sony sacd 777--acting odd--what's going on??????

If you go to www.audioasylum.com and view some of the threads about the high end SONY SCD players ... you'll find that there are similar complaints out there. The "whirring" noise that occurs as you load a SACD disc and the unit goes through its "processing" operation seems to be most common complaint. (BTW, this noise also just seems to come and go ... at least by my experience, I own a 555ES). My hunch is that SONY factory centers know the issues and I would send the unit in, if the situation is bothering you. It certainly is frustrating, as I would expect better for a greater than $1k purchase. Regards, Rich

Sony uses service centers for any warr work. Call your dealer or look up the closest service center for you area and walk the unit into the service center (sony has a lot of service centers and there should be one within driving distance, if not you would have to ship to a service center). The service centers are usually like a VCR repair shop that Sony has contracted out to do their repairs as per area around the country. The service tech is usually just a local electronic repair person who owns or works for the repair shop and repairs all kinds of electronics. Usually the tech locates the problem and orders a complete new board, motor, laser assembly etc. Depending on the availbility of the part at a Sony Parts Distribution Center it can take as soon as a few days or weeks for Sony to ship the part to the repair shop and depending on how backed up the repair shop is can take from a few days to a month or so for the repair man to fix the problem. The actually repair usually takes the repair tech minutes to swap out the defective part. This is basically how Sony's service warr works. My experience with any Sony repair work has been a few weeks and the problem was fixed unit back home working fine. It's going to come down to how good and how backed up the repair shop is. Sony ships out the parts quickly if the parts are available. The shop can wait weeks before they even call Sony to order the parts. It comes down to how good the tech and repair shop are. The repair shop can have one or two full time techs working in the back room and a counter person who deals with the customer. You may not even be able to talk to a tech. It all depends on how the repair shop does business. If Sony gets the order for what ever parts are needed they usually ship them out quick. Your at the mercy of the repair shop,,, not really Sony. If you ship a unit directly to Sony, FORGET IT,,, it may sit on a shelf collecting dust for a yr. Don't send the units to Sony. Deal with your local or closest Sony's auth service center. All you need to bring a Sony unit into a Sony Auth service center is your receit from the auth Sony retailer where you purchased your unit. No receit No Free warr work, No receit you have to pay the service shop or you may not even be able to have that shop work on your unit. With a receit the unit gets fixed free. So just find a good local auth Sony service shop and make sure you have a receit. Your repair should come out good if the Tech is a good one. I've had no problems with units that needed repair from the local shop in my area. The repairs were usually a CD player component and they were fixed fine with no other problems,, usually it was a lazer assembly gone bad. I would get your SACD player fixed now before one problem doesn't start creating another problem,,,, you know the ol chain reaction when one thing goes it starts making other thing go. If your skipping,,, that sounds like a new lazer assembly. When you bring the unit in make sure you write a note for the tech telling him what the problem is. Just don't rely on telling the counter person. Tell the counter person and write the problem down and tape it to the unit. The unit should be repaired as good as new.. Good luck,,,

Contact Sony direct by calling 800 222 Sony. Log in your issue with them so they have a record on file for you. You can ship the unit direct to the repair facility. When the unit begins saying "No Disc" it is the sled motor. Mine was replaced a month ago. It worked, didn't work, worked and then stopped working altogether. Got the unit back within two weeks and ran fine except on day the top would not slide open. I gave it a little help and so far so good.

I do not have any noise problems with mine whatsoever.

Happy Listening.

Hey... before EVERYONE viewing this thread panics, it sounds like you need to clean the laser. Open up the Sony box and treat the laser to a alcohol cleaning.

Your problems are often the result of a dirty laser pickup!

-phil-