| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Off topic: When is it time to replace CD player? (I just want your extra time and your...tech savvy) Thread poster: Susana Galilea
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Susana Galilea 
United States
Local time: 07:50
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER | Brilliant... | Jun 10, 2005 |
Tekkie wrote:
Just have a few members of a famous boys' choir sing in your bathroom instead of a cathedral, and you'll probably think: "What the heck do these boys have terrible voices?!"
Now that sounds like the kind of experiment I might enjoy undertaking, I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out...gotta go, have to check the yellow pages under "famous boys' choirs"
But seriously, thanks everyone. I find the technical explanations most fascinating, even if I can't understand 90% of it. I'll try cleaning the lens first, and take it from there.
S.G.
| | | | Tekkie (X)
English to German
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| A very good idea! | Jun 11, 2005 |
Susana Galilea wrote: ...gotta go, have to check the yellow pages under "famous boys' choirs"
Oh yeah, a boys' choir in your bathroom would definitely be a splendid idea!
Returning to tech issues: If the lens of the LED/phototransistor combo is dirty, dropouts (intermittent sound on/sound off) will occur but the pitch will not change. This means: You would be unable to hear the music without interruptions but just with a lower pitch.
| | | | Tony M
France
Local time: 14:50
Member
French to English
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SITE LOCALIZER | Technically (virtually) impossible | Jun 11, 2005 |
As a previous poster has said, it is not really technically feasible for the effect you describe to take place. For one thing, the CD does not revolve at a constant speed in the first place --- it starts in the middle spinning very fast, and slows down as it moves out towards the edge --- this is known as the Constant Linear Velocity system, much less wasteful than the Constant Angular Velocity system (e.g. LPs).
But everything in a CD player is locked to the crystal-controlled clo... See more As a previous poster has said, it is not really technically feasible for the effect you describe to take place. For one thing, the CD does not revolve at a constant speed in the first place --- it starts in the middle spinning very fast, and slows down as it moves out towards the edge --- this is known as the Constant Linear Velocity system, much less wasteful than the Constant Angular Velocity system (e.g. LPs).
But everything in a CD player is locked to the crystal-controlled clock frequency --- if that goes off, it's true the whole machine will run globally at the wroing speed, causing ptich and duration shifts; in practice, a 1% pitch shift would be quite noticeable, though this would have a barely discernible effect on duration; in the UK, most cinema films (shot at 24 frames /sec) are shown on TV at 25fps, an error of 4%, but it was only comparatively latterly that pitch shifters came to be used as standard practice to rectify the error (music was sharp).
I would have thought that any error that seemed to make the tracks play at the wrong speed would have already had a disastrously-noticeable efefct on their pitch.
The idea of your crystal frequency having gone off by a significant percentage is well nigh unthinkable, but is the only technical explanation I can think of for what you believe you are observing.
Maybe it's just that the pace of life in your new city just makes the music SEEM slower?  ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tony M
France
Local time: 14:50
Member
French to English
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SITE LOCALIZER | Of Boys' Choirs and Bathrooms... | Jun 11, 2005 |
Tekkie wrote:
Oh yeah, a boys' choir in your bathroom would definitely be a splendid idea!
Sounds a bit dodgy to me! Besides, my bathroom's nowhere near big enough to accommodate the entire Vienna Boys' Choir --- nor even the von Trapp Family Singers (with or without Julie Andrews)
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Susana Galilea
United States
Local time: 07:50
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER | As a matter of fact... | Jun 11, 2005 |
Dusty wrote:
I would have thought that any error that seemed to make the tracks play at the wrong speed would have already had a disastrously-noticeable efefct on their pitch.
It has...I was just using laywoman's (a.k.a. clueless) terms and calling it "speed dragging". But that is very much what I am hearing, as if the singing was being "held back" by some mysterious pull. And no, I am not losing my marbles...not on this account, anyway
So...any further advice at this point? Does cleaning the lens even seem worth it? Or is it high time I hit the electronics aisle for a new CD player?
Dusty wrote: Maybe it's just that the pace of life in your new city just makes the music SEEM slower?
Cute
S.G.
[Edited at 2005-06-11 22:27]
| | | | PAS
Local time: 14:50
Polish to English
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| Doesn't cost much to try | Jun 12, 2005 |
Susana Galilea wrote:
So...any further advice at this point? Does cleaning the lens even seem worth it? Or is it high time I hit the electronics aisle for a new CD player?
Taking the top cover off and cleaning the lens with a q-tip dipped in pure iso-propyl alcohol (not rubbing alcohol - this has additives which leave a residue and will, in effect, make things worse) is easy.
In my experience, though (First CD player bought in 1987, I think), this is only postponing the inevitable...
The laser in the player deteriorates over time and cleaning the lens will not bring it back to life. The cost of servicing an old player will probably amount to a a significant portion of the price of a new one...
Soooo..... you have probably already answered the last question yourself.
Cheers,
Pawel Skalinski
| | | | Uldis Liepkalns
Latvia
Local time: 15:50
Member (2003)
English to Latvian
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| Can't you just try to listen via your computer CD reader? | Jun 19, 2005 |
For comparison. Then you'll know for sure.
Uldis
Susana Galilea wrote:
So...any further advice at this point? Does cleaning the lens even seem worth it? Or is it high time I hit the electronics aisle for a new CD player?
| | | | Susana Galilea
United States
Local time: 07:50
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER | Happy ending... | Jun 20, 2005 |
Uldis Liepkalns wrote:
Can't you just try to listen via your computer CD reader?
For comparison. Then you'll know for sure.
Uldis
Thank you so very much, Uldis. You'd think I could have thought of that one sooner...I actually just bought my first pair of headphones, and I keep forgetting I own them
After a few mad dashes from my hard drive to my CD player, I am thoroughly pleased--and thoroughly embarassed--to report the only thing that was distorted was my recollection of these tunes! But I've enjoyed the stroll along these here technological matters, and I am grateful to all who responded.
I guess Dusty was right after all, my brain must have been on NYC overdrive when I last listened to these songs
S.G.
[Edited at 2005-06-20 22:58]
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Susana Galilea
United States
Local time: 07:50
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER | It gets better... | Jul 23, 2005 |
So there I was dusting my apartment the other day, while a song played in my infamous CD player. By sheer fluke, my ear happened to come near the left speaker...at which point I realized there was no sound coming out of it. So I wiggled a wire and...voila, nail-biting mystery solved! I knew something was off, but for the life of me couldn't place the problem...turns out I was hearing the sound in mono output, and my finicky ears simply could not settle for it. So I'm more clueless than I even su... See more So there I was dusting my apartment the other day, while a song played in my infamous CD player. By sheer fluke, my ear happened to come near the left speaker...at which point I realized there was no sound coming out of it. So I wiggled a wire and...voila, nail-biting mystery solved! I knew something was off, but for the life of me couldn't place the problem...turns out I was hearing the sound in mono output, and my finicky ears simply could not settle for it. So I'm more clueless than I even suspected, but I've thoroughly enjoyed this foray into the high-tech realm
S.G. ▲ Collapse
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