Rotel RCD-02 repair attemps

[bassett]

Iv'e had one of these for a while, supposed to be one of the best CD Players
Rotel ever made. And at the time I was very pleased with it. Then it started
to play up. Intermittant failure with "NO DISK" showing on the digital
readout screen. In the end nothing worked , regardless of disc type used. But the problem was intermitant, sometimes it would play, If I disconnected the unit from the power, and then reconnected it 1 hour later it would play,

So I get the unit , that the guy rushed to finish on a friday night of a
long weekend. Yer right.

Reported the failure to the local dealer / distributer / retailler, who went
into meltdown, Never in 14 years had He ever had a Rotel product fail.
It want to the local autherised repairer, TV Tecnologies, Marcia Street,
Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia. together with a dud remote. Which never did work , from day one. And Yes it did have battries.
.20 days later machine was returned with a new CD Tray, Remote Senser,
and a new remote. One week later , "NO DISK" again appeared.
Hallo, who's f****d up then.

Machine is returned to the Distributor in Victoria, Australia. International
Dynamic's. One week later Player is returned , this is good service,
reporting that they changed the Laser Loom, Plugged it in, "No DISK' on
digital readout.
This time it did nothing, and no amout of re-booting would allow it to work.
Main distributor // importer F****d up.

Poor bloody Retailer goes into complete melt down, Takes large handfuls of
little green Pills, and supplies new machine. All through this fiasco,
Park Beach Music and Hi Fi, have been terrific, Nothing was to much trouble,
I was loaned a substitute player, while mine was away, and also got regular
phone call up-dates, I'm located 100klm from the shop, some of it on dirt
roads, So we only go to town when we have too.

Next day rang International Dynamic's to vent my spleen, Contacted the
Service Manager Ross Woodford, who stayed awake while I told my little story of woe, Promised to look into the problem, Supplied Docket number to assist him. Frankly he did not want to know and didn't really give a Flying
F**k.. Ended up doing Sweet F**k All, and the visiting Rep, to the retail
outlet was far more sympathetic.

So if you buy Rotel in Australia, Forget any help from International
Dynamic's Service dept. There total incapable of repairing the products
they import.. And show no interest in there customers requirements.
And there e-mail address also refuses to work.
Funny thing is, non of these high grade authorised repairers bothered to
look at the Power Supply.. Funny That..

anyone got any idea's.
bassett

[fordster]

Sound's like the laser to me, they only have a finite live. Similar thing happened to me on a car CD player. For a while it was intermittent before giving up completely. How long did you have the player and, more importantly, how many hours usage do you think you'd put on the player?

[bassett]

Thanks for your reply, CD Player was purchased new, on 9/7/04. First breakdown was
2/3/05 So that's 8 months all up. The Player is use every-so-often, certainly not continuously.
Over the years I have had a number of Rotel products, and for me they are very reliable, In my view, they have very good Power Supplies, and this is what you pay for.
I,m not going crook about the breakdown, In the world of mass production you expect
to get some Dummies, now and again, but the treatment I got from the Australian Distributer was not something which would inspire confedence. Frankly with a good name product like Rotel, I would have expected a replacement unit, from day one.
Considering the age of the thing.

I have an old RX-203 Tuner Amp, the one with the silver face plate and the wooden box case. This thing runs all day, for the radio, and at night as a TV audio amp. and frankly I can't kill the thing with a stick. I change the Fuse lamps every 5 years or so.
I must have had it 12 years and it was 2nd hand when I rescued it from a garage sale.

[HiFiDan]

Rotel RCD-02

Have to concur with bassett on the Rotel RCD-02 SACD player. I purchased mine new in Western Canada in 2005, warranty was for 2 years. During 3rd year, began to skip on first 2 tracks of most CD's. I played it on average 1 hour per day. After 3 years that's just over 1000 hours of playing time. A player of this "reputed" quality should not be experiencing skipping after just 3 years.

To boot, the dealer went out of business. No other dealer in the country will touch it because I didn't purchase it from them and they explained that Rotel USA must perform the servicing. Rotel of America in New Jersey wants $80 just to look at it, plus 1 way shipping of $75 each direction, plus repair costs. In total, looking at over $300 bucks to repair a $750 player for a defective laser. This kind of "one-guy-only does the repairs" (i.e Rotel America) policy smells nasty to me. This player was assembled in China, no doubt from off the shelf parts made by Sony and its audio brethren.

If Rotel is really serious about trumpeting their brand as "quality" consumer audio, they have a long way to go. This will be the last Rotel product I purchase. I urge all readers to go for the products with the longest warranties. This speaks volumes about your audio purchase and its manufacturer's reputation.