Mayday- Mayday- Source down. Mysterious cause

Ern Dog

I'm having a very strange anomaly happening with my Modwright Oppo 83 source. It's a new player, 6 months old. Awhile back it stopped reading disks so I sent it back to Oppo and they quickly repaired it saying that they found a "white layer of dust" on the laser and after cleaning the lens it was fine. Well that was a month ago and now the same thing happened again- it stopped reading discs, so I have to send it back. I did use a lens cleaner on it 2 weeks ago.

I also have been noticing a white film on some of my cd's which easily comes off when I clean the cd with a cloth. I'm guessing that junk on my cd's is what's clogging my laser in the Oppo.

So the million dollar question is what the hell is that stuff?

My only guess is that I have a wood stove as my main source of heat and that very fine particles of ash dust are collecting on my cd's. I keep all my cd's in their case at all times. Or maybe it's something from my car cd player that is attracting the dust onto my cd's. Maybe it's something magnetic that the cd's are attracting this. I have no clue.

Anybody have any ideas about what could be causing this? And No I'm not a cocaine addict.

tonyb

Could very well be the stove. I have a wood burning fireplace, used to have one of those blowers that blew the heat back into the room, damn near heated the whole house too. That is untill my Sony projection tv was covered inside with white ash, all my electronics had white ash. Pulled out the blower in a heartbeat, and my Tv was on the opposite side of the room as the fireplace, 20 ft away. Also, any gear that has a fan on it, like my projection tv did, will just suck the ash right in.

F1nut

My only guess is that I have a wood stove as my main source of heat and that very fine particles of ash dust are collecting on my cd's.

Ash dust will definitely get inside your player. You don't need to send it in, just pop the top and blow off the laser with a can of compressed air.

Or maybe it's something from my car cd player that is attracting the dust onto my cd's.

Never take your good CD's out to the car. That's asking for trouble.

Maybe it's something magnetic that the cd's are attracting this.

CD's are not magnetic.

heiney9

Use a music server then dust won't collect on your cd's.................well the dust still will but you won't play cd's anymore. Problem solved :biggrin:.

Sounds like you may be onto the culprit.

H9

george daniel

99% sure that its caused by the stove/dust,, had the same issues with 2 Denon DVD players,,the culprit-- "lamp berger" which uses a solution that had some residue when burned.

Ern Dog

F1nut wrote: »

CD's are not magnetic.

What I meant by that was perhaps when the disks are spinning in the cd player they become charged, making them more susceptible to attracting air born particles. Similar to static cling with socks after the dryer.

Ern Dog

heiney9 wrote: »

Use a music server then dust won't collect on your cd's.................well the dust still will but you won't play cd's anymore. Problem solved :biggrin:.

Sounds like you may be onto the culprit.

H9

Since my wood stove isn't going anywhere, I had the same thought as you! If I can't resolve the issue then I'll have no choice but to go that route. I checked out the Modwright transporter and Logitech Touch + DAC. Who knows.

Ern Dog

I'm gonna crack the hood today of he Oppo and see if I can clean the lens myself.

Also, if the culprit is the stove then what's the solution?

heiney9

Well, I have sung the praises of the Logitech Touch and ext. DAC here many times. With the addition of a good external power supply the Squeezebox Touch is very hard to beat. I have been using a SQB product for almost 3 years now............I will never go back to a dedicated transport of any kind.

Good luck

H9

WilliamM2

heiney9 wrote: »

Well, I have sung the praises of the Logitech Touch and ext. DAC here many times. With the addition of a good external power supply the Squeezebox Touch is very hard to beat. I have been using a SQB product for almost 3 years now............I will never go back to a dedicated transport of any kind.

Good luck

H9

Does the Squeezebox do SACD, DVD-A, DVD, or Blu Ray?

heiney9

Nope. I see where you are going. I was recommending it based on the fact he said he was listening to cd's. The SQB doesn't do any hi-rez or video formats. I was speaking strictly of redbook playback in my posts. Should have clarified rather than assumed people knew that the SQB only does redbook audio.

H9

FTGV

What I also like about the the SQB is it's ability to also do hi rez 24/96 FLAC.

tonyb

FTGV wrote: »

What I also like about the the SQB is it's ability to also do hi rez 24/96 FLAC.

...and anything above that, it cuts in half.

heiney9

FTGV wrote: »

What I also like about the the SQB is it's ability to also do hi rez 24/96 FLAC.

Correct, again I don't use the internal dac even with 24/96 FLAC thru the internal my external sounds much better.

