Any advice on CD players? A station that I work for part-time has been through a stack of Gemini, Stanton and Numark players in the past few years. I'm getting tired of replacing CD players so frequently. Considering the fact that we normally only do live DJ shifts 40 hours a week or less, it seems like CD players should last for many years.
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CD Players
- Thread starter Radiopronouncer
- Start date
I've had several of these in regular service for a few years now, no failures yet...seem to be a bit better than the Stanton/Numark/Gemini units.
http://tascam.com/product/cd-200/
http://tascam.com/product/cd-200/
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=232517.0
Even the units made for broadcast back in the day had issues.
Hard Drive playback is king.
Even the units made for broadcast back in the day had issues.
Hard Drive playback is king.
You're fighting various issues such as mechanical as well as environmental (physical treatment by staffers, dust/dirt on lasers as well as laser aging). I had the broadcast Denon units, both drawer and slot-load, and it's sometimes hit-or-miss. I acquired some Denon and Tascam pro slot-loaders that another station tossed out as they weren't going to put up with them anymore.
Unless you have such an eclectic format that prohibits you from doing so I would move to a MOHD (music on hard drive) automation system as suggested before me. Failing that, I would just buy a boatload of el-cheapo CD players and consider them as disposable as BIC lighters when they fail
Unless you have such an eclectic format that prohibits you from doing so I would move to a MOHD (music on hard drive) automation system as suggested before me. Failing that, I would just buy a boatload of el-cheapo CD players and consider them as disposable as BIC lighters when they fail
Nobody makes tough CD players anymore. I contract with a AAA station that is live 20 hours a day. The entire music library is on CD. We are replacing CD players quarterly. I have suggested loading as much of it as possible into the DAD system and I get the evil eye looks from the staffers. So, until they come around to digitizing it, we just have to make allowances for player replacements.
Digitizing make so much more sense. I used to work for one of those live AAA stations, and remember the looks I got starting that in 2004. The price of a 2TB hard drive (or more) is much cheaper than CD players. It can be backed up off site, automatically. CD skips are a thing of the past and the ability to search for a song is faster.
If they want to occasionally play an album cut that isn't in the system, then use the CD. But if the decks only get used a few times a day instead of getting pounded on, they will last a lot longer.
What are they going to do when the record companies no longer send out new singles/albums as CD's but are all on PlayMPE or a similar download situation? Burn them to disc???
If they want to occasionally play an album cut that isn't in the system, then use the CD. But if the decks only get used a few times a day instead of getting pounded on, they will last a lot longer.
What are they going to do when the record companies no longer send out new singles/albums as CD's but are all on PlayMPE or a similar download situation? Burn them to disc???
I don't know if single-disc CD consumer CD players are even made anymore, but back in the '90s we used Technics SL-PG-100s and SL-PG-340s. There were three of them in the control room, but most of the jocks only used the top two. They were in absolute continuous 24/7 use for one year, usually without a single issue that wasn't disc related. They were also great at playing crappy, scratched discs!
I used to run the cleaning disc through them and blow out and dust them off every week when I was doing my Sunday morning shift.
I still have one of the 'retired' ones that works great for home use.
I used to run the cleaning disc through them and blow out and dust them off every week when I was doing my Sunday morning shift.
I still have one of the 'retired' ones that works great for home use.
WNTIRadio said:
Its AAA. They'll just stop playing recent records. ;D
Boy, does THIS sound familiar. 
We're going through the same nightmare.
The American Audio UCD-100 is working out well. I think. On rare occasions, it behaves erratically and starts skipping sections of audio.
A Tascam CD-200SB (balanced outs) is on the way. Will report.
If you need remote start from an older broadcast console and you have problems with erratic triggering due to the combined play/pause button, this circuit will fix it:
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=220228.msg2004129#msg2004129
I'm also looking into a dedicated computer for CD playback, hooked up to the "B" inputs on the CD player channels so the DJ's can use both. 3 CD drives, multi-channel soundcard. WinAmp may be able to support multiple instances with separate output assignments, but I have yet to try it.
