Rotel RCD-1070 replacement

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.