Cyrus "SE" CD player troubles.

We've already touched on this subject elsewhere, as you can read here and here.

If the above is true and not just coincidence at least it takes the debate forward. Good detective work.

Hello Andy

Thanks for pointing me to the info.

However, these are two entirely separate issues.
The issue I describe in my opening post is to do with the physical size of the CD, and nothing whatsoever to do with the condition of its playing surface or whether or not it conforms to red-book standards.

The replacement 8se I have suffers from BOTH issues!

To repeat myself somewhat, and to explain these two issues.
If a disc is over-sized (more than 120mm) the disc is not able to be mechanically loaded onto the hub and so the player can not even get as far as reading the discs TOC. It's very easy to hear the difference in sound that the transport mechanism produces when loading a disc that is over-sized, as opposed to a disc that is "normal", ie, less than 120mm. Also, the display makes it clear that the disc has not got as far as being loaded onto the hub, it remaining on "Load" and NOT displaying "Reading...".

Now the second issue;
A disc of normal size is able to be loaded onto the hub correctly as the transport displays "Reading...", The display remains with "Reading..." for a few seconds and then the transport will eject the disc with "Disc error" on the display.

As I say, the 8se I now have will give BOTH conditions described above. It's not possible to load a single CD!

To anyone who says that their "SE" model is functioning fine, I believe it is only a matter of time before you try to load a disc that is over-sized and it will not load.

I returned my first unit with some sample CD's that I knew to be over-sized for Cyrus to experiment with.

I must say that I'm rather worried for Cyrus, I think they may find themselves in deep doodoo.

It is dissapointing to read of Cyrus having these 'teething problems' with it's new range of SE products, despite these being launched so late after much hype. The company continues to live in denial, stating quite the contrary to these 'loading issues'.

I have had the same problems with my previous CD8x and to see that this problem is still very much an issue with the SE range is disgraceful, to say the least - while they have done an admirable job with the SE platform resulting in two fantastic products, these are marred by such trivialities, still.

Quenzer:

The issue I describe in my opening post is to do with the physical size of the CD, and nothing whatsoever to do with the condition of its playing surface or whether or not it conforms to red-book standards.

Surely if the disc is significantly larger or smaller than 12cm - and on your figures we're talking around 0.5% either way - then it doesn't conform to Red Book.

Just a quick update on my CD8SE, having had it for a week and a half now.

I've played upwards of two dozen CDs (wish it was more, but work is preventing that) dating from 1991 to 2008 and have had the 'Disk Error' message once. I took the offending CD out and found a hair stuck to the playing surface - removed that and then no problem.

In light of the above posts I'll try a CD this evening which is just over 80 minutes long (certainly not Red Book on playing time!) - any problems will report.

Hello Andrew

What figures for tolerance does the Red Book specify for outer diameter?

I was trying to find a copy of the Red Book spec to find out. Will do some digging, but half a mill either way does seem quite a lot.

Edit: the DVD spec gives 120mm (ie 12cm) +/-0.3mm. I would expect the specification for CD to be the same, given that they are the same size, and will often be played in the same mechanisms.

Hello Andrew

Yes I agree that +0.4 and -0.6 are surprisingly large amounts.

As you say, the DVD spec of +/-0.3 is likely to be the same for Red Book CD.
I estimate that 1 in 10 of my CD's are 120.2mm (within spec) and will not load in the 8se.

Of course, an out of tolerance centre hole could also cause problems: the spec there, again for DVD, is 15mm +0.15mm/-0.00mm

Hello Andrew

My initial theory on this problem was centred (ahem) on the central hole.
After measuring many CD's I can say that the centre hole is highly accurate and didn't vary from 15mm. Of course it may be possible for a CD to be manufactured with the hole slightly off centre aswell.

how does the se model sound now that it has some time on it

Mike_Schmidt:

how does the se model sound now that it has some time on it

Wonderful. We've kept it in action and are comparing it against every player that comes in.... 

my cd6se has read discs so far without any problems and i've had it for a month now so probably tried about 60-70 discs already (including home burned cd's). only time i get a problem is if i press play too quickly after inserting disc (i get a 'disc error' message) but this can be remedied by ejecting and reinserting disc. i've not heard any problems reported with the cd6se so far, only the cd8se. i wonder why that is?

Clare Newsome:

Wonderful. We've kept it in action and are comparing it against every player that comes in.... 

Why not try a head-to-head review with an old Cyrus CD player, such as the DAD3Q.  Would be interesting to see how the sound style and quality has changed/improved over the years.  I think this would be a really interesting test.

It would also be interesting to see how it compares to an older player when used with an offboard DAC, like the DAC XP.