Rotel RCD-1070 replacement

I completely agree with Elizabeth. If it's skipping CDs intermittently, it's probably time for a new unit. You got your money's worth and now it's time to move on. Advances in CD players have been significant just in the past 5 years or so. I have the Rotel RCD-1072 and it's excellent. Great reviews. It's now been discontinued by Rotel and replaced by their new RCD-1520 with a list price of about $900.00 or in that area with a front loading slide in CD transport instead of a drawer. There seems to always be a few RCD-1072s for sale on Audiogon in the $400.00 area. New $700.00. But you have so many other brands and models to choose from. It can be overwhelming. Much comes down to what your budget is for a new unit. How much do you want to spend?

Peterman, I own the rotel RCD-1071 which had the same symtoms (intermittent skipping) as you are experincing. I changed the laser eye as well as the ribbon which runs from lazer to the system board and the problem was solved. Remove the cover, then the CD chassis and make note of the part # and/or S/N number on the lazer. Google the part and you should come up with a number of hits and places where you can order the part from. The part runs approx 20-25USD, Note...you can buy directly from rotel but the cost is 60+ dollars. Also, contact rotel support directly for the Ribbon replacement (BTW...tech support is excelent)the price on the ribbon is 2+ dollars. When I experienced the issue I initially changed the laser but that alone did not solve the problem. Once I added a new ribbon the issues went away. the process is dead simple and should take more than a hour....good luck

Agree with Rudd--I've observed these symptoms a few times and the problem is probably a worn out laser. If you can get it fixed your machine ought to work fine.

Thanks to Rudd & Tobias, I tracked down the part number for the laser pickup and ordered one online for about $13 shipped. If that doesn't work, I'll probably see what I can get for it on ebay.

I found the Yamaha DVD-S1800 on Amazon for $80, so I went ahead and picked one of those up too. I've been curious to try SACD and DVD-A, so it looked like an inexpensive way to get started. If I'm happy with the sound of the Yamaha, I'll probably sell the Rotel either way. If it sounds bad, I'll probably just ship it back to Amazon and look elsewhere for a universal player. I can always upgrade later to an outboard DAC, when budget allows.

I appreciate your quick responses and helpful tips!

Rega has a trade-in special going on now. 15% off of the Apollo and 25% of of the Saturn with trade-in of any CDP -working or not. I currently have a RC-1072 and am cintmeplating a Saturn. My dealer will take trade-in and plus give me some more off - total OTD price will be $1530.

My new laser/pickup came today... just did the swap. I haven't powered it back up yet. The original one had some white grease on it where it slid on the little rod, and I was wondering if there is a specific type I should use there. I'd like to get it greased back up before I use it again.

Miner42, thanks for the tip, but $1530 is way beyond my price range right now. However, I am considering an entry level Rega turntable in the near future.

I've heard the Rotel RCD-1072 and it sounds great. You can find them for about $400 used.

The white grease may be a type of white lithium grease available at auto parts store (not the spray on). Another possibility would be some white Japanese grease (shietzu?) available at Honda dealers.

The Rega Apollo CDP with trade-in would be about $850.

The problem with your Rotel RCD-1070 is not due to a lack of use. Skipping and not spinning up after a number of years is a common problem with that unit. My 1070 was doing the exact same thing after working flawlessly for years. I took it in for service and it was said to be the belts and laser being out of adjustment. It worked for about a month or so and then the problem reappeared. In short, I bailed on it and bought a Bryston BCD-1. I sold the Rotel to a friend for $100, he's going to try and have it repaired again. Do some research, the problem with the Rotel is not at all uncommon.

Still no luck. The new laser is in and it won't even recognize any discs I put in there. I've already tried adjusting the pot in increments all the way to both extremes with the same results. Could I have put the new laser back in the wrong position? I think I did more harm than good!

Peterman1983, if you have no experience doing a laser swap, I regret that my post above may have encouraged you to try it yourself. I have had two laser replacements done by factory authorized techs. The first one was done badly and the new laser lasted a year at best. The second one was done well and AFAIK the player is still going strong. I conclude that the job is not as easy as it may seem, and I would not try it myself unless I were willing either to scrap the machine afterwards or to pay someone to clean up my mess.

That's all very well in hindsight, of course :(. It seems to me you now have a few options, if nobody here chimes in with a solution. You can look for a good technician willing to take over, you can try the ribbon cable replacement Rudd suggests above, or you can give up and see what a non-working player is worth to you or someone else.

Please let us know how things go if you get the chance.

perterman, per my post above try changing the ribbon (approx 2 dollars). When I changed the Lazer on its own the CD player struggled to spin up and could not read the CD's, once I changed the ribbon (Lazer to system board ribbon) the unit worked fine. At this point you have nothing to loose. My unit was well out of warranty when I called Rotel for support and they sent me one for free.

Perterman, I forgot to mention that the lazer is delievered with a with a bit of solder applied,therefore, the lazer assembly is disabled by default. You will need a soldering gun to remove the tac thus re-enabling the lazer. If you not sure how to do this be read to instruction or google the process as there are several good instuction out there onthe net. Its a pain in the butt, and I think the reason for the solder is to prevent damage during transit.

Hmm, I think I'll try to contact Rotel for the ribbon cable, and do some research on the solder job. I've got plenty of experience with a soldering iron, so I think it's worth trying. At this point, I've picked up a budget replacement, which I'm actually quite happy with, for the money. So at least I can keep listening to my music, and take my time working on the Rotel :)

Thanks a ton for your input

Good news! I found the solder jumper and removed it this evening. Put things back together and I'm once again listening to music from my Rotel as we speak! I even picked one of my scratched up discs and it seems to be happy so far. It's too soon to call it a success, but things are looking good so far! I will probably still put the new ribbon cable in there when that comes too, since I've had the original one out a couple times.

Since I did pick up a budget replacement which will also so SACD and DVD-A, I'm interested in doing a more critical comparison between the two, now that this one is working again.

Thanks again for the tips, I would have probably given up on the broken Rotel without your suggestions.

I had a chance last night to compare the two players side by side. Althought I could hear very subtle differences between the two, none of them were enough to make me like either player more than the other. Maybe it's the type of music I listened to, or my hearing isn't what it needs to be in order to pick up on the differences. The Rotel is a great player, but based on my own personal experience and taste, I don't see any point in spending that much on a CD player again. Maybe that will change for me in the future. For now I think I'll see if I can get at least $150 or so for it, and look for a budget turntable to add to my setup.

I understand you have solved your problem, but for anyone else encountering disk reading problems, I have had success simply pulling out and re-seating the ribbon cable from the laser to the pcb board. Do this on both ends. If that does not work, clean and re-lube the rails.