Problem with Ayre C-7xe CD player?

Hi,

A few months ago, I bought a CX-7 used and it had problems reading some discs - upon loading, the display would just continue to go around for about twice the normal time, I would hear a slight 'scraping' noise from inside the player, and then the two dashes would show (as if empty) and the disc drawer would open. Many times, it would take quite a bit of coaxing to get it to read the disc. Sometimes it never would. This mostly happened on brand new Cd's.

I took it to the Ayre factory to have it upgraded to a "e" and they replaced the laser lens assembly to address the problem (Michael and the folks at Ayre are great). It is a lot better now, but it is still occasionally picky about what it will read (but usually acquiesces within 3 tries). Sometimes (too much) it will hit a place on a CD where it pops loudly, often once, often many times, and then the drawer will open on its own (sounds like your issue). Unloading and reloading the disc works sometimes, other times the disc must be cleaned before it will play (even though I see not evidence of dust, oils, or damage on the disc's surface).

I do not know if this is unusual for this model. It sounds so darn good that I have just tried to get over it.

Yours being just 6 months old, I would definitely call Michael at Ayre. My guess is that it will only get worse over time without a repair.

Please let me know what they do and whether it fixes it (crossram2x4@aol.com).

I owned the same player and, while it sounds great, the "read" issues annoyed the daylights out of me. I sold it.

I have the C5xe..and yes there are some discs that Ayre doesn't like. You are right Ayre stuff does sound fabulous. I hope you are using yours balanced...the sound is much better on all Ayre products that are balanced. Michael is a great guy...he told me that silver discs are even more sensitive to scratches on the back (painted side) than on the silver side.

I also bought a CX-7e about 6 months ago, and it too had the same symptoms the OP is describing. I went back to my dealer and requested a DOA replacement once I determined that it was a defect (ie, it was happening even on brand new discs with no marks that worked fine in other players), which he kindly accepted. There was a production delay, and about 2 months later, my replacement arrived.

The same discs that were causing problems on the original unit have not caused me problems at all on the replacement unit. So the issue is resolved for me.

I suspect that Ayre had a "bad" batch of transports/lasers in early 2008 that had more defects than usual.

So...I'd definitely call Ayre, I'm sure this can very easily be fixed.

Oh, and BTW, the CX-7e sounds absolutely fantastic, with every CD I toss its way.

(Also...as a reminder of the benefit of dealing with an authorized dealer, I was told to hold on to my defective unit and use it until a new one comes in...so I was never out a CX-7e for even a day!)

The problem with them is there to expensive :)

Absolutely you should call Ayre (ask for Michael). They're known to have some of the best customer support in the business - find out for yourself.

I'm a proud owner of a CX7e as well. Less than six months old and have not experienced these 'read' issues. I understand that Ayre recently changed the transports they use because of a replacement part issue going foward.I'm not certain which transport mine has, although I think it may be the 'old' one. Perhaps cleaning the CD's which pose read issues may help? Also, I understand from Ayre that one can get improved performance from using a CD Stablizer/damping disc. I forget the name of the manufacture but it's about $100, green and available from MusicDirect. Has anyone used these discs??

If you're talking of the Marigo mat...I had one years ago. They worked well, but after a while, they kind of dried out and didn't work at all. Marigo may have made a change to their formulation, however, this is just a heads up...

Thanks, Stringreen. Not going to spend $100 to "rent" a CD Dampener.

Thanks everyone, I called Ayre and my dealer - they said to ship it in. I do not want to be without it for long so I am going to pick my time to send it.