Rotel RCD-1070 replacement

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.