The CD Changer That Doesn’t Love You Back! 

Since the laser is upside-down, almost all of these units have a problem with the laser lens detaching when they get older. If the lens is still inside the case, it can be re-attached. There are instructional videos about this. I've also heard there's a fairly simple laser adjustment to allow the unit to read cd-r/rw.

A Sony 5 disc changer is the way to go. Mine has been going for 30 years.

Ok. Pioneer sold these for years and they were extremely reliable. I sold them back in the 80s and every one of my customers were very satisfied. Enough to buy the car stereo version and get tied into the ecosystem. Some things to know. The idea with these was to purchase caddies, put your discs in them, label the caddies, and leave your discs in the caddies. You can play only one disc if you choose, these were one of the first changers with shuffle play across all six discs. In order to “put a CD on and listen to it” as you said, Pioneer sold a single disc tray. I have one and it works great for that. I also have. a 24x Pioneer 6 disc CD-ROM charger hooked to my Power Mac G3, via SCSI. Also works great. I’m looking for the multi disk caddy which can play standard size and 3 inch CDs While the car changers are made to be mobile, the home players were not designed to be moved with the caddies in them. If you intend to move your player, eject the caddy. Yours is old, well used and pooped out. My player can play CD-Rs that were made in my dedicated Sony CD music recorder The main thing I bought mine for was to play a 20 disc collection of old radio shows. I have 4 caddies and just leave the discs in them. Again works great.

Aren’t that the Pioneer CD Changers where the lens get detached over time? Chances are you can find the lens of the laser assembly inside. You could put it back in again and it might work.

I had CD changers by Pioneer that worked fine. You could do shuffle play across the 6 discs, or one disc at a time. These magazines were mainly made for car CD players, that you could take into a home player. I never had trouble with them. There were also magazines made to hold the small CD singles. I think Pioneer was the main maker of these magazine style CD jukeboxes. Sorry this one didn't work for you. Great video though!

I own 2 Pioneer 6 CD Magazine Changers one is a PD-M430 from 1990 and the other is a PD-m501 from 1992 both of them still running strong.

LIKE 18. Yes, Record-ology, you pronounced CICADA properly the first time (SI-KAY-DUH). You know it's hot and humid when you hear cicadas and we've been hearing a lot of them here in Canada too as we do every hot, hazy summer. In fact, I rescued a cicada that was drowning in my parents' pool while it continued to hiss and buzz at me from the net. He got to live and be irritating for another day. Haha! :)

I was super happy when i found a 400 disc CD Jukebox by Sony (SONY CDP-M400CS)!!! Got it off ebay for a decent price (for a jukebox that is). Thing works like a champ....got all my CDs in it!!! Still loving your work...keep it up!!

Yeah, there's usually a reason why people get rid of units like this. Best to test'em out in the store , if possible. Still neat to see the inner workings of this unit. Better luck to you on your next CD changer/player. 😎👍

Interesting design would've been neat in it's day, personally I've always steered clear of CD changers just on the old adage the less moving parts the better in terms of durability but I enjoy looking at the design.

You know, you can buy multiple "cassettes" for this changer, right? That way you don't need to fiddle with loading and unloading each individual tray every time you want to listen to a different cd than what you currently have. Pop that cassette out, pop another one in. I have a very similar model to that one and it's still working fine. (Crossing my fingers, LOL!)

I trust that you tried the unit when there wasn't a camera pointing into/at it? That noise sounds like some electrical interference being transmitted into the internal wiring....... And move it away from any power outlets too! ;-) Those long ribbon cables coming from the CD player transport to the main circuit board aren't shielded in any way... Otherwise yeah, sadly, scrap it, unless you can find a bad ground connection on the main board... shame, 'cause it'd be a decent player otherwise......

We used to have about 20 of those same CD changers at a radio station I used to work at back in the late 90's.

In the early 90's I had a Pioneer with the 6 disc cartridge. That had all sorts of problems like you're seeing. I then bought a JVC, 6 + 1 cd changer. It had a cartridge plus a single drawer. That had the same problems as the Pioneer. I ended up with a 5 disc JVC carousel changer that allowed you to change 4 of the discs while one was playing. I bought it in 1994 and still use it to this day.

Watching this a year later. Still got my trusty ol' Denon DCM-380 5-disc carousel changer and still works just as good as the day I bought it. To bad that Pioneer magazine-fed CD changer here in this video does not have a digital out. Would've been interesting to hook it up to an external DAC and see if that buzzing sound goes away. Wonder if the DAC in that player did indeed go bad. Also, that laser is so low power in those players, plus it is an infrared laser, that it is highly unlikely anybody is going to burn their eyes out from any errant reflection. You would have to practically put your eye right up against the laser read head to risk any real injury.

When pioneer first put out the 100 +1 cd changer around 95 or 96 I picked one up. Still going strong though the display is almost out. You and your channel inspire me to tear into it to see if there is anything I can do like check the capacitors and stuff.

