Hey I know this is an old video but I just wanted to say thank you very much you came through big time for me today. I was at a Goodwill came across this CD player it looked in great condition and very clean but when I put a couple CDs it would just cycle through without reading anything but everything else seemed to be working good. I had no idea what was going on so I jumped online came across your video and said well that's got to be it. I took it to the register talked them into giving me half off and when I got home opened it up sure enough same thing lens fell off. I'm getting super glue tomorrow to glue that sucker back on. Actually don't have many CDs in fact I got a clean 80's dual cassette deck with some cool features and figured I'd round out the system. Like you I'm an analog guy and I've got everything that I would listen to on vinyl with a killer 2-channel system and great turntable I have put together over the years and that will always will be my go to. 1 grew up with cassette tapes and I actually would like to find some cassettes but they are not around here so probably online thing. Anyways really do appreciate all your help and now that I know you're also into vinyl I'll check out your Channel 👍
After 20 years, I just took my similar Pioneer PD-M550 out of mothballs. Bought it new about 30 years ago. Same thing. The repair took me about 15 minutes (10 of it was trying to find the lens, LOL). Works great again! Thanks. 👍 Pioneer made an automotive cd changer that used the same cartridges. I had it mounted in the trunk of my (then) '79 Toronado. It came supplied with a wired backlit remote that I had up front. Worked great using the same cartridges back and forth from the house to the car.
Have the same machine, wouldn’t work. Kept cycling through CD’s. A CD had slipped out of the cassette inside. Opened it up and found it. Removed it and put it in the deck, and it’s working great. Bought it new originally in the late 80’s.
THANK YOU!! I found a very similar Pioneer unit at Goodwill and it was doing the same thing, cycling through the discs. I opened it up and lo and behold, the exact same thing with the lens having fallen off. I am not tech savvy at all so I wouldn't have known what I was looking at without your video. Glued it back on and it is working perfectly now!
Absolutely love this player, my dad has had one since he bought it new in 1987. It sat in its box from some time in the mid 90s to around 2003, at which point he let me put it in my childhood stereo setup. Fast forward to today, it's now been back in my dad's stereo setup for over a decade! I broke one of the platters in the disc cartridge when I was using it as a kid, but years later I randomly found 3 compatible cartridges at a friend's house and gave them to my dad, so I like to think I helped more than I hurt lol
That's very cool. I've seen car CD changers that have a catalog system like that mounted in the trunk (had one in my first car). Most home stereos I remember had the huge platter that held five discs and rotated the whole platter to change them out. To be fair, I was in grade school in the CD's prime, so I didn't see a whole lot of different home systems.
Who knew the lens would pop out like that? I probably would have junked it not knowing how quick a fix that could be! Nice work! I had a multi disc magazine (not a cartridge) player like this a couple years back. You could even get spare mags to have preloaded with cds for quick swap outs. Car trunk CD players used this system too. Its downfall was me was it failed to get it to eject the magazine sometimes. CD players are governed on the quality of their Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) chip, yours has a Texas Instruments one that is well regarded and widely used across many brands including high end Marantz and Sonys. Good pick up!
Wow, thanks for the info. I guess it makes more sense that it’s considered a magazine and not a cartridge. And I’m very happy to hear that it has a good chip in it too! It sounds great.
Sadly, I was not able to repair my 1987 DENON DCD-900 CD player. I thought it was a laser head problem, but not so at all. I replaced the head, but no go. It seems to be an IC problem. If you watch the RF on an oscilloscope, you get random bursts of high frequency noise. It may work fine for several hours, then all h3ll breaks loose with the noise again which causes skipping or hanging up altogether. All pot adjustments concerning tracking and laser offsets and gain, make no difference. But it did last 37 years. Over the years I did have to replace belts and re-lube the slide spindles and gears to fix mere skipping problems, but those were quick easy fixes. Oh well. I replaced it with a DENON DCD-900NE. Kind of sad though since it does not have a scratch on it and still looks brand new. I checked the performance of the DENON DCD-900NE, and it gave a flat frequency response from 20 Hz the 20 KHz. But it does cover 2 Hz - 50 kHz @ (-3 dB), via USB, and 2 Hz to 20 KHz via CD. Anyhow, I just replaced some caps in my 1976 Heathkit AA-1506 60 Watts per channel audio amplifier, and touched up any physical paint damage. Looks almost as good as new. It was difficult to obtain two 250uF Bipolar capacitors, so in each case I used a 220uF BP capacitor in parallel with a 33uF BP capacitor. Here again I ended up with a flat response from 20 Hz to 20 KHz. The old caps had such leakage that they measured as 3 meg-ohm and 6 meg-ohm. Now I am on to restoring my 1978 Soundcraftsmen PE-2217 equalizer/PreAmp. All 22 potentiometers have already been cleaned with Deoxit D5 and lubricated with silicon. Next is capacitor replacements.
