Has anyone had a laser replaced in a Audio Research CD-3 MKII


Audio Research wants 1806.00 to repair the laser in my CD-3 player.........There's got to be a better way ???   W
autospec
I am the tube amplifier builder in Idaho..........Thanks W

If you’ve built amps then you’ll be fine, just take pics before each dismantling step, so you then know what went where, there no adjusting, measuring, calibrating to be done, basically "plug and go". 

Cheers George
2 Channel:    This laser seems to plug in , with out any soldering....I put a read out in one of those CD's and I can tell that's changing a motherboard .......About 40 tiny-tiny pins.......but nobody said it was easy...........I ordered a NOS laser last week and now the guy tells me its one of two type............He's the guy selling it, you would think he would know......But he doesn't, so I'll order one from someone else....Right now the world is in stress......I hope we all survive it.....W
Encosystems.net has great expertise with the Philips CD Pro mechanisms. And they sell replacement CD Pro transports and optical pickup units. The CD Pro transports are expensive but are user-installable. You might get lucky and only have to replace the optical pickup.
This is 9 months after your post. I don't know where you got the price for the laser repair but I just had a CD3 completely rebuilt by AR and it only cost $1500.00. An original AR laser runs around $300.00, I am pretty sure they do not repair them if they did it would cost more than a new one. 
I just purchased a replacement laser assembly for my CD-1 from Audio Research for $75.00 plus shipping.  Plan on doing the work myself; not an expensive way to give my old player a few years more life!