Cambridge Audio CD10 and CD gaps

Hi all - first post in this part of the forums *wave*

I just bought one of the CD players listed in the title and it is inserting a short gap between tracks on CDs even when they are meant to be continuous (as between the first two tracks on Sgt. Peppers). I love the sound (and the price) of the player but this is really annoying me. I never imagined a player would do this, but a quick search of the web has a few folks on Amazon confirming this and that at the time the manufacturer basically said 'tough luck - it's a feature'.

I'm wondering if it is possible to update the firmware to stop this or am I just stuck with it (or maybe need to swap it at the store for a different brand)?

This is the first time I have bought a standalone player in years and is a major disappointment as I am on a limited budget and it took ages for me to save for it; is there anything else I should look out for if I do replace it?

Of course, I had to break my rule about buying late Saturday when the store won't be open again until Monday

 

Ugly problem, dude.
Are the Amazon folks talking about the same player you bought?
I would be taking it back

 

yes - same model as mine - sigh!

 

Horrible. Yeah, take it back. Unacceptable, especially if you love Progressive Rock and Classical music

 

Cheers. I'm leaning this way, though I got $600 off the price (verified off the net) - maybe the store owner knew about it. I don't think the salesperson did as I was listening to Dark Side of the Moon as a test and would have noticed if I had stayed for one more track (they gave me all the time I wanted and I listened to lots of styles of music on a variety of speakers). I may not be able to get a system that sounds as good if I replace it. But I DO listen to classical and progressive rock among others.

 

Track gaps? On a high-end CD player?! (Actually, on any CD player?!) WTF!

 

Indeed - just got an email from tech support and they claim this is a result of the way the player handles .mp3 CDs. Kind of ruined the start to the year after I had saved forever to 'upgrade' my system and I had heard such good things about this manufacturer. I just hope the dealer comes to the party.

 

That's effing insane. It should be simple to build the damn thing to have a buffer so that consecutive tracks play without a gap.

That's downright embarrassing for Cambridge.

 

what? So "that's the way..."?

I have this Creative Zen Touch player. Dark Side of The Moon is also in it and plays without gaps. It's rather sad that Cambridge puts out on the market a great sounding machine, yet unable to play a disc all the way through

 

Unless you dispose of the machine, the only way round it would be to re-rip your mp3 CDs and use something like Nero Wave Editor to combine the relevant tracks into one track. I had to do this when making CD-R compilations.

 

I have a Cambridge player that cuts off the first second of the beginning of every CD. wtf?

 

I agree - I'm going to and fro with support now trying to escalate. They should recall them and replace them with something that works - it is just plain faulty.

 

They have really lost me with this thing - sorry to hear you are having issues as well.

 

Thanks - I'll do that as a last resort if I can't get a refund.

 

Go DENON is my two quids worth. I have the DCD-700AE and for an entry level machine it is extraordinary in its replay of fine detail and soundstage spacing and blah blah blah......probably long superseded but look into the brand. Occasionally, like most manufacturers, they produce turkeys for the unaware "lower" end of the market, but I read such good stuff about this (my) model that I chose to go with it and haven't had a single problem for over 6 years.

 

Thanks. I TRIED listening to The Beatles Love just now and it was impossible - I'm off to the dealer in the morning. Hopefully to swap for something, even if I have to pay a bit more - or a refund and looking elsewhere if they have nothing I like. They DO have a Denon DBT-1713 for a couple hundred more which will play SACD (my crud Cambridge Audio player doesn't).

 

I just wanted to wrap-up this thread.

Firstly, thanks for all the great replies and advice. I am 'between jobs' (aka unemployed) at the moment and while my budget was not much in audiophile terms it was a major purchase for me (I have been saving pennies for around 3 years). My wife is still not talking to me after I went over budget (I have mixed feelings on that part ).

The upshot is that I took it back to the store this morning, had an argument with the owner's wife about whether this was a flaw or a 'feature' that goes with it being a low-end piece of equipment, and eventually swapped it when one of the sales staff stepped in and said he was stunned it handled CDs so poorly. I now have a Harman Kardon HD 980 which I bought as it is a bit old and I got a good discount from age and it being display stock (I got $160 off the price). I have been throwing every CD in the house at it and it is playing them all with grace and precision - even my wife mumbled something about 'great sound'.

 

Mumbling Wife Syndrome.....still, gotta start somewhere LOL. Harmon Kardon eh, good work.

 

Glad you got it sorted, T; when I bought a Marantz CD52SE, it did the very same thing with tracks that ran into each other BUT...............only when I programmed them.

 

Just to clarify...this was happening with regular CDs and not just mp3 CDs?

 

Yes. Stuff like the Beatles Love - retail copy. It has 26 tracks which are meant to run into one another but on this steaming pile of %$% it has a gap between each which is really noticeable - sounds like someone has taken an LP and made it skip. The new one is flawless with the same CD.

 

Cheers. Did you replace it or just stop programming those particular discs?

 

good news. Does the Harman Kardon HD 980 decode HDCDs too?

 

No - it is a pretty basic player - so no HDCD or SACD support - though I only have around 4-6 of those so it was not on my list of required features. I plan on an upgrade in a couple of years (my speakers will support a better amp down the track) so will look for those then. Thanks again for the support in this post, the whole thing was a touch stressful and folks here really helped me get it sorted.

 

I only had it for two or three months before I got a Sony one to replace it. Remember the Sony machine that had a spindle in the drawer instead of a tray?, I got one of those for £180 instead of £300. Very good it was, too.