H9

WilliamM2

heiney9 wrote: »

Nope. I see where you are going. I was recommending it based on the fact he said he was listening to cd's. The SQB doesn't do any hi-rez or video formats. I was speaking strictly of redbook playback in my posts. Should have clarified rather than assumed people knew that the SQB only does redbook audio.

H9

I was thinking the Oppo would be a strange choice for just CD's, so I assumed he used other formats, at least BD.

I do agree that for CD listening there are much better choices than a dedicated player, especially if you run a few zones like I do. Who wants to walk to the other side of the house just to change a disc?

Ern Dog

Another questions is that lots of audiophile have wood stoves in their listening room, how come I've never heard of this problem before? A google search produced no results.

Maybe a new air filtration system would help.

FTGV

Ern Dog wrote: »

Another questions is that lots of audiophile have wood stoves in their listening room, how come I've never heard of this problem before? A google search produced no results.

Maybe a new air filtration system would help.

I have a wood stove in my rec room and the ash dust gets on everything.I have heard that a filtration system can help considerably so I intend to get one for mainly that reason.

FTGV

tonyb wrote: »

...and anything above that, it cuts in half.

Which is fine by me since there isn't much in the way of 192k program available,but there is some stellar 24/96 from the likes of Chesky.
Now I just need to save my allowance before I can spring for one.

skrol

Do you see the residue on other surfaces in the room?

I had an issue with my Denon DVD player not reading disks and getting worse over time. This seems to be a fairly common problem. I cleaned the laser optic and it is good as new. For lack of another reason, I attributed the clouding of the optic to material out-gassing (plastics, components, greases inside the player).

tonyb

Ern Dog wrote: »

Another questions is that lots of audiophile have wood stoves in their listening room, how come I've never heard of this problem before? A google search produced no results.

Maybe a new air filtration system would help.

I talked about it in a few threads a few years back. A filter system will help, but most problems occur with gear that have cooling fans built in. Also why placing a tv above a wood burning fireplace is a no no. I tried moving my electronics to the other side of the room,had 2 air cleaners going, and the ash still made it's way. I'd be interested to see what you come up with as well. I think in part, be it a stove or fireplace, how well it's sealed may play a part in all this.

Ern Dog

I think I found the culprit...

Since I've got my wood stove on 24/7 during the winter the room gets dry, so last season i bought an electronic cool air humidifier. I also live in the mountains and have lots of minerals in my water. I'm thinking that my CD's are picking up mineral dust from the humidifier. I think I'll switch over to a warm air humidifier instead of the cool air kind. This was all the minerals would accumulate inside the humidifier instead of the room.

heiney9

Ah ha! I have the same mineral deposit problem when I run a table top humidifier, only on a smaller more localized scale. Very well could be what is going on, or the combo of both.

H9

tonyb

Good call, I had forgotten all about humidifiers. Got rid of mine for that reason moons ago.

Ern Dog

I'm up and running again :biggrin:

I popped the hood and used a dry Q-tip to lightly clean the laser lens and surrounding area. To do this I had to open the cd tray and then unplug the unit so that it would stay open. Only then could I reach in and get the Q-tip in there. I didn't have to unscrew anything.

After doing that it was able to read discs again. So the first cd I popped in was a laser lens cd cleaner.

Now we'll see how things go with the humidifier out of the equation.

Thanks for the help guys.

heiney9

Just realized you live in "Ashland" Oregon............maybe that's it. :biggrin:

Ern Dog

Ha! That's too funny!

BlueFox

This is interesting. I had never heard of either wood stove ash dust (I assumed it went out the chimney), or mineral deposits from humidfiers.

heiney9

I used to run a table top humidifier in the bedroom in the winter and after a few weeks you could see the mineral residue on the dresser mirror and full lenght mirror. It happens.

H9

txcoastal1

george daniel wrote: »

99% sure that its caused by the stove/dust,, had the same issues with 2 Denon DVD players,,the culprit-- "lamp berger" which uses a solution that had some residue when burned.

Great...not..... my wife burns these through out the house

F1nut

Ern Dog wrote: »

I'm up and running again :biggrin:

I popped the hood and used a dry Q-tip to lightly clean the laser lens and surrounding area. To do this I had to open the cd tray and then unplug the unit so that it would stay open. Only then could I reach in and get the Q-tip in there. I didn't have to unscrew anything.

After doing that it was able to read discs again. So the first cd I popped in was a laser lens cd cleaner.

I did use a lens cleaner on it 2 weeks ago.

The CD lens cleaner didn't do squat before, why did you run it again after you cleaned the laser lens?


You really should blow out the entire insides with air.