puck

Hi Mike

You'll compress the rubbers if you leave a disc in the machine. Otherwise; no problem.

However....... I'm a great believer in leaving the puck out of the machine when not in use. It seems to stay more 'sticky'.

It needs to be inverted and covered of course, to keep it clean.

At the risk of getting a bit freaky/tweaky - I can hear the difference with a freshly blu-tacked platter and puck if it hasn't been done for a while.

It does seem to clean up the sound.

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is there any harm keeping a cd in my cdx over night or even the weekend? i inadvertantly did

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No harm done, but it's best to try to make a habit of removeing the CD prior to bed, this will allow the puck grippers to relax and retain their shape and elasticity longer.

I don't think there is any gain from leaving the puck out of the machine. With no CD in the rubbers make no contact with the spindle, hence are under no compression, and it prevents the puck getting lost/dirty/eaten by the dog etc etc

Why didn't someone tell me a dog would eat my pucks in the "Dogs" thread?

would you describe the way exactly, how to clean player and puck with blu-tack and/or anything?

graphoman

Just use a ball of blue tack (the size of a hazelnut say), massage it to make it tacky, then dab on the puck rubbers and the spindle platter to remove any dust and bits of dirt.

DONT USE IT ON THE LASER

PS. I have never found this necessary myself

This is an interesting thread.

Many ways to make puck sticky and thereby improve sound quality.

So how come the puck is designed not to centre thereby making the whole thing out of balance.

Nobody has ever satisfactorily explained to me why a puck and the transport mechanism when out of balance is an inherent part of the design.

WHY??????

My SONY SCD 777 ES has a large puck which centers correctly, and it is not possible for the puck to be used off centre and therefore out of balance.

NAIM have always been led by sound engineering principles so why this deliberate abberation?

regards David

Graphoman

Don't press too hard on the three magnetic pins with your lump of blu-tack. It is possible to push them through the plastic moulding, with enough force. Just dab them.

I hold the 'platter' with a finger and gently drag the blu-tack round it.

I've found that blu-tack can also be used to dab away fine muck from the tray of the CDS2/3 - and it sounds better for it.

Tweaky as that may sound; there is logic to support it, in that the tray/swing arm base is painted with a special material to stop laser-light scatter. Fine particles of muck, presumably reduce its efficacy?

And if you want to get really tweaky, you can remove the top of your puck (it just prises off) to make it lighter.

You don't get all this fun with an I-pod!

On that subject, this is interesting from the on-line beeb news web-site.

thank you. So blu-tak can be used, if gently, on the rubber as well. (I got one-ring pucks onmy CDS1.)

graphoman

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So how come the puck is designed not to centre thereby making the whole thing out of balance.

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David. The puck isn't designed not to centre, its just on the older players it does not Auto centre. The intention is still that the puck is centred. The explanation given previously being that the puck is light enough that being slightly off centre does not effect the transport and performance.

Having said this you will find that on the latest transports (CDS3, CDX2) the puck is in fact self centering.

Dear Greeny,

A friend went from CDS2 to a CDS3 and on neither does the puck centre.

It is amusing that the player works and reads the discs with an obvious off centre puck.

The error correction must be having a ball.

How do you think a t/t would work if the vinyl was off centre slightly.

I know that the mechanics of reading the information is different, but i still feel it is disappointing that someting so simple as a spindle to mechanically centre the puck is not used.

Just my opinion.

Both the CDS 2 and CDS 3 sound very good, despite my observations.

regards David

David.

I'm slightly confused here

You are just talking about Puck centering I assume. The CDS3 doesn't do anything to try to centre an incorrectly drilled CD (I don't know any CD player that do, But the New puck has longer pins that locate in a circular trough on the spindle making it impossible to locate the puck off centre (Other than a very small amount of play <0.5 mm), whereas the older pucks and spindles had no such mechanism making it possible to position the puck uncentred.

Your vinyl analogy is also incorrect, as the puck being off centre does not make the CD spin off centre. You could argue that an off centre puck unbalances the rotating inertia of the CD/spindle, which may be true, but the puck is made light to minimise this effect. You'll probably find none circular CD's (or off centre holes) have a bigger effect.

Additionally, many LP's do not have the hole perfectly centred, this can readily be seen by looking at the headshell moving in and out slightly as an LP plays. (I bet 10% of my LPs don't have a perfectlt centred hole)