CD player plays some CDs, not others.

I have no experience with Denon CD players but I had the same problem with a Luxman 12 years ago - it would display "Track 1" but wouldn't play. A repairman examined the unit and told me I needed a new laser, for $270.00. I balked. I took the cover off the unit and found three potentiometers - nickel-sized wheel-looking things that you can dial with your finger. I started playing around with them and whadda ya know fixed it. I had no idea what I was doing (perhaps adjusting some sort of tracking), but it worked. At 8 years old your unit's out of warrany anyway and from what you said you can't break it 'cause it's already broke. Worth a try?

Been servicing for 22 yrs. , depends on model but most likely dirty lens as stated , use a moistened q-tip with pure water 1st. , then a moistened q-tip with isopropyl alcohol , 2nd. most common is the spindle motor , try LIGHT machine oil in a small hypo to the shaft (under the hub that cd rides , look for getting under a very small plastic washer that is sometimes present ). If you've adjusted those pots. prev. mentioned ....good luck , they set your vert. and horiz. bias coils in the laser block to focus and track the disc as well as the free run freq. reference to control the disc speed from 500-200 rpm from out to in on disc and must be set very accurately to spec on a freq. counter , usually after bridging certain pins on plug to set service mode . Do not remove the spindle hub as the distance to objective lens of laser is critical to focus , just like playing with the pots. Regards , Richard .

Does your denon use pioneer's stable platter mech? I just recently had the same prob. with my Audio Alchemy DDS-Pro and what I did was of course clean the laser mech. and then I played a CD with the top off and noticed that the laser pickup was ever so slightly slanted but I couldn't adjust it anymore with its screws so I got a semi-soft piece of rubber and cut it to size so that the top plate was level. After it was all said and done mine now sounds better than I ever remember it sounding. Good luck!

Get a Jolida CD player if you must stick to CDs only. Otherwise a Pioneer DVD 414 will play CDs better than most megabuck CD Players. It will also play the current crop of DVD audio discs which can sound much better than CD.

Same problem as yours,my player is a Denon DCD-1420,all i did was to tune a small little potentiometer that is just below the laser mechanism,i was at my wits end before this even thought of throwing away my player,it works fine now just tried about 20 cds all work fine,previously if i could get 5 out of 20 to play it would be a miracle.Also don't forget to clean the laser with a cotton bud and a bit of alcohol.Good luck.