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PS Audio Lambda transport making a 'tick tick tick' sound when playing CDs

I’ve got an older PS Audio Lambda transport that developed a “ticking” sound the other night.  It started out really subtle, very minor ‘tick tick tick’ type of sound along with the music that grew a little louder as the track progressed.  It was a fairly long CD at ~78 minutes – I know some of these older transports don’t like the longer discs.  I tried a different transport and it wasn't there, so it wasn't on the source disc.

Any idea what that might be, and if it’s fixable?  I really like this transport because the digital display is much larger than most and it’s easy to read from across the room.  Who still works on these types of units?

128x128marlin38
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,407 posts
 

Sounds like the the cd is skipping due to the players inability to properly play a much longer disk. 

wolverine1
39 posts
 

Have you tried calling PS Audio?  When I've had issues with their equipment, they have been great about providing help.

sandstone
358 posts
 

Evacuate the room...immediately!

 

adg101
1,063 posts
 

Believe the Lambda uses the Philips CDM 9 Pro which if so is possibly going out. If you can find a mechanism you’ll probably end up having more in it than it’s worth. Many, many years ago I had a Yamaha player that did the same ticking that first started at the end of a disc and eventually died altogether being the laser. Unless you love it you’ll probably be better off getting a Cambridge CXC Transport. Agree probably a good idea to reach out to PS Audio but my guess is they don’t service the Lambda anymore as Philips stopped making the drive a long time ago.

marlin38's avatar
marlin38 OP
21 posts
 

Thanks all.  The CDM 9 Pro does appear to be difficult to find these days.  Wondering if an alignment and/or cleaning might help?  I'll look for a YouTube video to see if that might be an option.

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