CD 3.5 repair

I’m wondering what the consensus is on having this CD 3.5 repaired is. Im located in San Diego California without a nearby Naim dealer though when i drove out to the Phoenix area I wrote to a Scottsdale dealer since as I understand a dealer is required to place a repair request. The dealer apparently wasn’t interested because they didn’t respond.
As a replacement, I’m using a Sony ES 707ESD and like it quite a lot.

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Do you know what repair is needed?

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Good question. How nice would it be if the collective knowledge of the forum gets the 3.5 alive!

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I was told by Focal/Naim Canada that my CD 3.5 couldn’t be repaired. However, from other threads on this forum it sounds like Naim can repair them so I wrote directly to Naim and this is their reply:

“We are unable to replace the full Mech however we can Rebuild or Update them.
However, this may not be possible at the Montreal service centre, I would advise contacting them again to arrange for this to be shipped back to us for the repair.”

I haven’t followed up yet.

No. I get “error” message. I took the cover off and see that the cd starts to spin then stops.

Naim CD Players can be downright ‘ornery’! I need to get my CDS II back to Naim HQ very soon while they have the bits.

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And the further question is at what cost can a repair be made? It’s easy to imagine a few hundred dollars in shipping alone.

Ive read that the laser unit goes out on these and a replacement isn’t available.

Have you tried replacing the puck? That’s the small magnetic clamp that holds the CD. A slipping CD can cause an “Err” message. A cheap DIY fix if you can get hold of one.

James at TomTom Audio in St Albans always keeps the full range of Naim pucks in stock.

Does this happen on every CD or just some?

The reason I ask is that we also have the very lovely CD3.5, which has started giving the dreaded “Err” on some - but not all - CDs.

One thing to try is using needle nose tweezers to tease out and rotate the little rubber rings in the puck.
I’ve found that this can work, and have got three or four spare pucks (my CDX uses the same mech).

Also what I read on the interweb, is that some CDs are apparently thinner than “red book standard” and that you can stick some sellotape around the hole, which “thickens” the contact area between CD & puck.

Yeah….so my initial thoughts were “load of b******s”; that is until I tried it. My wife’s CD3.5 is still in use!

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The puck seems to be fine as in being able to magnetically hold the cd in place. Is there some other diagnostic to it?

Does it make any noise, even briefly, when you press play? This could indicate slipping as the disc accelerates.

The puck has small rubber dimples underneath. They can become a bit compressed. Hard to see and it may seem like it grips when stationary.

Little balls of blu tack also work well if the Puck needs some help

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Not tried blu tak, but i found that sellotape worked on the half-dozen CDs that were giving problems.

I suppose that the 3.5 will eventually fail completely, and I will be forced to let her have my CDX!

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I’ll take a look at the puck with a pair of tweezers. Ive tried a few cd’s and no luck.

Thanks

The user manual, whilst unhelpfully silent on the ERR message, does give clear maintenance instructions for the clamp (puck).

Clean the clamp with Blu-tak and/or brush lightly with your finger or a soft cloth.

If you get an improvement then at least you know what the issue was. It could be temporary, in which case get a new clamp (Clamp 3, but you should check). I went through this process about 10 years ago and was lucky. I think it is a common issue, so worth trying.

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Here a description and picture of the masking tape solution I posted a while back:

Apart from once needing two layers of tape, I’ve never had this solution not work for any CDs which give the dreaded ERR on my CDX2.

Best of luck,

Mark

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I had assumed that the OP had the ERR message on all CDs and they had been fine previously.

Still, the suggestion for thickening thin CDs is worth a try.

Ditto, two different pucks couldn’t cope with some very thin disc centres.

May or may not be relevant and I know that we aren’t supposed to discuss DIY repairs, so I am risking a slapped risk here.
My CDI developed the dreaded ERR. On inspection I found that the transport mechanism mounting screws had worked loose. Quick tighten and problem solved.