Sony 775 problems?

Hi all,

I am noticing an annoying problem with my 775 reading redbook cd's. On some discs, the player will just sit there and try to read the TOC forever. These are not cd-r's, nor are they scratched or dirty. Some are brand new! On other discs I notice when I try to ff or rw in the track the display goes nuts and it can end up in another track! Some redbooks discs play fine!

I NEVER have this problem with SACDs, just redbook. Any suggestions?
The player is about 4 months old with light usage.


Thanks!

 

Warranty service

Sony usually has a one week turn around.

 

Thanks Gary. That is what I am thinking about. I am relieved to hear of the fast turnaround. I hope it will not be a problem to get a out of production model serviced!

 

Matt If you live in Maryland they probably have a local Sony center somewhere near you.

I dropped my unit off in Bristol, PA about 40 minutes from home.
They shipped it back fixed 5 days later in a double box.

 

Thanks Gary. I checked on their site and Bristol is the one I need to send it to. Fortunately that will take 1 day UPS ground.

Did you have a similar problem?

 

And it may also be a simple case of a dirty lens. Some discs may work okay, others may not; doesn't take much dust or dirt to mess things up.
Those CD disc lens cleaners with the brush glued on work just fine for me;
beyond that, you can open the player up and with a Q-tip and a small amount of alcohol or water, you can carefully clean it yourself. I do that first if something gets futzed, because while warranties are all fine and dandy, it takes a while sometimes to get your deck back.

ED

 

Although it's true, Gar, I haven't properly contributed to the Nauga fund(shame on me ), I will point out that, unlike Larry, I'm not hunting, caging, then using them in certain recipes. You could call me kind of a 'Naugatarian,' if you will

What you said also goes for VCR's: people think if suddenly there's no picture, all white noise, their deck is queered. Might be, but taking a long cotton swab, opening the insert flap(or, better yet, just take off the top)and giving the heads(three or four, usually)a good cleaning with alcohol(not too much, just a mild dab)usually eliminates the problem. So does not inserting tapes with mildew, dust, or mold on them--which happens often, unfortunately. And never let little kids near any equipment; recipe for serious trouble. It's not an urban legend that tykes have inserted peanut butter sandwiches, milk, cookies, etc., instead of a tape. Then Mom & Dad get another lesson--watch your kids, and go buy another machine. Not worth it even trying to clean yourself once that goes down, and repairmen are too expensive to justify the cost.

ED

 

FWIW, the only "problems" I've had with my 775 have been lack of response with some of the controls. For example, hitting Open/Close right after the unit has turned on doesn't do anything. I have to wait for the tray to go "ka-chunk" before the player will even respond to the open command. The display has to say "Disc #" instead of "Disc _", which is what it says when it first comes on. Contrast that to my old CE335 player, which will respond the second you turn it on. A "design flaw" I guess...

Also, sometimes if I pop a disc in, hit play right away and jog to a specific track (all as the tray is closing), the player will just revert to track 1 instead of playing the track I keyed in. Doesn't happen all the time, but again, it was never an issue with my old player.

 

Every time a company thinks they've built the better mousetrap, there will always be one little thing that'll bug you: what you describe, Luke, among other little anomalies very good(if not reference)machines tend to have. To keep the prices down, compromises are made, among them lightweight parts that may be sturdy but lacking the durability you'd get in a much more expensive machine. A guy who runs a local audio shop once told me the main difference between good and great, in a general sense: durability--that is, low maintainence--and weight, believe it or not. I thought he was kidding, but as he pointed out various players, receivers, amps, pre-amps, he was right: the higher in price you go, not only do the movable parts move smoother; everything inside is heavier, tougher, on purpose. A 'lightweight' anything doesn't always mean better(or necessarily worse), but some of the nicest sounding speakers I ever heard were not only large, a guy of average weight would be hard pressed to handle one on his own without risk of breaking his back or dropping the beast and doing who knows what damage....also true of amps: years ago, this dealer had a real heavy, bitchin' tube amp(wish I could remember the make and model)that I dubbed 'Yankee Stadium'(made him laugh; I was awestruck)because it not only had serious juice but the smoothest sound I've ever heard. Wish I could remember the wattage, but safe to say, very serious, and if you even put it at what most folks would consider 'low' volume, if you used it in most apartment buildings that eviction notice wouldn't be long in coming....gold plated, the volume knob was the size of a baseball(no kidding). To this day, my eyes glaze over just thinking about that mother...