And don't tell the poor guy to "go digital" ... it's not practical for all stations.
We're going through the same nightmare.The American Audio UCD-100 is working out well. I think. On rare occasions, it behaves erratically and starts skipping sections of audio.
A Tascam CD-200SB (balanced outs) is on the way. Will report.
If you need remote start from an older broadcast console and you have problems with erratic triggering due to the combined play/pause button, this circuit will fix it:
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=220228.msg2004129#msg2004129
I'm also looking into a dedicated computer for CD playback, hooked up to the "B" inputs on the CD player channels so the DJ's can use both. 3 CD drives, multi-channel soundcard. WinAmp may be able to support multiple instances with separate output assignments, but I have yet to try it.
And don't tell the poor guy to "go digital" ... it's not practical for all stations.
Wave Cart Lite, for $300. Computer with terrabyte drive. Good sound card.
Yes, I know the arguments--we have a 4,000,000 song library, etc. etc.
But even those "variety" "eclectic" stations still have a core library of maybe 600~1000 cuts. Or less. Which could be put on the computer, leaving the CD players available for the special cuts. And--side benefit--preserving many of the CD's from scratches. Soon it may be difficult to find the older CD's, and you don't want to rely on finding downloads that aren't poor quality MP3 copies.
Just requires the impossible--getting someone to CHANGE!
Yes, I know the arguments--we have a 4,000,000 song library, etc. etc.
But even those "variety" "eclectic" stations still have a core library of maybe 600~1000 cuts. Or less. Which could be put on the computer, leaving the CD players available for the special cuts. And--side benefit--preserving many of the CD's from scratches. Soon it may be difficult to find the older CD's, and you don't want to rely on finding downloads that aren't poor quality MP3 copies.
Just requires the impossible--getting someone to CHANGE!
WNTIRadio said:
I've brought these issues up to them and more. They are very resistant to putting any music on the hard drive. So I finally gave up. This was a battle I just didn't feel like engaging in.
1. Figure out which CD's are used a lot. Recruit someone to put on a hard drive "to preserve a back-up copy if this one gets scratched." Buy the Speedy CD ripper--will help by automatically (for most commercial CD's) loading in the "cart chunk" with title/artist.
2. When you have a bunch loaded, sneak the computer into the control room. Install a copy of Wave Cart on this computer. Then vanish some of the CD's you have loaded onto the hard drive.
When the staff asks "Where's the XXX CD? tell them "Oh, we've found a bunch that are damaged, we are getting new copies made--but here, you can play it off of this computer while we are doing that...
3. See how long it is before most of the music comes off the hard drive.
2. When you have a bunch loaded, sneak the computer into the control room. Install a copy of Wave Cart on this computer. Then vanish some of the CD's you have loaded onto the hard drive.
When the staff asks "Where's the XXX CD? tell them "Oh, we've found a bunch that are damaged, we are getting new copies made--but here, you can play it off of this computer while we are doing that...
3. See how long it is before most of the music comes off the hard drive.
KRBX a community station spent a lot of time (and still does) putting CDs & records into their automation.
Most of their hosts love it!
Most of their hosts love it!
I've been trying to move forward on getting at least some of our CD's in the DAD. But here's the rub: The station is classical. We have over 33,000 CD's in the library and at least 11,000 LP's. I figure we would need someone in almost a full-time capacity to start ripping these in. No, we don't play all of them...but there might be 10 classic recordings of the same symphony. So just one Beethoven symphony at 4 movements each requires 40 transfers. There are 9 Beethoven symphonies...the 9th we must have 50 recordings of. Then 41 Mozart Symphonies, 100 Plus Haydn symphonies.....piano concertos, sonatas...it appears overwhelming. My big problem is no one is willing to even discuss getting the ball rolling. Our old Sonys are getting tired....
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