Alpine laser replacement cost?

[Boxer]

NE one had one done? My beloved 7832R head unit seems to be having major tracking probs - best guess is the laser or spindle motor. (bumps make no diff at all)

Problem is I have had it for 6 years and still prefer it to any of the newer shit (it can be switched to amber backlit for starters like my dash)

Wondering how much its likely to be?

[teK]

My old Sony had the same problem especially with CDRs. It got to the point where it would only read immaculate freshly burnt CDs and as soon as they got a hint of scratching it'd reject them. I opened the unit up and cleaned the laser with a cotton swab and rubbing alcohol, cleaned the laser tracks of dirt etc. Put it back together and the thing worked great for another year or so. Then the same thing happened and I became sick of buying new CDRs all the time and I replaced it with a Panasonic.

If you like old look head units and amber backlights you should have a look at Nakamichi. They are very high quality but I think they still went broke??? You might be able to pick up clearance stock at a bargain price.

[Cplus]

Nakamichi haven't gone broke - they were founded in the forties and are going strong still. Perhaps their Aus distributor is bust?? I dunno. They make much more than just car audio products. But yes there products are fantastic on the whole and have been producing lower end products more recently but still of fantastic quality.

[Boxer]

Tek is correct.

Not sure which departments, but Nakamichi is in financial shit. It's not the home HiFi gear that went bust - so it could be the car audio business

Tek,

Yeah I tried cleaning the laser and didn't help - its in at the repair agent now, so I'll wait to see what the quote is - I reckon a $200 repair is ok for a $1000 head unit thats 7 yrs old

[Cplus]

Where did you hear about that? The Home Audio and Car Audio are just two divisons of the one company. Maybe the decision to make the low end products wasn't a good idea?

[Lon]

Boxer, does it skip on just burnt discs or factory pressed cds?

[Boxer]

All discs matey

[tandy ass]

Depending on how clever the repair shop is, they would have asked you a few questions such as

Has the unit been getting worse over a period of days, months or years

and

Have you ever used a CD lens cleaning disc in the player...

If you've ever used the lens cleaner then you're up for the big bucks, ie a new optical block assy because lens cleaning CDs are like sawdust in a gearbox, a very short term fix but a costly one. What happens is the brush on the lens cleaner picks the dust up on the optical block lens surround and drops it into the guts of the optical block where it gets deep into the mirrors and diffractors etc.... This requires optical block (laser) replacement which means big bucks

If its been getting worse over a period of months or years then a tune up would be in order which should cost between 40-90 bucks depending on service centre and how good/meticulous they are. They bump up the laser power a tiny bit and realign the focus and tracking servo's for optimum performance from an old optical pickup and align the EF balance (or DC balance) to make it track perfectly. If it got worse over a period of a minute, day or a few days then the optical block is on a sharp downhill route and should be immediately replaced. The service centre should do a full realignment of the servo's after a replacement or it will accelerate the wear of the optical block, much like misaligned steering chews out tyres...

Cheers

[Boxer]

Hey Bozz,

Actually shes all fixed now :D Was me second guess at the fault - spinlde motor just like in my home CD player. Couldn't hold correct RPM for the tracking position.

Replaced and serviced $138 Laser is still in great nick, good intensity an all

[tandy ass]

$138 sounds like quite a fair price, was it a factory authorised service centre?

[Boxer]

You betcha