Once upon a time long ago (around 2BC, that’s Before Covid), in a land far, far away (well, Essex actually), I was enjoying listening to my CD player. This particular player was a model I had lusted after for about ten years; so seeing one for sale in mint condition and at a price I could afford was the fulfilment of a dream for me.
Like most modern gear, despite having an on/off switch (at the rear), it is designed and intended to be left in ‘standby’ mode when not in use, and this was the practice I followed. However, having been away from home for a couple of weeks, I returned to find that I had left the player in full operating mode. Puzzled by my lack of diligence (I’m normally quite scrupulous in these matters), I shrugged my shoulders, switched on the power amplifier (the speakers and preamps are designed to be left on all the time), popped a disc into the drawer and pressed ‘Play’.
Nothing, zilch, nada! – just a dull buzzing sound when the volume was turned up to maximum. (Insert expletives here ) No audio, despite the display working, as it should. Clearly the machine had not taken kindly to being left unattended for so long!
Despite checking every thing else (phono input, tuner, tape etc.) was working, I had no option but to remove the player and replace it with the one I had been using previously. To add insult to injury, the replacement player uses unbalanced outputs, and uses a different mains connector. So after much messing about with cables and adaptors, I was able to play CDs again.
The ‘broken’ player was put to one side, ready to be boxed up and sent off for repair. Fortunately I had kept all the packaging, which was virtually ‘bomb proof’, being about twenty time the size in volume as that of the player,
Time passes, and along comes Covid, so all thoughts about repair were shelved, as there would have been no one available to do the work. No matter, I had already become acclimatised to the replacement machine, which to my ears didn’t sound too bad at all.
Time passes, and with the relaxation of Covid restrictions, I reconsidered sending the player for repair. But I thought I would give it another try. So once more everything was pulled out and the ‘faulty’ player plumbed back in. A disc was put in the drawer and the Play button pressed. Again nothing, but this time there was complete silence even when the volume control was at maximum. The machine really was dead!
Somewhat dispirited, I was about to return everything to the status quo, when I noticed the tape record selector was switched to ‘monitor’ rather than ‘input’. I must have knocked it when I pulled out the preamp to gain access to the connections at the rear.
Reset the selector to ‘input’ and mirabile dictu, the player was now working as it once did!
I’m still greatly puzzled as to why it misbehaved before, and why it has now apparently ‘recovered’. But I’m not complaining as it has saved me from might have been an expensive repair bill!
Just kicking myself for the two ‘lost years’.