Any skipping issues with the Koala tube CD player?

Billion thanks go to Davehrab.
WHITE LITHIUM GREASE!!!! Solved the problem. CDP is no longer skipping. Played 3 CDs from start to end; no skipping at all.

OUTSTANDING ...

I have recommended this fix for a number of skipping CD players on various boards with great success for those who have tried it

This skipping problem usually occurs in much older players when the factory Lube eventually dries up on the rail and causes the laser sled to stall and lose lock with the data stream

I suspect the tube in your CD player is generating some extra heat under the cover and causing the Lube on the rail to premature dry up

Now you can sit back and enjoy your music
.

Awesome news, Actas I suggest never listening to my posts ever again...ha ha!

Billion thanks go to Davehrab.
WHITE LITHIUM GREASE!!!! Solved the problem. CDP is no longer skipping. Played 3 CDs from start to end; no skipping at all.

Here is the recipe:
I purchased white lithium grease for $5.49 at my local AutoZone. First cleaned the rail on which the laser-head is moving back-and-forth using pure isopropanol. I then applied a very conservative amount of that grease onto that metallic rail. Before connecting the CDP to the amplifier, I inserted a CD into the CDP and silently and quickly went through all the tracks, from the first to the lack track, several times. This ensured that the laser-head did travel through, almost, the entire length of that metallic rail and homogenized the white lithium grease I applied. Then connected the CDP to the amp, and enjoyed 3 of my favorite CDs very much without that quite annoying skipping which bugged me since a very long time.
Thanks again Davehrab!!!

Bojack, how sad to admit to this but you are right; I purchased this CDP as brand-new, used it only for about 1550 hours in 26 months to spin my CDs and it started to skip only two months after the expiration of its warranty. The Italian manufacturer still suggests me to send the CDP for the second time to the same repair person. Since obeying to this manufacturer's suggestion now seemed to me like committing the same mistake for the second time, at that point I decided to get some second opinions from the Audiogon people. Thanks to all, many people commented on my question. Today, I purchased "white lithium grease" to lubricate the rail on which the laser head is moving back-and-forth, if this doesn't solve the issue; then I will put the CDP back into its original box and store it out of my sight.

Actas,
Sounds like you have already lost enough on this I say it't time to toss it and find a more reliable one. Life is too short to deal with unreliable gear and repair folks who don't know what they are doing.

ask to redo or charge back via bank.

Thanks for your response Davehrab. I can only see one of the rails, and I tried to wipe it. That attempt was not helpful. I tend to think that since this CDP stayed in the shop of the authorized service person for some weeks (and he said, "the player is not skipping here in my shop," and I got the CDP back; perhaps, that service person should have wiped those rails, since he charged me more than $165 for his service, plus shipping. Maybe, he did not, I am not sure. (I live in a small town in central Illinois, and there are not much of electronics shops who can de-install something if necessary and lubricate those rails for me; I knocked every possible door in my town.) When one pays so much $$$ at the beginning for such a CDP, it becomes quite hard to discard it.

Thanks a lot for your suggestion, Lindisfarne. Actually, Tom Hills of Hudson Audio, NJ had this CDP for some weeks in his shop, he said "the player is not skipping, if it will skip in the future, change the transport," I got it back to (IL) and that affair did cost me $254, including the shipping back-and-forth. The next day, it was skipping again.

I wasn't suggesting that you soldier anything. If that's the case, have someone else do it. I only meant to change it if it has a connector that plugs into the board.

Can't Hudson Audio in NJ help you? Call Tom Hills.

Thanks for your message Zd542. I found that it was not due to the remote (testing after removing the batteries of the remote).
I am not a person who can even do soldering, if that's needed; replacing the transport by myself seems close to impossible.

I was curious reading your post so I did a search for your CD player and got some images. Assuming I was looking at the same player you have, the transport looks very easy to replace. Maybe you can buy the transport and install it yourself.

One other thing you can try is moving the remote far away from the CD player. Sometimes, the remote can break in such a way as to send commands without you pushing any buttons. If the player is getting a false input for something like a seek, you can definitely mistake that for a skip. I thought the transport in my Wadia was going bad when the tray kept opening and closing by itself. It turned out to be the remote.

One very common reason a CD player will skip is the laser sled runs into a piece of the factory lubricant that has dried up and hardened on the rails the laser travels on

When the sled hits the dry spot it stalls briefly losing lock with the CD data stream and skipping until it can move past the dry spot and regain lock on the CD’s info

If you can see the rails ... wipe them clean and apply a lite coat of white lithium
.

The skipping started only 2 months after the expiration of 24 months warranty. The lens has been professionally cleaned, the tubes have been changed, the laser-optics has been changed (in strict observation of the written (e-mail) suggestions of the Italian manufacturer, I live in the US), then the CDP has been shipped to the US service shop the manufacturer suggested, and paid $384 for all of these, the CDP came back, it is skipping again. Does this mean the entire transport need to be changed? But I think, changing the entire transport mechanism (Philips/Cosmic L1210) could only be done by the manufacturer, am I right in assuming that?

CD players have skipping issues. It's part of their normal operation!
Start from sticking vaccum cleaner tube into the CD-tray hole.
Than you can use lens-cleaning CD with brush.
If two above wouldn't help, you'll need to access your transport mechanizm and clean lens manually with damp cloth and cleaning solution or alcohol
If apperently you find that mechanizm is clean, you should contact manufacturer(hopefully the unit's still on warranty) WTF. CD-players can skip because of DAC failures as well(but substantially more rare).