Join me as we repair a modest, apparently non-repairable Marantz CD player in a hopefully slightly amusing and enlightening post.

It has a more serious motivation, though, and that’s to make the point that so much older hi-fi gear, like this Marantz CD-52, is so very repairable. I hope this resonates with readers and reinforces that I don’t only work on ‘high-end’ gear. Far from it, I often prefer this kind of work. If it’s discrete hi-fi stereo gear like this Marantz CD player and not a midi-system, stereogram, etc, I’m happy to look at it.

By the way, subscribe to ensure you don’t miss out on updates and some very nice equipment I’m about to list in my store. I’ve just purchased a new end-game class A power amplifier (Thanks, Pierre, end of one era, beginning of a great new one, I hope), and I need to sell a bunch of other great pieces to both pay for and make way for it; that stuff coming soon!

Background

So this Marantz CD-52mk2 SE came in as a new customer enquiry, with the lovely owner telling me he’d taken it to a repairer who’d told him what I’ve written in the headline. It doesn’t really matter who it was, though they’ve been featured here before. It’s certainly not a Hall of Shame type of tale, but it highlights a disappointing lack of knowledge that’s all too common these days.

In fact, the advice this business provided was so misguided that I thought it might be useful to explain why, and more importantly, why bad advice can be harmful/costly. That’s because people often confuse advice, opinion and factual information, which are all quite different things. The difference here was critical and almost resulted in the total loss of another great piece of hi-fi gear, just like it did here and in no doubt many other cases I don’t know about.

I’m aware that articles like this help the very businesses we are talking about, and that shouldn’t be my job, but they help readers and the broader hi-fi community, and that’s my goal. Any skilled professional already understands what I’ve written here anyway. Do I want dozens of Marantz CD-52s sitting here in my workshop? Please, NO!

I don’t know what “too old” means to some, but it means nothing at all to me, other than the old thing is likely to be well-made. “Throw away” is advice I’ve very occasionally given, for equipment that is even cheaper than this, or where parts are not available, so that it cannot be economically repaired.

This player can be repaired very affordably. The repair is straightforward, and I keep a box of the necessary parts in stock for this reason, so if anyone ever tells you an older Marantz player from this series is not repairable, too old, and to throw it away, you’ll know to get a second opinion.

Now, to be clear, some CD players are too old, not repairable or not worth repairing, and that is quite different. A knowledgeable technician will assist you in making that distinction and guide you in the right direction. Again, note the importance of factual information, leading to informed advice vs opinion.

Anyway, the owner was amazed when I told him I had a box of these gear/belt sets in stock and that it’s a routine repair. I don’t think he believed me at first, based on his previous conversations. He does now!

I generally find that most players above a few hundred dollars at the time are worth repairing, as long as those repairs are mechanical. If this CD-52 had needed a new laser, for example, that would have been a different story. That said, I keep dozens of NOS and new lasers in stock as well because many players needing new lasers are very viable to repair.

Marantz CD-52 Specifications

As always, courtesy of Hifi Engine

• Disc format: CD
• Digital converter: SAA7350GP
• CD Mechanism: CDM-4/19
• Frequency response: 20Hz to 20kHz
• Dynamic range: 96dB
• Signal to Noise Ratio: 105dB
• Channel separation: 90dB
• Total harmonic distortion: 0.0064%
• Line output: 2V
• Digital connections: coaxial
• Dimensions: 420 x 100 x 284mm
• Weight: 4.4kg
• Accessories: remote control
• Year: 1991
• Price: GBP £200 (1991)

Note that the player I’ve repaired here is a Marantz CD-52mk2 SE and came out about a year after the original CD-52.

Faults

The Marantz CD-52 uses the classic swing-arm Philips CDM 4/19 mech, a long-lasting mech and laser with glass optics that I find generally very reliable and usually blameless, unlike many modern lasers. What isn’t so reliable is the loader gearset, specifically a plastic gear wheel and associated drive belt that tends to decompose into a crumbly mess over time. When that happens, the tray will no longer open or close, and you’ll often hear a rattling inside the player, indicating the gear/pulley has broken into pieces.

This is no big deal, however, as the gear/pulley is a standard replacement part. I’ve installed dozens of these into various players, including these over the years, and that’s precisely why I keep them in stock. These players usually fail for this reason, and throwing a CD player out because of an affordable plastic part is the silliest thing anyone could ever do, assuming they enjoy the player, of course, as this owner does.

Note that a repair like this is not equivalent to repairing an old DVD or BluRay player for example. These usually should just be thrown away and aren’t ideal for playing CDs anyway.

Repair

Again, this is a simple service and repair case, the equivalent of replacing brake pads in a car, but doing it properly. The CD player needed cleaning, lubrication, removal of all the old, broken gear and pulley pieces and a nice new gear and belt installed. This is a standard job, very affordable if the player is otherwise healthy, and it will restore completely normal operation. Bravo!

Takeaway

This is hardly a very technical repair, a high-end CD player or anything I’m especially proud of, so why write about it? Well, apart from the care I take with every job, regulars will know that I hate to see gear like this Marantz CD-52 scrapped when there is nothing much wrong with it. I hate bad advice even more.

Advice is largely a waste of time unless it’s backed by knowledge, experience and factual information. You all know my thoughts on this, and it explains why my advisory service is usually quite busy. All the opinions in the world are utterly useless if they are ill-informed.

Good advice saved this CD player, and that’s one useful takeaway. Another is that this is a CD player from 1992 that still works perfectly. Think about that for a moment. How many modern, affordable CD players do you think will still be working in 35 years…? Exactly. Want to read more about this concept? Try this article for a start.

As always, thanks for visiting, let me know if you’d like me to service or repair your Marantz CD player and see you all again, very soon!