I don't recommend using super glue to glue the lens in, the super glue can emit a vapour and fog the lens making disc reading take longer and longer, or not read at all, better to use PVA wood glue, it doesn't make a vapour and the lens will never fall out again.
We have this exact model & love it. BUT all of a sudden, it's not working...going to take it apart & hopefully, with your instructions, fix it! thanks for a good video.
Pioneer 6 Disc Car CD players, "Laser Juke" Jukeboxes and 6 Disc PC SCSI CD-ROM Changers all use the same 6 Disc mech. Loose lenses are very common for all them. The lens glue fix will fix all the players. Also make sure there aren't any loose discs that fell off the mech. I have a PD-M426 that could not move down to disc 5 or 6 because of this. Carefully take off the front control panel to take them out.
Mine knows there are discs in there as it will read them just fine. They just won't play. The counter doesn't move, or even turn on when a track starts so I'm assuming the tracks just aren't playing. I can change the discs by hitting the change disc button but have same issue no matter what disc I try.
My PD-M50 takes the disc in but after 5 seconds or so, the disc retracts, comment "no disc" displays. I don't hear the spindle motor running either. Are they hard to replace? Lens is in place.
Hello friend, notice that I found a pioneer player in a second-hand store, similar to that one, only it is a PD-M411 from 1989, everything mechanical works perfectly, even the play, stop and changing discs, but it does not read the discs, I tried it and it doesn't show any data about the songs, what do you think is the reason for that? Could it be the same problem with the lens?
Hey I know this is an old video but I just wanted to say thank you very much you came through big time for me today. I was at a Goodwill came across this CD player it looked in great condition and very clean but when I put a couple CDs it would just cycle through without reading anything but everything else seemed to be working good. I had no idea what was going on so I jumped online came across your video and said well that's got to be it. I took it to the register talked them into giving me half off and when I got home opened it up sure enough same thing lens fell off. I'm getting super glue tomorrow to glue that sucker back on. Actually don't have many CDs in fact I got a clean 80's dual cassette deck with some cool features and figured I'd round out the system. Like you I'm an analog guy and I've got everything that I would listen to on vinyl with a killer 2-channel system and great turntable I have put together over the years and that will always will be my go to. 1 grew up with cassette tapes and I actually would like to find some cassettes but they are not around here so probably online thing. Anyways really do appreciate all your help and now that I know you're also into vinyl I'll check out your Channel 👍
I’m so glad my video helped you! Thanks for the feedback 😊
After 20 years, I just took my similar Pioneer PD-M550 out of mothballs. Bought it new about 30 years ago. Same thing. The repair took me about 15 minutes (10 of it was trying to find the lens, LOL). Works great again! Thanks. 👍
Pioneer made an automotive cd changer that used the same cartridges. I had it mounted in the trunk of my (then) '79 Toronado. It came supplied with a wired backlit remote that I had up front. Worked great using the same cartridges back and forth from the house to the car.
Have the same machine, wouldn’t work. Kept cycling through CD’s. A CD had slipped out of the cassette inside. Opened it up and found it. Removed it and put it in the deck, and it’s working great. Bought it new originally in the late 80’s.
Great, glad you got it working again.
THANK YOU!! I found a very similar Pioneer unit at Goodwill and it was doing the same thing, cycling through the discs. I opened it up and lo and behold, the exact same thing with the lens having fallen off. I am not tech savvy at all so I wouldn't have known what I was looking at without your video. Glued it back on and it is working perfectly now!
That’s great! Thanks for watching my video 😊
Absolutely love this player, my dad has had one since he bought it new in 1987. It sat in its box from some time in the mid 90s to around 2003, at which point he let me put it in my childhood stereo setup. Fast forward to today, it's now been back in my dad's stereo setup for over a decade! I broke one of the platters in the disc cartridge when I was using it as a kid, but years later I randomly found 3 compatible cartridges at a friend's house and gave them to my dad, so I like to think I helped more than I hurt lol
That’s so cool! Thanks so much for sharing 😊
Oh that’s awesome. Yeah, I love this player so much. Great finding those extra cartridges!
That's very cool. I've seen car CD changers that have a catalog system like that mounted in the trunk (had one in my first car). Most home stereos I remember had the huge platter that held five discs and rotated the whole platter to change them out.
To be fair, I was in grade school in the CD's prime, so I didn't see a whole lot of different home systems.
Thank you for this! Just bought one of these and it had exactly this issue. Would never have known it’s such an easy fix! You’re a legend!
Thanks man! Glad it helped 😊
Thank you for doing this! My buddy just gave me the same unit and it didnt work. It took us 10 minutes to fix thanks to you!
Awesome! Glad to hear it!
