I am having one of those days

[northwest]

I just turned my Avondale Alpha 5 CD player - and it doesn't play:scratch:
Nothing through the interconnects into the CD in on the pre-amp but if I take the digital out and put it through the DAC it plays?
Can anyone reccommend a technician somewhere up here in the Manchester area? I am not putting it in the post.
My NAD doesn't sound nearly as good:(
Never mind, thanks to Marco my vinyl sounds terrific!

Sign seen this morning on a "Stereo System" in a Charity Ship - 'Record Player needs new Pin' !!!!

Just to lighten the mood:lol:

[jostber]

Maybe you could take it with Avondale directly? Should not be too far away from you?

http://avondaleaudio.com/contact/

[DSJR]

Lift the cover off - AFTER you've unplugged the mains supply!!!!! - and check the fuses. The A5 used twin supplies I think, and one of the internal fuses may have popped - Arcam fuses often did this for no apparent reason.

If it is the fuse, PLEASE fit the same type as a replacement and, if this blows, then you obviously have a problem.

By the way, having Les breathe on the machine, turning it into the AAA5 wouldn't be a bad idea, as despite the horrible casing Arcam clothed this player in, the fundamentals inside are good and ripe for a damned good fettle. the CD-M9 mech is one of the best made and better at tracking bad discs than the legendary CD-M1 ever was. Philips wanted to get into fast reading mechs for computers and I understand the swing-arm type didn't lend itself to this, hence the introduction of the cheap-as-chips 12** series three-beam plastic ones..

[northwest]

By the way, having Les breathe on the machine, turning it into the AAA5 wouldn't be a bad idea, as despite the horrible casing Arcam clothed this player in, the fundamentals inside are good and ripe for a damned good fettle. the CD-M9 mech is one of the best made and better at tracking bad discs than the legendary CD-M1 ever was.

Ah you see - it IS an AAA5! Terrific machine. And Jostber is right. Les isn't too far away, 'bout an hour.
Thanks guys, I am going to go take the lid off:lol:

[northwest]

Lift the cover off - AFTER you've unplugged the mains supply!!!!! - and check the fuses. The A5 used twin supplies I think, and one of the internal fuses may have popped - Arcam fuses often did this for no apparent reason.


No, thought it was too good to be true. There is only one fuse and you swap it for 110 or 240 volts. As the player is actually giving a signal out of the digital output and playing CD's it is obviously the analogue output circuit at fault.
I am going to email Les.

[roob]

You may be better off phoning, Les is notoriously slow at answering emails.

[northwest]

Well, thanks for all the advice guys. Finally decided to give Les a call as per Andy's suggestion.
I had forgotten just how nice a chap Les actually is. The advice was to just remove the analogue board from the player and stick it in the post to him. He half suspects the problem and as I said to him, you can't expect these things to last forever:-)
Sooner or later he will send it back to me and things will be back to normal. It is a great mod he did to these Arcam players, hard to beat and they are real giant killers!