Warrenty and lifespan of cd players

The mechanical aspects of playing a CD, including dynamic adjustment of LED focus are quite remarkable, and I find it hard to understand how they can make it work so well when brand new. It is a characteristic of mechanical devices that they wear out. The electronic part probably won't wear out, but becomes obsolete.

My first player was a Mission, and the disc player mechanism was stock Phillips. It "only" lasted 15 years. I have not had any other player fail.

When I had occasion to repair an auto radio cassette player I discovered that the entire mechanical tape transport mechanism was an easy plug-in job, and that in spite of there being hundreds of brands of car radios, there were only two types of tape transports used. I think it cost $19. I wonder how many different disc spinners exist. I don't know for sure, but replacement of the mechanical part of a CD player might be simple and inexpensive.

Sean, it's funny you should say Sony products last a long time. I've owned two multi-disc changers, a 27" TV, a VCR, an S-VHS VCR, a receiver, and a multi-function remote and everything but the remote has been repaired. About half has been under warranty. The other half went kaput exactly the year after the warranty expired. I'm just waiting for the remote to die. Am I rough on my equipment? I don't think so. Literally nothing else I've owned has ever seen a repair shop including a 15 year old Onkyo Receiver and a 20 year old Samsung tuner. Needless to say, the remote was and is my last Sony purchase, ever. leo.

Leo: I've had Magnavox cdp's, modified Magnavox cdp's, Philips cdp's, etc... For that matter, my Brother has had some of the same. All of them went down in a relatively short period of time. Even my latest Philips, the SACD 1000 took a dive about a week ago. Out of the blue, the unit started acting quirky. It wouldn't respond to input from either the remote or the buttons on the faceplate. One would have to shut the unit down and then power it back up in order to get a response out of it. After doing this for a few days, i turned the unit off and it wouldn't come back up. Since the unit is not even a year old, i sent it back to Philips for repair a few days ago. Needless to say, my track record with Philips is like yours with Sony. Having spoken to a few people that work in the repair industry about this, it seems that Philips has a reputation for lack of longevity with digital products.

For sake of comparison, i have two individual friends that are still running Sony units that i had originally purchased about 15 years ago. I passed them onto them because they were both reliable units that never gave me any problems. One of them was a changer, which is mechanically far more complex and flimsy, but it is still working. As such, i'll probably end up buying a Sony SACD / DVD if my SACD 1000 can't be repaired or takes another dive after this repair.

Maybe we should swap "Sony / Philips Kharma" : ) Sean
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Every piece of Sony gear that I, or my friends, have owned has died early on.

It's funny, but consumer surveys that ask the questions:
What hi fi company is your favorite?
and
What hi fi company is your LEAST favorite?

Sony tends to be the most popular answer to BOTH questions.

Personally, I have never had a Sony product break on me aside from portable Sony CD players.

KF