Forgive that little digression. I now remember why I avoid most hardware threads: I could ramble on and on and on....


ED

 

Matt,

I have the Flagship SACD XA777ES. The player began to experience disc reading and tracking problems after about 9 months.

The problem turned out to be the transport mechanism. The player is very well built and I really like the sound. Apparently many units from the first production run had this problem.

Prior to the XA777ES I owned the former model SCD-777ES two channel
SACD player. A bit heavier constrution but not nearly as musical.

Many folks experience problems with the transports on both SCD-777 and its more expensive cousin the SCD-1.

All I can say is thank goodness for five year warranties.

 

Transport mechanism, eh? Hope that's not the case, but if so, as you said, Gary, thank goodness for 5-year warranties. Indeed. Transport trouble is also a leading killer of laserdisc units, and an expensive problem to fix. When my first Pioneer LD unit died, the guy who did the diagnostic pretty much said it all: not worth your trouble fixing, and less expensive units are just as good if not better than what you had. I took his advice and bought another one, which I rarely use now but am glad to have around(weighs a ton, but then I'm not gonna move it anytime soon).

You know an interesting irony here? When a company manufactures a new model, they do extensive testing on random samples to make certain the beasts operate not only correctly, but as listed in the accompanying operator's manual, and that the specs of the unit match what the manual may claim. They know audio mags that receive samples are going to really do a number on playback and analysis, so those units get primo testing and treatment. But the model you buy? Well...probably not, so when a glitch that is either unique to your unit or a bigger problem in the production line, guess who gets to drag it back and wait for repairs? Yup, you see that cat in the mirror every morning. That's why Consumer Reports serves one good function: everything tested is bought by members off the rack, so the manufacturer can't slip a 100% guaranteed working unit in to make a player that may have operating trouble seem perfect. I'm not knocking the companies for not testing every unit--that would be freakin' impossible, obviously--but you'd think enough units would get the drill so that if there were an inherent operating flaw, it would get caught in their testing phase, not when you've paid the freight and expect the thing to work right, which is only reasonable!

Unfortunately, while CR uses the right approach, they tend to test only modest(or low-priced)hardware, not always the better stuff. And they rarely catch the nuances and ergonomic aspects the audiophile mags take as a given. Pity.

ED

 

Hi Ed!

The transport problem in the SCD-777ES and SCD-1's would occur after
about 24 months.

In the predecessor unit which is my XA777ES the problem appeared after about a year.

The earlier two units required an enormous amount of break-in. Almost
3 months of constant playing time and even then many folks would let the machine run for a half hour prior to listening.

The newer Flagship model required several months of break-in as well,
but doesn't require the warm up period before playing a disc in order
to sound sweet.

The main complaint from Sony owners of SACD players is the unusual
amount of break-in required.

I'm sure that some of this type of initial excessive usage does harm the
transport as well as other electronics.

Not to make excuses for poor quality control but, Sony has to pay someone
to fix all the many in warranty repairs.

Since most of Sony's transport problems have been related to optic drive
failures, their Design Engineers ought to start taking a close look at the
impact to Sony's bottom line.

All in All I still have a lot of confidence in Sony. They serviced my unit very
quickly.

 

These are also the only annoying issues I've experienced with the 775. I find the first one especially annoying ... but I like just about everything else about the player's performance so much that I'm inclined to overlook any such quirks.

My experience with Sony warranty repairs has also been positive ... not with my SACD player, but with my car CD changer. I believe I had it back in less than a week in tip-top working condition.

 

I kind of wonder why Sony didn't copy the transport of the XA-20 ES? It's built like a rock! Never had a problem with mine ever. The laser is actually part of the transport drawer. Great design!

 

Hi Gary!

