How much time last a laser of a cd player Denon DCM420

How long is a piece of string ?

It depends on many factors, including how often it is used, how dusty an environment it lives in, whether it is a heavy smoking household and so on. What's your actual problem with it ?

Arfa

Hello

I want to modify my cd player, it was manufacture in 1991, I just want to know if the laser will last many other years, so it would worth to work on that Denon.

Thank

Gaetan

Pray tell, exactly _what_ modification are you making that concerns you about the laser head life?

Hello

Changing for better Dac, changing the I/V op amp, and few other things, It just that I don't want to do that to see the cd player laser to die after few other months.

Gaetan

I'm not into the golden-eared modifications, truth be said, I'm half deaf so it's all wasted on me, however:

Aren't there pro-level CD players for this? Or are the mods a cheaper way of doing it?

Honestly, I don't see any mod making a huge difference, is this for some specific purpose where the analogue reproduction is more important than just trying to impress friends with music they couldn't tell the difference on anyway?

Most CD players, including Denons, have some form of digital output anyway, so if you knock up an external DAC, it will be 'good to go' on virtually any player. For what it's worth, I see many Denon HiFis in the workshop here, and laser problems are not something that you would generally associate with them (as much as many other makes). That said, some models do use very bog-standard off-the-shelf lasers that have a finite lifetime in any manufacturers' players, including theirs, so the answer to your question of 'when is the laser going to fail ?' could be anything between "another week if you're lucky" and "never".

If you have the levels of expertise that are going to be needed to perform electronic surgery on it, then I really wouldn't worry too much about about laser life, as they are not particularly hard to change, or expensive.

Consider if you are seeing any problems with it right now before making a decision. Is it slow to read the TOC on discs? Does it skip / jump easily needing only a slight tap to make it do it? Does it struggle with old, scratched discs? Does it struggle with 'home burns' ? If the answer to any or all of these is "no", then the chances are that your laser has plenty of life in it yet. If you can answer "yes" to any of them, then the first move would be to clean it. If that cures it, then that's probably (mostly) all it was, although if there is enough dust on the outside of the lens to cause a problem, there's probably quite a bit on the internal optics as well. If cleaning does not fix it, or only 'improves' it, then chances are that your laser is not too much longer for this world ...

Hope that helps

Arfa

anyway?

Hello

Pro-level cd player are to costly, the mods are much cheaper or i may use the spdif out ans another Dac.

Gaetan

Ok, then wouldn't it make sense to use SPDIF? You at least get a choice on CD player, and in the event of failure, just replace the player.

You're stuck of course till the end of life of the SPDIF interface, or failure of equipment whichever comes first, but that's going to be some time into the future, so why worry? By the time that happens, it will likely be near the end of life of the Redbook CD standard anyway, and you would be better inclined to move to whatever the next whizz-bang standard is.

Unless I'm missing something?

Hello

Yes, I did think of using SPDIF, I even think of using a good cd rom drive since they have better mechanic.

Gaetan

That's highly debateable ...

Arfa

Hello

Why using a cdrom drive are debateable ?

Thank

Gaetan

I didn't say that there was any problem *using* one - only that it is debateable as to whether there is any improvement in quality over a 'conventional' drive. I see many many CD and DVD players for repair, and a good deal of these use pre-built OEM drives in them of exactly the type that you would find in a computer ie with an IDE interface. They seem to suffer deck related problems just as much as players fitted with 'conventional' drives. I also don't think that they are particularly any more long-lived in computers, than they are when used in HiFis.

If you wanted a player to modify whose laser and deck was going to last for ever, then you could do a lot worse than one of the Pioneers from a few years back. Although they used to suffer from a bad spindle motor after very prolongued use, this item was quick, cheap and easy to replace. On the other hand, I can't remember replacing more than one or two lasers in Pioneers since they were first building CD players.

I would have thought that the way to go if you really wanted to experiment with a better DAC, was via the SPDIF or co-ax outputs from a conventional player. What comes out of there is data, is data, is data, basically just as it rolls off the disc. I seem to recall that the magazine Elektor Electronics have done a couple of external high quality DAC construction projects in the last couple of years. Go have a look on their website, where they have all of the articles archived and catalogued for search.

Arfa

They probably were better made back when they cost $600, but now you can buy a fast CD-ROM drive brand new for under 20 bucks, and a dual layer DVD burner for under $40, they've hit rock bottom commodity status.

Hello

Ok, I will take a look at the Elektor web site.

Thank

Gaetan