Rega Apollo and CD-R problems.

Hi, Scott,
Many of the problems people have with the Apollo can be avoided but the Apollo is a bit more "discriminating" about the quality of CDs and how they were recorded. I've had to rip and record to CD-R a few commercial CDs that the Apollo had trouble recognizing, including intermittent dropouts or garbled playback. The CD-R versions played perfectly.

I've also burned about 50 other CD-Rs that play just fine. When I record to CD-R I use discs that are higher quality for music recording (not the gold CDs but better than the inexpensive data discs.) I've had good results with Maxell and Sony CD-Rs but any good quality disc should work.

As Tjpj mentioned above, you cannot record at high speed; I usually record at 2x and no more than 4x to make sure I get the best possible recording.

You definitely have to wait a full 10 seconds (or more) to make sure the player has read the disc and configured itself for playback. If you try to hurry it or play a disc it can't read accurately, the machine seems to get "confused" and you have to reboot it by removing the disc, turning it off, and unplugging it for about 30 seconds. That has always cleared things up with my Apollo, anyway.

It's a good CD player with a very listenable sound, but you do have to pay attention to the initialization process and don't try to feed it discs it can't read very well.

Regards,
Tom

@Atarashiihikari

I just bought a used Apollo from an Audiogon seller and received it yesterday. I have all the problems that you state. And it's not only my CD-Rs (I download and burn because you sure can't find much in stores anymore) which work everywhere else, but also my Sheffields are giving me hell. I've never ever had any troubles playing the Sheffields until now. Is there any brand of blank CD-Rs that you find to work better than others?

What about the new Apollo R? Any similar issues?

Should have gone lo-fi. Like the energizer bunny!!

This was a common problem of the Rega CD players back then. I went thru 2 Apollos, and 1 Saturn player that all developed the same problems.

10-16-12: Atarashiihikari
I paid 2 grand for it.

Two thousand? two thousand what? Because it only ever retailed for right at $1,000US.
The loaner I got from my dealer had a lot of issues just like you describe. I have had mine for a year now and have never had an issue, aside from the occasional (1x/month maybe) no disc, or sometimes it won't stop when I hit stop. I turn off, unplug for 5 minutes, and plays fine.
I assume youve tried that?

I am having endless problems with mine. Very disappointing. I have taken it back just inside warranty and they fixed it and it has deteriorated again to the point where it cannot play a disc.

I was told this was a brilliant CD player.
I paid 2 grand for it. And I loved it at first.

Here is what I have experienced.
Press play, nothing happens.
open lid, put in another disc.
Initialising... for ever.
No disc. ... all my discs are perfect, I never scratch them, I do not loan them.
Blank disc!
Put disc in again.
Open lid start again.
Put in another CD that I didn't want to listen to - plays.

Hardware lockup - no response to play, stop, skip.
Stopping halfway through track one.
Noisy! - you can here the sled motors from 5m away.
Not able to play the end of a 72minute CD.
Terrible remote.
Terrible track programming interface.
Poor quality terminals that look like they were $2 from Radio Shack.

The Apollo's owner's manual clearly states that any CD-Rs recorded at greater than 8x are not guaranteed to play, as the player may not be able to read it.

It's in the owner's manual. Maybe that's why some people are having problems with the Apollo reading their CD-Rs?

No problems for me so far - sounds better than the Arcam CD73 it replaced too

No problems with mine either. After reading Atkinson's comment about not being able to play the black cdR's, I went into my collection and played all the ones I had. They played flawlessly, so I don't know what was up with the ones he had??????

Peace and later,
L

So far, everything seems to be working fine with mine, except the display gives inconsistent meassages -- displaying "Initializing" or "Rega Apollo" interchangeably for the exact same routine. No big deal, but hopefully it's not a harbinger of things to come. I really like this player.