I have this same model that I bought back in brand new in 1994 I believe. Still works great and I somehow kept the remote all these years. The only issue is that the slightest bump will skip the CD, but it's not really a problem where I have it in my media cabinet. One item I want to clear up is that it will indeed play CD-Rs, at least my unit does. I think the sound quality really holds up, but I've never had the opportunity to listen to a high end CD player with a high end DAC. EDIT - I must have jinxed myself because after playing two CDs from start to finish it quit working. Wondering if it go too hot, but it wasn't too hot to the touch.

I found a hitachi branded double-decker one of these in a pile of free junk that was donated to me last year. You could load it up with not one but two of those cassettes. It worked fine but I ended up scrapping it and robbing it's belts because it had stripped knobs and the screen had stuck segments in the vfd.

PulseFlow DAC is flowingly pulsing that sound along with RPM of the disc motor since it slows down as you progress to next track. I believe there's a chance to fix it. It's like some signal from the laser pickup that moves the lens up/down/left/right (tracking the warped disc or off-center data print) is going where it should not. But I'm no expert :( But that is the most futuristic looking loading mech I have ever seen. Same goes for your BT Speaker ;) Amazing video!

I had the pioneer 24+1 cd changer and it was great and the display was so coollll

It sucks when items dont work ( i have a garage with lots of items awaiting repair or service as i lack the confidence to tackle them myself- i even worry about changing the foam pads on 8-tracks- silly me. Keep up the interesting videos.

I have one of these player and it acctually works no problems at all :)

The only problem I've ever had with these is the laser lenses falling off. Never had any other mechanical problem.

Do you like Benny Goodman on record Im just listening to his music and I love it ☺️

Those 2 potentiometers on the board need to be adjusted. I dont recall which is which but one is for laser alignment the other one is for laser intensity. Your alignment is off. Thats why it has a hard time reading the disc and it sounds like that when you play it. Take picture of where they are the pots. And move them a little. EVER so little. If its skipping then move the one for intensity. If it wont read a disc than you might have lost your laser lense. But yours tries to play. So move the pots.

When CDs first came out I had a magazine system like that I don't remember if it was pioneer it might have been anyway check your CDs and make sure they're not scratched because that's what happened to mine it used to scratch up the CDs big time just letting you know I stopped this thing where I'm watching now where you have it apart so I don't know what you're going to find it's going to be a surprise to me but I just had to put that in see if I'm right and see if you noticed that I hope it didn't ruin your good CDs.

My wife bought this exact model and I practically had to destroy the machine to get the cd cartridge out. Needless to say the machine is destroyed and I still can't get the cartridge out.

Sounds like a bad cap, when the audio is muted it's quiet, as soon as audio is available and it un-mutes, you hear the ripple on the signal. Scope it. Also the orange, they used to attract dust and smoke and go cloudy, a clean often fixes that. These were never my favourite machines, I used to repair them in the 90's x

kenwood made one with a single tray & a 6 disc magazine. i had a rotary sony 5 disc player. and i have a yamaha 5 disc that plays mp3 cd's and usb drives.

I have a Sony Magazine type CD changer sort of like the Pioneer.The magazine on mine can hold 10 discs.You can program the machine to play selected discs and individual songs on each disc.Haven't used the machine in years-still packed from many moves.Don't know if it still works.Worked really well when I did play the machine.Take the Pioneer machine back to the thrift store and look for another CD changer machine.HMMM-probqably should have kept the one you had!

OMG I literally got one last week with 1 magazine and then found another one in a skip ! Trying to now make one out of 2 but still having technical issues with skipping and alignment I love your Channel BTW you might remember me from another comment I'm in the UK and I feel like we have so much in common I'm bidding on a 200 disc changer (OH DEAR) !!! when will the madness end I have way to much stuff here in my attic ! Yet I still go din diving and looking in skips saving everything retro Even found a Nakamichi Deck in a rubbish dump here I'm wondering If you might be able to assist me on my pioneer changer ? Love the videos and I love the US Wish i was over their :) Daniel

I remember having one of these players many years ago. It uses the multi disc CD cartridger cartridges found in many early car multi disc cd players. Usually installed in the trunk/boot of the car with a long cable running to the front head unit. Home players are more suited to the carousel type cd players which are more convenient. I am currently using an Onkyo CX-C390 6 disc player which I've owned since late 2010 and its never had a problem. Home CD players were a mixed bag when it came to playing recorded CDR Audio. Had a Marantz changer and it just wouldn't play them. Thakfully the Onkyo is certified to play CDR and MP3.

I got this one in my set up it works perfectly to this day I found it at a thrift store for a couple bucks

I actually own 2 or 3 cd players identical to that as well as another similar but slightly more high end model and they all play perfect so I'm surprised yours has issues. I guess it's all in how they're cared for and the environments they're kept in.

that was a very good cd changer from the 70s and 80s. like all machines they do wear out and stop working at some time so it was not a cheap chinese made device like todays cd changers would be. in a day in age with mp3 and online streaming cds are goin the way of the recods. the display looks ok to me it may be the viewfinder or editing software. only cd players from the 90s will be able to play cdr media unless you get a audio cdrw machine.

