Audio Dropping Out on Rega Apollo and Saturn

shoez23, there has been no response from Rega UK about the bugs these machines exhibit. But there is a response from the US Rega distributer above (Steve Daniels- the sound organization). He says there has been almost no problem with the machines and that faults were limited to 5% of only the very first production run of Apollo machines- not the later production Apollos or Saturns. My count stands at 22 faulty machines among 11 different users (4 of which I used myself over a 2 year period- 3 Apollos and 1 Saturn), of course my knowledge is limited to users who post on forums. There are about 30 users that report no problems. I'd say that is higher than 5%. The problems are failure to access correct track via the remote, failure to respond to stop function on remote or machines panel which requires the power to be turned off to change a disc, initialization failures in the range of 1 out of every 15 or 20 discs, leaving out the first second or two of a track, audio drop outs when playing slightly scratched discs, freeze up of machine when accessing tracks, and freeze up of time and track disply (a time and track number are frozen in display as the disc continues to play through). As I do above I'd like to say that The sound organization and dealers have provided good customer service and replaced machines without quibble. Unfortunately I never had one that worked right. Obviously They do not manufacture the machines, Rega UK does and they have no comment on the issue. There are plenty of users that report no issues but my own experince and that of others indicates that there are bugs in the operating software of the new Rega players. The problems are intermittent, Regas suggested solution is to unplug the machine overnight to let it "reset". My own experience is that the bugs always return after trying the "reset".

I just bumped into this thread. I've also had some problems with my Apollo freezing up. If I fast forward or rewind too much, it'll stop responding to any commands from the remote or face controls. It'll keep playing the current track, but won't do anything else. I have to shut it off. However, it doesn't happen when I hit the track number instead of the FF/RW buttons for some reason.

My dealer (who is great, BTW) called Rega's US distributer (who is also great). The response my dealer got was that its caused by a build up of static electricity, or something along those lines. They said that the chipset used is very similar to chipsets used in cable boxes, which can have similar issues. Sound Oraganization advised to leave it unplugged overnight to discharge the static electricity (also stated by Steve above). If it didn't work, they'd take the unit in for repair/replacement.

Since I've unplugged it overnight, I haven't had any problems. My dealer said they were told it can happen every now and again, as static electricity builds back up.

It makes sense to me for a few reasons -
I've had it a little over a year and never had any problems in the summer. The only time was in the winter, when static electricity is at a peak.
Now that I think about it, my cable box needs to be unplugged and allowed to reboot every now and again (about 2 or 3 times in the last 3 years). Its also only done this in the winter. My cable company said that it was due to static electricity.

Not that I'm saying a $1000 (or a $2200) CD player should have these problems, but it seems logical. It also seems logical that the problems would happen it the repair shop because the CD players would have been unplugged for a good amount of time before they got there.

If the thing didn't sound so good, I'd have returned it. As much as I hate to say it, I can live with having to unplug it overnight once in a while. If unplugging it stops working, I'll take it up with my dealer/Sound Organization.

Has anyone else had problems after unplugging it overnight?

Thanks for your comments Kbarkamian. Maybe there is something to your theory. But it does not explain other stuff. There are a number of other issues these machines have besides the fast foward freezing up. Is failure to initialize a disc or failure to stop static too? I used 4 of the new Rega machines over 2 years and these new Rega players do things that are plain weird on a year round basis, by contrast I never had a single problem (not a one) with the previous Rega players. I'm sticking to bugs in the operating software as the true reason these machines do the things they do. Please Let us know if the unplugging fix works long term.

I haven't ever had a disc fail to initialize. Are these originals, or are they CD-Rs? I read somewhere (maybe the manual?) that CD-Rs shouldn't be burned at more than 6x. Every disc I've burned, I've burned slower than that for this reason.

Maybe my descriptions of the problems in my previous post was misleading. The Apollo never stops playing when it "freezes". It stops responding to any commands from the remote and face plate and keeps playing until I shut it off. Also keep in mind that it never happens when I enter a track number on the remote, it only happens with RW, FF, and skip forward and backward.

The only other problem is that sometimes the display doesn't come back on after I turn it off. If I turn the unit off, it'll come back on when I turn the unit back on.

Hopefully that makes some more sense.

I unplugged it overnight about a week ago. It hasn't had any problems since. I've intentionally tried to get it to act up a few times by rewinding and fast forwarding erraticly, but it hasn't had any hiccups. The display has been fine too.

I don't know how long it'll last, but it seems like it solved the problem. Before I unplugged it, it would have acted up with far less coaxing. Its only been a week though.

Also, in my previous post, I stated "...should happen in the repair shop...", when it should have read "...it should not happen in the repair shop due to being unplugged for sufficient time."

Kbarkamian, I believe the problems will return. I had a couple units which could go a week without any problems, then they'd surface. Display not coming back on? Have not heard that one before. Add it to the list...