Post by Toobz November 30, 2011 (1 of 12)
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Perhaps against my better judgement, I recently picked up a used Marantz SA-8001 off Audiogon for a decent price. The player arrived today and looks very nice, but there's a BIG problem: the unit won't recognize SACD's, and all of my current discs are hybrids. Oddly enough, the player won't even read the CD layer of the discs! Yet ordinary "Redbook" discs play just fine. I've tried cleaning the unit with one of those CD lens cleaner discs, and that made no difference whatsoever. When a SACD disc is inserted (for example, DSOTM or a Mercury Living Presence disc) the player will spin up, and quickly decide that there is "no disc" present. Changing modes from CD to SACD makes no difference, and it shouldn't - as the player should see one layer or the other, not the absence of ANY disc in the tray.
Now, I do recall that the older 8260 had similar problems with a crummy laser assembly, but I was under the impression that the 8001 did not? It would seem as though the laser has given up the ghost, so I may look into a repair from Marantz. The seller was gracious enough to offer most of my money back, so at best, I ended up with a near-reference CD player for next to nothing. However, I bought this specifically to play SACD's, and the fact that it won't even read the CD layer of hybrid discs makes it useless for some of my titles. This precludes its use as a main player unless it is repaired.
The question is, would repairing this myself be an option? Or is it even worth it? I really like the sound of the Marantz on my self-built tube system, and the much-antipicated WYWH SACD is on its way to my house. Any advice would be appreciated!
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Post by stvnharr November 30, 2011 (2 of 12)
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Toobz said:
The question is, would repairing this myself be an option? Or is it even worth it? I really like the sound of the Marantz on my self-built tube system, and the much-antipicated WYWH SACD is on its way to my house. Any advice would be appreciated!
You likely need a new laser. Your best bet is to send the unit to the nearest Marantz Service Center.
You could change the laser unit out yourself if you know the part number of the laser and have some technical ability. You could enquire on diyaudio.com if anyone knows the laser part number and source.
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Post by canonical November 30, 2011 (3 of 12)
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I had the same problem with my SA8003 .... played CDs but not the SACD layer on hybrids.
The fix that worked for me ...
Unlpug it ... open it up ... take a damp earbud or similar and wipe the lens clean. Dry. Problem solved. Still working perfectly a year later.
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Post by Toobz December 1, 2011 (4 of 12)
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I popped open the player today and cleaned the lens. I also re-seated any cables that might have jostled loosed during shipping. Still no change. Ironically, the disc I bought to herald the arrival of the player, the aforementioned SACD version of Wish You Were Here, also is not recognized at all when placed in the tray. It too is a hybrid Redbook/SACD Stereo/SACD MC disc.
My thinking is that the DVD-wavenlength laser is toast. How much am I looking at for a repair, and is it even worth my money? The display also seems rather dim to me, with uneven pixels, suggesting that the VFD might need replacement. I can only surmise that the player was left on all the time for several years, and the resulting heat buildup killed the laser. (This also explains the dim VFD).
Should I dump this thing and run? Or is it worth getting the laser replaced, and maybe the VFD too?
(As an aside, this is the second problem I've had with a CD player from Marantz. Either I have really bad luck, or these things are really not as reliable as we're lead to think. If only DSD downloads of SACD'w were made available (and playable!) from places like HD Tracks, I would gladly ditch the silver discs. I have vinyl for the times when I wish to mess with discs and expensive pressings of favorite albums.....)
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I've had my Marantz SA112s for three years and never had a problem. It even accepts a millennium CD damper which a lot of players don't.
Buying anything used is always a risky proposition but even brand new components are faulty right out of the box.
There have also been reports on this site of noisy and malfunctioning Sony 5400ES transports (again, I never had a problem with mine) but unless your unit is under warranty, replacement parts and shipping/handling fees may end up costing you more than the unit's worth.
Marantz usually has 3 year warranties on their new products but I don't know how old your unit is or if the warranty is transferrable.
But from what you describe, it sounds like your SA~8001 has seen better days.
But I would attempt to petition Audiogon for a refund since they're a reputable company, provided it's within the statute of limitations.
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Post by Toobz December 1, 2011 (6 of 12)
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The seller was quite nice - we agreed to a refund of the cost I payed (which included free shipping) minus $40, which is what it would have cost me to ship back the player. He didn't want it back, so I was asked to keep it. So, I basically am only out $40, and am left with a crippled yet otherwise presentable quasi-reference disc player.