The hum is probably something simple in the electronics -- resister or capacitor. Finding a repair for it would be the bigger challenge.

I’ve got the SONY CD Jukebox 400 x 2 that have been modded a touch🤣🤣

I always had trouble with the magazine cd ch changers,the magazines scratch my discs.

This was a educational show I always wanted to see how this type of CD player worked ,its a shame it did not work was hoping you could find out what was causing noise when it was opened but alas you could not hoping you can get a refund I have a sony carrossel 5 disc player it is big like you said but I got it cheap on ebay and it came with a cassette deck given to me for free by seller and it worked just needed cleaning up , I kind of like the sony I have all I had to do was get a remote cause it has an adjustable level which was set too high whenever it was turned on causing cd's to sound distorted but other than that it is running fine ,hoping you find another cd player real soon good luck!!!!!! JRo

The buzzing sounded like interference, perhaps from a fridge, lighting or maybe even from your wi-fi! I'd guess it might work better in another room,, although I'd assume there may be other problems too. Maybe a lens cleaner could help a little? Not sure though. A shame it has these issues; some of the lubricant might have dried up a bit also,, hence the stuck disc? Just some thoughts.

This looks retro in a way, and it’s a Pioneer. If this is a 1980’s, or a 1990’s model, maybe 🤔 you’ll learn to like 👍 it anyway. Your friend, Jeff.

oh well, i would expect better from pioneer even when it's old, i guess this unit won't be coming out of retirement any time soon. was interesting to have a look at the inside workings of this unit though, seems pretty well designed. hopefully you will come across something workable soon. i have a fairly old sony 5 cd changer that is still in use for now, thanks for sharing once again, take care

Not 3 minutes in, let me guess it dropped it's upside-down bass-ackwards laser lens? I had a similar unit a few years ago but the lens was MIA so couldn't fix it (I did hear something about the optical block being available but why throw good money after bad?). Currently running Jamo DS-50 receiver/6 disc changer, cost £10 & only rated at 15w somehow(!?!) but after a lens clean & new lamps (there's 0.75w on their own!) it drives a pair of Gale Gold Monitor Mk2 perfectly respectably in the workshop.

That sounds like a filter capacitor has given up the ghost. It could be a grounding issue if this has been serviced before, as well. Ya might want to try this unit again with all the fluorescent and LED lights turned off. Just grab yourself an incandescent lamp instead. If this runs quiet without the interference then I would say it's one or more filter capacitors.

File type changer is what they are called

The inside of the lid is telling you something is getting so hot it made those brown marks. One of the IC's near the power transformer probably got fried. Too many things may cause this and without electronics knowledge you can't test what went bad. There's a Canadian YT'er, 12voltvids, who can usually fix these things.

Pioneer actually made super nice ones

When i pick up a used cd or dvd player to play dics? i generally stick with harman kardon or onkyo for reliability. I almost always remove the hood to clean an or realign the heads on the unit) with caution!..I have owned Jvc,Pionner found they had issues. I usually avoid there disc players!. Onkyo is known for making very good an relable multi disc players new or used...i suspect any of there disc players would outperform most lower end jvc or pioneer models..

This looks retro in a way, and it’s a Pioneer. If this is a 1980’s or 1990’s unit, maybe you’ll learn to love 💕 it anyway. Your friend, Jeff.

I have a Philipd carousel that skips and repeats ,do have any idea what causes this?

Erm, I got a nice DVD player and a dvd changer with optical outs. Surely better off with new dacs. And I get to shuffle live concerts so it’s like mtv. Back when. Sounds like drive motor is being picked up by the amp…???

Annoying pet peeve of mine was the fact you loaded the CDs upside down. I never bought one of these for that reason.... Stupid I know... But it just never seemed right. Why couldn't they have engineered the mechanism "upside down"? Either way, I stuck with the Sony carousel changer.

Best place for a cd charger is in a car 🚗😉👍🏻

It needs a new laser and mechanics in it

It needs a new laser in it

hang on just a moment your mechanism is totally different to my one my ICs and bits are all Sony in mine,totally different circuitry too

This is old… well vintage I guess. This unit does not know cd-r cd-rw. And it has a 1bit dac… newer ones have 24 bit dacs. Also the unit you have being it’s age probably has bad caps thus the noise. There are nice units available still, rotary though. An example is the onkyo dx-390. But it isn’t cheap

I really hate these changers, also the rotary ones. They are so slow and sound like they can break at any minute even when new. I'd rather have a stack of single players

19:14 that looks like nicotine glaze, accumulated by air rising(convection) from some warm components.

Rather have a single loading bay

First. And yup. It happens. You regret selling it and end up buying one.. and well the one ypu get turns out to be a turd.

You kept saying cassette. it's CD.

I think you just got a bad nut...pioneer makes great cd changers