[Lippy]

Hello friends. I'd like some advice.

My 3-year old NAD 521i cd player stopped reading discs a few months ago. I decided to take it into a A/V repair shop for diagnosis - figured it was probably an issue of realignment, so perhaps worth fixing, relative to the original cost of the player and the cost of a new one of its kind (or similar).

The diagnosis cost $40, which then can be applied towards the total repair costs. Well, the repair shop just left a message that the laser needs to be replaced at a total cost of $170 ($130 after my already-paid $40 down).

What should I do?

I don't have money falling out of my tuchas, but don't want to pay for the repair unless there are no comparable cd players out there in the $200 ballpark.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Joshua

 

[Lippy]

Anyone?

 

[hciman77]

A laser assembly really should last a lot more than 3 years. Even so, given that the initial $40 is gone , never to return, you are effectively asking what can you get for $130.

I think the short answer is nothing of similar quality to your NAD, not new at least.

For $130 you could buy an anonymous DVD player that would also play CDs. For $249 you could get the Cambridge Audio 340C from Audio Advisor, for $300 you could get the Onix XCD-88, I had one of these and they are pretty good.

I have two low end players a Marantz CC4300 5 disc player, you can get these reconditioned from ebay for about $149 and a Yamaha CDC685 which goes for about $175 new - I got mine for $60.

I also have a old Rotel RCC940AX 5 disc player which I got for $150. All of these are okay, the Rotel just edges out the Yamaha. None would be as good as the NAD but they are okay.

If you dont mind buying used you can get some nice older players such as a Marantz CD63SE for not very much.