1984 Philips CD104 CD player restoration

[mark pirate]

I have owned a cd104b from new and agree totally that the sound quality is
Very good indeed.
Mine started to play up after five years or so with intermittent audio, i was told to re-solder the audio board as there was a known fault with these.
After a blanket re-solder it worked perfectly (and still does!)
I got one from a car boot sale a couple of years ago for a couple of quid,
This was also bought back to good order with a re-solder
The reason i plumped for the philips in the first place, were the good reviews
in the hi-fi mags at the time, my only moan is the odd size of it, wish it could have been a full size unit

Mark

[howard]

Originally Posted by detrain

I have a vague recollection that when the skipping fault first started to emerge it was worse when switched on from cold, but once it had been playing for a while it was OK. It might be interesting to test whether 'intermittent' now equates to 'not warmed up'.

Hello John,

It made no difference if warm or cold, one day it worked, the next day it was faulty again and the next day it could be OK again.

The dark silver grey CD104 has developed a minor 'feature' since this thread was written, the left-hand channel has become slightly noisy and while idle one can hear an occasional soft high pitched whistle/oscillation which slowly descends in frequency, and then goes up again and goes away. It doesn't really affect the sound quality while playing but we will no doubt investigate in due course.

Howard

[howard]

Originally Posted by mark pirate

I have owned a cd104b from new and agree totally that the sound quality is Very good indeed.
Mark

Hello Mark,

All these 1st generation Philips machines all sound alike and very good, but I prefer the sound quality of the later CD104B when compared to my slightly bright sounding CD104.

Howard

[mark pirate]

Hi Howard,

I prefer the sound quality of the later CD104B when compared to my slightly bright sounding CD104.

I always thought ther was no difference in these players, bar the colour
I wonder what the difference is?
Maybe the analog side was improved on the 'B' models, i know that some models used sony chips,due to the shortage of philips chips.
Being a closet audiophool, i have gone through quite a few cd players over the years, but still prefer the sound (& build quality) of the older philips &
Marantz players, nothing i have heard produces the warmth & depth of sound
produced by my favorite...marantz cd73,magic

Mark