Hi folks - I’m wondering if anyone has experienced issues with a CD5si?
It’s a new unit - only a couple of months old - and I’m finding that it’s regularly skipping on CDs… but not all CDs.
Disks that are in perfect condition (and occasionally imperfect condition) play just fine. However, the CD5si seems to be othered by some disks with very slight scratches (the result of either my younger carefree years, or being second hand disks) and occasionally by disks that appear perfect.
I’ve never had a CD player that has been so bothered by minor superficial blemishes on disks and it’s impacting my enjoyment of the medium.
Has anyone else had this experience? Is this because the CD5si is a flighty thoroughbred or should it be more robust? Could this be a pick issue or some failure with the machine’s error correction?
First, consider contact your retailer as mentioned.
Second, i had difficulties with some CD’s as well with my CD5i, send it back two times where i bough it but it didn’t help much.
Now i “fixed” some CD’s by using…cellotape (…very highend isn’t it). I put some cellotape around the CD’s centerhole in a way, that the puck is getting a little higher. By doing that the most skipping issues are gone…
But!
This really shouldn’t be necessary…you should expect not to have to do this kind of fumbling when you buy a Naim CD player, right dear Naim?
I have the same player plus other players…if anything the 5si tracks the best, do you have another player to try them on or better yet go to your local audio store and see if they skip on other machines.
We had the same issue with a cd3.5 when it was new. Naim (through the dealer, of course - Innovative Audio in NYC) replaced the transport under warranty. It’s been perfect ever since - going on 24 (?) years.
The tape fix mentioned by @traveler above can work if the problem is a worn (or slightly damaged?) clamp, but that shouldn’t be the case with a relatively new unit.
…plus, when the tape method is needed, the symptom is that the player can’t even read the TOC, but this is not the case here - it’s skipping whilst already playing the disc.
Many thanks everyone for your thoughts. It’s pretty clear that the player shouldn’t be skipping like this on slightly flawed disks, so I’ve been in touch with my retailer and they’ve contacted Naim with my problem and they’ll advise.
I’ve tested the same disks on an old NAD player and in my car, and they’re fine, so something is definitely up with the CD5si. But gotta add, it sounds fabulous and other than this issue I love it.
My retailer suggested that I bring the CD5si into the shop to compare with another unit to see if they both have the skipping issue. However I decided to hold off because I’ve been fretting over the skipping CDs and tried cleaning them in a variety of ways to see if that would help the problem.
Here’s what I’ve learned:
Windex and detergent have a marginal effect on cleaning disks and they still skipped after cleaning with those fluids – I’d recommend avoiding. I’m sure plenty of you would agree, but there seems to be a diversity of views in internet-land, so I gave it a shot. However: nope.
Water and a microfibre cloth to clean, then dry with a microfiber cloth (gently, of course) is generally sufficient to clean most CDs and address most skipping.
Isopropyl alcohol wipes (like clearwipe glasses cleaners) is very effective, if water and microfibre isn’t effective.
A CD repair polymer (e.g. Moki brand) as a last resort can help.
For example, I cleaned my Radiohead – OK Computer (much loved, much abused) with just water and microfibre, and it cleaned up most skips. Then I cleaned it with an alcohol-based glasses lens wipe, and the skipping tracks have resolved (plus, I may be imagining it, but the music appears to have more clarity, precision, separation, and air after having been cleaned with the alcohol wipes).
I’ll continue to monitor, but I’ll see if a thorough cleaning regime fixes this problem.
For a laugh I gave the toothpaste method a go on an old CD.
In short: no
In long: nooooooo
I found that the toothpaste polished the CD to a dull matte and it became unplayable. Toothpaste is micro-abrasive and so it scours the delicate surface of the CD. Unless you have a way to subsequently buff the CD, I wouldn’t recommend this approach to my esteemed fellow listeners.
Keeping disks clean by avoiding fingerprints and scratches in the first place, or using delicate methods like water or isopropyl alcohol seem to be the best home remedies in my experience.
I found washing-up liquid and running water was a good start for cleaning CDs and reduced skips a bit.
I found Russ Andrews Reveel wipes to be rather better than the above at reducing skips: on DVDs, they often made the unplayable playable; on skippy CDs, they tended to reduce but not totally cure the skippiness.
Irritatingly, the only sure-fire solution I’ve found is to buy a new CD or play them on a less fussy CD player than my Naim. I suppose I should be happy that it’s so fussy - it suggests more information is being extracted reliably from the disc than on other machines.
I also use the Pec Pads, these are really good and ensure nothing is left on the disc. I would also recommend using a spray designed for CD cleaning, I have used camera lens spray worked very well. More recently I have gone with a spray which reportedly improves laser reading produced by Zanden Optical Disc Cleaner, to my ears really improves matters, could be snake oil but I guess I am at that stage where there is no hope! Experienced issues when I owned a CD5 with certain discs, this seemed to be related to the thickness of the CD, I believe this was a puck issues, advice from Naim was to not leave the puck in the player when not is use as this depresses the rubber bits underneath.
I had a CD5si that started skipping on a lot of CDs and even stopped playing them in mid disc. It went back via the dealer for service/repair. It was actually that problem that lead me to a streamer upgrade and ultimately to trade the CD player in.
If due to damage on a disk, visible to the naked eye or not, the skipping should happen at the same point mosr if not every play. If skipping is random then it is not due to disk damage/imperfection.
I have experienced problems just like the OP’s with two different players. Both starting after about 10 years (with a lot of use), due to mechanism wear. This of course shouldn’t be the case with a new player: sounds like the mech is damaged or misaligned, so return it to the dealer.
