Pro Audio Asylum

Posted by Marantzguy (A) on February 05, 2010 at 11:31:03

In Reply to: RE: Problem with HHB 850 CD recorder posted by mcgjohn@yahoo.com on February 03, 2010 at 10:37:55

Hi, John and others:

Regarding the problem I recently reported about my HHB-850 CD recorder:

I am pretty proud of myself, because I successfully troubleshot and then repaired my trusty HHB-850 CD recorder last night!

After I dropped the SKB case it was in on Sunday, whenever you powered it up, the unit would open and close the loading drawer. This would go on endlessly, so I shut it down. I feared the worst and thought for sure that the laser assembly had given up its ghost.

Last night, when I opened her up to see what was going on, I immediately heard a rattle.

The cause turned out to be two parts, which had come loose from the cushioning mechanism, just above where the discs spin on loading. A piece of circular black plastic had lodged near the optical stage and the metal flange which was originally attached above, had also come loose. That was the part which rattled. So, when the drawer button was pressed, it came out and on return, ran right into the loose plastic part inside the mechanism, and the drawer just ejected again.

The mechanism consisted of a disc like black plastic spindle thing, which was originally attached to a similarly shaped metal flange, between which was a Teflon rimmed horizontal mounting flange. The horizontal panel which held these parts was removable with two screws. These circular parts are meant to engage with a spinning disc and always turn freely when loading occurs. The piece of Teflon between them minimizes friction.

I was so relieved to see that this was all that was apparently wrong with the unit!

So, I reassembled the parts and to secure them more strongly, put a small dab of slow-drying super strong epoxy on the tabs where they are attached.

VOILA!

Back in business!

I knew all along that the entire machine was apparently manufactured by Pioneer, which is no surprise to me.

However, at an original outlay of $1100, I sure as hell wanted it to work again and of course, have come to appreciate just how good it sounded over the years.

The truth in the matter is this: the critical cushioning spinning parts I described were never really well secured in the manufacturing process. I suspect that a lot of these machines may have suffered the fate mine did when jostled or God forbid, dropped. Undoubtedly, a shop would have charged several hundred dollars to fix the problem, when it really only took me perhaps fifteen minutes to do this, not counting the time it took for the glue to harden.

There you go!

Richard Links
Links Sound
Berkeley, CA