Hope I didn't make it sound like I was indicting Sony exclusively--RCA's televisions are notorious for bad repair histories as well. What confounds me is that so many Sony units--and not just SACD players--have had so much go wrong with them, so consistently. There will always be a dud unit here or there regardless of the product--nobody's perfect--but, geez, this Sony thing is amazing. Dave makes a very good point about the XA-
20ES: one of their few players that apparently was built well and doesn't cause its owners serious grief. Why they didn't keep that transport design can only be chalked up to cost, but it seems to me keeping something that worked well would have been better than this endless cycle of repairs. I've had my two decks for two years now, and neither has given me any trouble: both work like a charm(fingers crossed as I type this ).
It also troubles me a bit with the little ergonomic hassles that have been posted here; again, things that should have been fixed in the design and manufacturing pipeline before the models were unleashed to the public.
But at least they're honoring the warranties with prompt service, which is the very least they should do.

ED

 

I agree with you, but that's a "flaw" with *all* Sony CD players - home models, portables, car players, etc... Not something I really like, but...

There's something else that bugs me with the 775, which David Goodwin reminded me of - the seek controls are *really* slow. I could scan through a song 2 or 3 times faster with my old Sony player than with this one. Really stinks when you want to advance to a specific spot in a track.

 

I hate that as well. They say to pause and then seek for faster seeking, which still sucks!

 

I bought a used Simon and Garfunkel ('Bookends', redbook remaster) recently and my 775 was having problems with it. The disc is in near mint shape and played fine in my other 2 players. It will play straight through with the 775, but I can't skip forwards/backwards to another track as it will start going whacky. Haven't had this prob with any other disc. Not a real biggie, but rather puzzling.

 

That is somewhat similar to the problems I am having. However, there are MANY Redbook discs that do this for me! Steve's Aqualung is one of them!

 

I've owned my share of Sony optical players in my lifetime that have had "read" problem to varying degrees. Which is the reason I hesitate to buy Sony ANYTHING. I think they invented the concept of planned obsolescence. Let's see--three Discman players (all dead), two home units (one still works), three boom boxes (one still works), three in-dashes (one long gone, one retired, and one barely worked two years ago when I quit using it), one Laserdisc (nearly-dead useless P.O.S. doorstop), and for that matter, neither of my Minidisc players are all that reliable either. The couple of electronic components I own are still working fine, though.

Out-of-warranty repair was expensive, but thorough. Last time I went to a service center several years ago, $89 to repair a Discman, flat fee. I could go up to their outlet store and buy THREE new players for that price, and have two bucks left over for a hot pretzel and pop. In-dash repair was something like $99 or $129. (Although, ironically, it was my second in-dash, the CDX-R88 that took almost 10 years of daily punishment in all extremes of weather, and I finally retired it due to a weak laser in 1997.)

Flat-fee is both good and bad. (This is based on what I found out well over five years ago when I chatted with the manager of our Novi, MI repair center.) Bad: it's darned expensive. Good: regardless of what's wrong, they take the age of the player into consideration. If it's three years old, they would replace the laser automatically. Anything else wrong? Replaced. Except for my laserdisc player (which never would last more than 6 months without crappin' out), the couple other components I had fixed came back 100% functional.

I have a rear-projection set, circa 1997, that has a bad green tube in it. (It's gassy...takes after its owner.) This was a 36" KPR36XBR, which for its day, had a very bright, sharp image. I'm tempted to find out the flat rate fee and lug it in myself. One repair shop said it cost $699 (twice what they usually cost) in parts alone to replace one tube in that set, due to it using much-smaller-than-standard tubes. If the flat fee were a couple hundred bucks and the tubes were covered....sweeeeet. I know I'd have to pay for a new screen, though...after a couple of moves and lots of kids' fingerprints, and who knows what else, it's shot. Or I just "part it out" on eBay and put the $$$ toward a high-def set. THe last tech to come to the house to work on it (to replace the exact same coil and capacitor that had quit two times previously) told me to scout the neighborhoods on garbage night and look for anyone throwing out a similar set...for parts.

 

Re: Re: Sony 775 problems?

Interesting. I've had (either my own or my parents') 3 Sony home CD players, 1 Sony boom box, 1 Sony VCR, 2 Sony TVs, a Sony receiver, a Sony tape deck, a handful of Sony Discmen, 2 Sony car decks, and a Sony MiniDisc recorder (and probably more stuff I can't think of), and I think the biggest problem I've had is the TV from 1983 has a greenish cast to it. I guess some people just have better luck than others.

Are you sure you aren't buying *Sorny* components, ala Homer Simpson?