The trusty CD 5 wouldn’t play a CD, and produced the Err display. Reasearch on the Naim web-site revealed that I have had it, and it’s attendant Flatcap 2 power supply since 2003. The site also revealed that Naim are reluctant to let anyone communicate with them by e-mail about such an ancient piece of kit. The menu’s don’t think the CD 5 exists.
A bit of experimentation reveled that some CD’s would play, and others wouldn’t. The mech sounded as though it couldn’t read the CD, as it made noises it didn’t previously make.
There is an annular magnet built into the centre of the boss on the top of the motor spindle, and the puck that sits on top, clamping the CD, sits on top of that magnet. I found part of the annular magnet still attached to the puck.
A call to Naim support revealed there are no replacement transports for the CD 5 that work. The very helpful support person at Naim actually went off to see if they had a supply of magnets in a drawer somewhere, and he said he would call me back. When he did, his search had been fruitless, but he scored a lot of points for even trying! I have no complaints as I have had 20 years of pleasure from my CD5, which is definitely more than my monies worth, so I began thinking about replacement. But it did seem strange that some of the CD’s still played, so there was clearly not a lot wrong. I wondered if it was simply that the CD wasn’t being held firmly enough.
I did a bit of measuring and then a bit of research via Google and I found a small magnet the dimensions of which were close to my measurements. I could have one of these magnets for £12-00, of which more than half was postage, so I ordered one. To my astonishment a package arrived the very next day containing 10 of the small magnets. I placed one onto the boss on the spindle, reasonably carefully, and it stuck to it through its own magnetic properties. It was never going to be a tight fit because I couldn’t find anything that wasn’t about half a millimetre smaller than the dimensions I wanted for the outside diameter and thickness, so I expected a bit of slop. Anyhow, it held itself in place on the spindle, though when I put the puck on and lifted it off again, the magnet was happier stuck to the puck than the spindle. I decided I would do the acid test and just try the one CD I know never reads when I put it on the mech. It played immediately. Astonished!
The little magnet is now fixed to the spindle with double-sided sticky tape, which adds about half a millimetre to the height of the magnet, and now the puck really is a clamp. It feels a stronger clamp than I remember it being, but that could be imagination. The double-sided sticky tape was the trickiest part of fitting the magnet as it was very sticky, which made it awkward to cut neatly, and that isn’t helped by the fact that whatever you are trying to cut it with is getting grabbed by the magnet too. It took me two or three attempts to find a way to get something that I felt willing to at least semi-permanently install, but now it is in place, my CD 5 has a new lease of life.