Hi,

it has been a while since my last visit at this forum, but I'm still enjoying audio. I'm currently in the process of building a new, bigger, pair of electrostatic loudspeakers.

Unfortunately my second hand Quad 66 cd player started to make unpleasant audio sounds and started to skip at some tracks of almost new cd's.

I first bought a Quad 606 MKII power amp and added a Quad 66 pre-amp, all second hand. Later on I bought the CD player. All devices were bought from different sellers. Unfortunately just after buying the cd player it started skipping. I managed to make the seller do a repair but unfortunately after about 1 year of usage it starts skipping again.

I'm not sure what to do now: I already owned a Marantz cd player before buying the Quad, but even though it works ok and was very affordable @75 euro's compared to the Quad cd player @300 euro's, I never liked the tray of the Marantz as after a too short time-out it automatically closes, a feature I dislike. It also lacks rubber pads in the tray itself. Furthermore the tray on the Marantz opens about 80% (by design), which foreces me to do more effort to position the cd diagonally into the tray. But it does play all cd's without skipping...

I'm not sure if there is an audible difference between both players, but I remember the Quad having a subtle better sound, but this could be a placebo thing.

The Quad cd player fits much better esthetically to the Quad power amp than the Marantz. I dislike most modern cd players as they look too shiny for my taste.

I'm wondering what to do? I could try find a repairman, but I don't have much confidence as this player is old and I'm afraid of future problems.

I could buy a new Quad Artera set, but this will be a big investment for me:

Quad Artera Stereo + Quad Artera Play Plus: 2700 euro's
Quad Artera Solus: 1800 euro's

I could buy a more recent second hand Quad cd player, but after this experience I'm a little scared for new technical problems.

Do you have any ideas what would be a good option? How about the Quad Artera sound quality and overall product quality compared to my older Quad 606MK2 / CD 66? Would the Quad Artera Solus be stable enough to drive big electrostatic panels? How about repairing my current CD 66 player?