Its only when you go to the rega apollos and the consonance cd 120 linear that sonically they can compete. I still use the cd 63se , its very musical and a consonance cd 120 linear.

Cheers

Steve.

 

[BigH]

Ive just had some estimates for my 63SE and the tray with belt replacement is about £65 + £10 postage and the lazer is about £75 plus postage, so all in about the same as your repair. They did say the new lazer will not be such high quality as the original so that something to consider.

 

[mattspark]

Hello everyone,

I have just joined up, so please forgive me for posting on this thread as I couldn`t figure out how to

create a new thread.

I have a CD63 Ki which I have had from new, it has been in storage for years as it stopped reading disks. I dug it out and switched it

back on, unfortunatlly the display is now blank, I bought a CD63 standard model a couple of years ago (for parts)hoping to swap lazer mech around and I proceeded to swap the display PCB around as it is the same(worked fine on standard model with functionallity), but on completion of doing this I still have no display! all ribbon connectors are secure, etc.

Could it be my main PCB board faulty on KI? and if so can anyone point me the the right direction to a diy fix, i.e. which component could have failed?(all functions on display pcb seem to work ok as I can hear transport/lazer juddering briefly when I press a command button)

Dont really want to swap main PCB around as KI as uprated components on it`s main PCB compared to the stock CD63

Any feedback would be appreciated,

Regards,

Matt.

 

[Inter_Voice]

The display is powered by the 7918 voltage regulator. It seems that there is no power to the front display panel. You may wish to check the voltage of the 7918 and see if you get a -18V from it. Most likely this regulator is burnt.