Just picked this up from a thrift store $15, 6 disc changer using a removable catridge.
It is in great condition and plays perfectly, just curious to how old it is?.
I have always liked older Pioneer stuff and thought it was a good price in this condition.

Curiously, the dominant failure modes are as follows:

(1) The lens falls off the pickup. This can be fixed using the green glue that Japanese manufacturers use to cement screws in place. DO NOT USE SUPERGLUE. It volatilizes and ruins the lens. To do this repair, you have to remove the plastic cover over the lens and drive coils.

(2) The grommets that are used to shock mount the disc drive sag. Although new grommets can (in theory) be ordered from Pioneer, I use little shims, cut in the shape of washers, using polyurethane foam from a donor woofer surround.

(3) The spin motor shorts.

(4) The ribbon cable going to the pickup gets an open trace.

Enjoy your machine!

Fred
Owner
Classic Audio Repair

I always hated those magazine-style decks.
Goofy mechanisms that jam up and difficult to repair.

I love my 1992 single-disk Technics MASH player.

Thanks for the replys, it works well at the moment and it looks like its not had much use, but the warnings on its faults are welcome as if it starts acting up i know what to look at.
Thankyou.

to: Repair Tech

As you no doubt know, disc drives for that vintage of Technics CD players are getting rarer and rarer. Andrews and Encompass no longer stock them. Get a parts machine (or two) on eBay soon!

By the way, 1992 was the year after I quit my job as a manager in the Panasonic service division. I just turned 65, and Panasonic is giving me a $300 a month pension for the rest of my life. Yippee!

Fred
owner
Classic Audio Repair

Fred, I appreciate the tips on this Pioneer, for I've had one of these machines on regular duty in the synth lab for nearly 10 years now...



Larry

They are a good sounding cd player too.
$15 im not complaining.

I have a JVC version I've beat the crap out of for years as a garage player. It still works fine.

On the JVC magazine-type CD players (XL-M.. et al) a major failure that we see frequently, and that's an easy fix, is that the machine uses these little motors about the size of a small spool of thread for loading functions. Each motor has a worm gear about an inch long and about the diameter of a pencil. The worm gear interfaces with a standard circular gear. The failure is that the worm gear comes off the motor shft. You will often be able to pick up the machine and hear it clattering around.

The cure is to clean out the hole in the worm gear with alcohol and a pipe cleaner, then use superglue to glue it back on. Be careful not to get the superglue on the little brass bushing that the motor shaft rides inside of.

Fred
owner
Classic Audio Repair

Fred, I have a Hitachi DA-C70 12-disk dual-magazine changer (two of the Pioneer-type 6 disk magazines) of similar vintage- I suspect it was made in the same factory as these Pioneers. It's gotten where it won't load a disk from the magazine. Could sag due to the shock mounts sagging cause this, or is it more likely a belt failure (that's what it sounds like- the motor runs, but the drive can't load the disk all the way over onto the spindle/transport)?

I'd like to get it going again, because it, along with my old NEC player, was one of the best-sounding players I had...

BTW: I also own a PD-M435. Great sounding player, and reliable as a brick. Never a problem.

In fact, I have several players that use this magazine. Optimus, Pioneer and Hitachi. I'm guessing Pioneer probably made all of them?

Regards,
Gordon.

Gordon,

Disc-drive grommet sag will sometimes cause the set to bind as it tries to load the disc from the magazine into the drive, but you will hear it try to load, and hear the rubbing. There is a loading belt located toward the rear, as I recall, located to the left of the disc drive and a little in front of it. This belt is under a mechanical sub-assembly. Disassemble with great care!!!

Does it try to load -- and fail to execute the routine? Or does it not try at all?

Fred
owner
Classic Audio Repair

Fred, it tries to load (I hear the motor start to run, and I THINK it may start to move the disk carrier just a tad), but never can do it. IIRC (though it's been a while), it times-out after a while and stops trying.

That's what made me think belt...

Regards,
Gordon.