That said, I do have a small but growing collection of SACD hybrid discs that won't play at all on this unit, making it unsuitable for use as a "regular " CDP. If the player at least recognized the Redbook layer of such discs, I might have left well enough alone. However, it's not going to kick my squeezebox off the rack until it can play all of my discs, especially my SACD's.
FWIW, I had also looked into getting the recent Onkyo deck, though it does not receive the high praise that the SA-8001 and its successors have enjoyed in the audio press. Maybe that would have been a safer choice than this turd!
PS - Marantz's 3-year warranty is not transferable from the original purchaser; I've checked into that. Plus, the person I purchased it from was not the first owner, as it turns out. He apprarently didn't check out the SACD portion of the player to have known it was faulty, as he does not own any SACD titles. An honest mistake, and one that shows how good the SA-8001 is for Redbook alone.
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A happy ending indeed. There are a lot of great bargains in new players and I'm sure with the holidays approaching you will find exactly what you want and hopefully have worry~ free SACD playback for years to come.
Have you ever considered a Universal Blu~Ray Player. The OPPO BDP~93 for $499 (brand new) is a great machine and will be somewhat futureproof. And OPPO has great tech support and friendly service personnel. It will play almost anything.
Onkyo makes good receivers but I also heard that their SACD player was no big deal either.
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Post by stvnharr December 3, 2011 (8 of 12)
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Toobz said:
The seller was quite nice - we agreed to a refund of the cost I payed (which included free shipping) minus $40, which is what it would have cost me to ship back the player. He didn't want it back, so I was asked to keep it. So, I basically am only out $40, and am left with a crippled yet otherwise presentable quasi-reference disc player.
Okay, so now you have a near freebie cd player. If you want to play sacd's you either have to get this player fixed or buy a new Oppo or something else. I'd guess that the repair at Marantz would cost you in the $200-300 neighborhood. The laser unit I believe is a HOP 1200 series, which is not expensive. Replacement labor cost should be no more than 1 hour. If you are in a location where you can drop off the player, there is no shipping charge. The repaired player, fully up to factory spec, should last a long time.
A new Oppo player is the new darling player of the moment, and a very good value.
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Post by Toobz December 4, 2011 (9 of 12)
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Thanks for all of the advice!
I had looked into the Oppo when I owned a plasma HDTV. Then I moved halfway across the US and sold the TV to avoid moving it. I've not yet replaced the plasma, nor did I ever watch much TV anyway. Since I don't own a TV, any player I would buy must be completely navigable via the player's front display and controls alone. That's one reason why I liked the Marantz (and don't like DVD-A discs, with their video-based menus): no TV is required. Is the Oppo capable of stand-alone use, or is it really a video player at heart?
Part of me wonders if going the route of a 192/24 DAC is more future-proof than getting another mechanical disc player? The present lack of many legal high-rez downloads has precluded my doing so, though I will point out that there's a ton of titles in the SACD roster that I am not interested in, being that I listen mostly to rock/classic rock and acoustic jazz (non-vocal, 1940's-60's). I don't generally listen to much classical, for example.
In any case, I think I'm going to sell the Marantz and then look into a new SACD deck, or just give up on digital discs entirely and move towards a DAC fed from my iMac. I actually have spent the past couple of years digitizing my collection, including some LP's, as FLAC files. I'm not sure that I want to sink $300 into a player that's already seen high hours of use....
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Post by Toobz December 5, 2011 (10 of 12)
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OK, so it turns out that the SA-8001 uses a Hitachi CD/DVD laser mechanism, the HOP 1200R, per the service manual I downloaded. That particular part is only $15! Since I'm a DIY electronics guy who has built half of the electrical devices sitting in his house, wouldn't it make sense to try replacing this little bugger myself? From what I understand, the only thing to remember is to remove the solder blobs that short out the laser diode during shipping (presumably to prevent static discharges from damaging it).
Has anybody else attempted this repair? $15 is a lot more reasonable than the $300 it would cost to have somebody at Marantz look at it, once shipping is taken into account! I was honestly about to dump the deck on eBay before researching what part needs replacement.
This doesn't solve the dim display problem, but I could even live with that if the unit would just play all of my SACD's.
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