Who knew the lens would pop out like that? I probably would have junked it not knowing how quick a fix that could be! Nice work! I had a multi disc magazine (not a cartridge) player like this a couple years back. You could even get spare mags to have preloaded with cds for quick swap outs. Car trunk CD players used this system too. Its downfall was me was it failed to get it to eject the magazine sometimes.
CD players are governed on the quality of their Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) chip, yours has a Texas Instruments one that is well regarded and widely used across many brands including high end Marantz and Sonys. Good pick up!
Wow, thanks for the info. I guess it makes more sense that it’s considered a magazine and not a cartridge. And I’m very happy to hear that it has a good chip in it too! It sounds great.
Sadly, I was not able to repair my 1987 DENON DCD-900 CD player. I thought it was a laser head problem, but not so at all. I replaced the head, but no go. It seems to be an IC problem. If you watch the RF on an oscilloscope, you get random bursts of high frequency noise. It may work fine for several hours, then all h3ll breaks loose with the noise again which causes skipping or hanging up altogether. All pot adjustments concerning tracking and laser offsets and gain, make no difference. But it did last 37 years. Over the years I did have to replace belts and re-lube the slide spindles and gears to fix mere skipping problems, but those were quick easy fixes. Oh well. I replaced it with a DENON DCD-900NE. Kind of sad though since it does not have a scratch on it and still looks brand new. I checked the performance of the DENON DCD-900NE, and it gave a flat frequency response from 20 Hz the 20 KHz. But it does cover 2 Hz - 50 kHz @ (-3 dB), via USB, and 2 Hz to 20 KHz via CD. Anyhow, I just replaced some caps in my 1976 Heathkit AA-1506 60 Watts per channel audio amplifier, and touched up any physical paint damage. Looks almost as good as new. It was difficult to obtain two 250uF Bipolar capacitors, so in each case I used a 220uF BP capacitor in parallel with a 33uF BP capacitor. Here again I ended up with a flat response from 20 Hz to 20 KHz. The old caps had such leakage that they measured as 3 meg-ohm and 6 meg-ohm. Now I am on to restoring my 1978 Soundcraftsmen PE-2217 equalizer/PreAmp. All 22 potentiometers have already been cleaned with Deoxit D5 and lubricated with silicon. Next is capacitor replacements.
Fan-freakin-TASTIC video, you are tha 💣!! Helped me get my Pioneer PD-M510 working perfectly!
Sweet!
I don't recommend using super glue to glue the lens in, the super glue can emit a vapour and fog the lens making disc reading take longer and longer, or not read at all, better to use PVA wood glue, it doesn't make a vapour and the lens will never fall out again.
got one today for 10 bucks but had no clue about the cartridge lol so im on the hunt for a cartridge now
Got a pd-m430 that I picked up from goodwill for $6 , turns out my lense fell out as well , hopefully this fixes it!
We have this exact model & love it. BUT all of a sudden, it's not working...going to take it apart & hopefully, with your instructions, fix it! thanks for a good video.
Thanks! And good luck
Pioneer 6 Disc Car CD players,
"Laser Juke" Jukeboxes and
6 Disc PC SCSI CD-ROM Changers
all use the same 6 Disc mech. Loose lenses are very common for all them. The lens glue fix will fix all the players.
Also make sure there aren't any loose discs that fell off the mech. I have a PD-M426 that could not move down to disc 5 or 6 because of this. Carefully take off the front control panel to take them out.
The lens was indeed loose but it didn't fix the problem
Man Great video. I need to go and repair my Laser Disc player next but my last repair was my Marantz PMD 350 PMD350 Cassette Deck / CD Player.
Thanks for watching. I’m finding it very enjoyable to repair vintage electronics.
Wow, that we fast! Well done
Thanks Chris!
Mine knows there are discs in there as it will read them just fine. They just won't play. The counter doesn't move, or even turn on when a track starts so I'm assuming the tracks just aren't playing. I can change the discs by hitting the change disc button but have same issue no matter what disc I try.
My PD-M50 takes the disc in but after 5 seconds or so, the disc retracts, comment "no disc" displays. I don't hear the spindle motor running either. Are they hard to replace? Lens is in place.
Hello friend, notice that I found a pioneer player in a second-hand store, similar to that one, only it is a PD-M411 from 1989, everything mechanical works perfectly, even the play, stop and changing discs, but it does not read the discs, I tried it and it doesn't show any data about the songs, what do you think is the reason for that? Could it be the same problem with the lens?
I have a similar player: a Pioneer PD-M455 with the same problem.
I'll open it and find the lens.
Nice - good luck with it.
Can you help me? I have the same CD player but the door won’t open
Congrats!
Thanks, Chris
Is there anywhere online where I can buy a new lens? The lens fell off of mine as well, and I cannot find it inside the player.
Sorry but I’m not sure. I’d just jump on line and use the model number as a guid to help you find it.
🤘🎸
I have this player but the disc cartridge won’t eject. Any info?
Man my laser is just gone wtf