jmcipale

YOWZER! That is indeed deterioration! I can honestly say I have not seen any of my CDs look like that. I will keep an eye out on the age of my CDs. I have some new ones (purchased in the last year or so) that I will give a play to on the Carver and see what happens. Thank you for the suggestion, Brian! EDIT: Following up to this, I played two(2) CDs that I purchased last May and only been played a couple of times in the Emotiva. Both played completely from begin->end without a skip, bobble, hiccup. That is indeed another data point on this thread. EDIT 2: Well, THAT was short-lived. I replayed the 2nd disc and found a couple of skips (which is a shame, cause I really like "The Milagro Beanfield War" by Dave Grusin). "New" pickup ordered. Should be here by Monday and off to High-Tech Audio in Stevenson, WA same day. 😢

Thank you Kurt! When I took the unit in to be serviced 3 mos ago (4 shaky fingers, 2 old eyes and one solder bridge later), the tech had lubed the sled and did his best to adjust/clean the lens. I cant recall if they did anything to the belts. I will take a flyer on a replacement lens (ChatGPT/Gemini/Google) all said the Sony KSS-152A is a direct/cross-matched replacement for the DLBA-1. I figure $32 is a small enough risk to take, cuz damn, I really LIKE the 3200! Funny, as I write this, I am into track 3 of "The Gershwin Connection" by Dave Grusin. Not a single hiccup/skip (I know.. I know... famous last words).

Hey Carverites, I have a TL-3200 that i simply love (more then my Emotiva ERC-4). The problem I am seeing now 9after getting the display lights replaced) is that when i play a CD, most of the discs will skip at some point on track 2 and then later in the disc (perhaps track 5, track 8, etc). I suspect it has something to do with the position of the pickup wrt the position on the CD (closest analog i can think of is how a tonearm/cartridge tracks on a vinyl recording). The tech I took it to said 'the laser pickup is shot. And i cant get heads anymore.' I would hate to think I cant play this jewel reliably any longer. I am the original owner and i want to keep it in the system. Does anyone have any DIY fix suggestions or parts source? Thank you kindly, Joe P.S. - located another thread that lists replacement lasers, so hopefully THEY are still available.

Well, better late than never> I am a new member to the site, having just joined within the last two weeks. My name is Joe and I have been a ardent Carver fan for, well, as long as Bob Carver has been designing. I always liked his work with Phase Linear and sold his equipment in a past life as an audio salesperson. I currently have both a Carver tl3200 CD player and a Carver c-3 Preamp connected to my system (although I swamp the Carver with a Bryston MC-1 preamp). Once I accumulate the required number of points, i can post my system for the group.