Philips CD-850 MkII CD player feedback

I just laid my hands on one of these. The drawer wasn't opening, so thought the transport was gone. However, I opened up and found the belt on the wheel that operates the open/shut mechanism had slipped. Hard to get it back, but I'm going to get it done ... however, with the top open, I can still slip in a disc into the tray and it reads and plays!

Anyone have any experience with repairing this player? Feedback appreciated. It sounds magically musical.

Any modding suggestions?

The Philips CDM4 tray mechanism mechanism is with a pulley gear that is known to deteriorate and break. Its been a common fault with this part and this gear have to be replaced with a 3rd party part that may be available. Don't ask me where to find it.
Check properly for the gear condition. If its just the belt, then is less problem to you.
850 one of the last good Philips machine with TDA1541 DAC, the last of philips 16bit dav chips, entirely different sounding compared to current CDP's.

Yeah, I figured ... I have a feeling I may need to look for the pulley gear. Going to take it to a technician friend who's used to sourcing these little parts ..

only MK1 using TDA1541 right?, and MK2 using SAA7350GP – SAA7322..if not mistaken...correct me if I'm wrong..tq

check this out

http://www.marantzphilips.nl/index.asp?strBrand=Various&strPage=Daclist

very good potential to mod. one of my list to do beside cd63.

I read somewhere it has one SAA7322 as a filter and one SAA7350 as the DAC ...

The SAA7322 or SAA7323 is a 16bit DAC chip. (Same family)

http://www.datasheet4u.com/html/S/A/A/SAA7323_PhilipsSemiconductors.pdf.html

"SAA7322 is a lower performance version of the SAA7323".



SAA7350 is a 20bit capable DAC chip.

http://www.datasheetcatalog.com/datasheets_pdf/S/A/A/7/SAA7350.shtml

bassraptor,
BTW, does your CD-850 MkII have the CD tray painted in green?

do you need the manual? already have one
try philips LHH series, the best of philips cdp

Hi bassraptor,

I bought the CDM4 gear from Octave Electronis some months ago
for Rm40.00.I believe they still got stock.Better than the one I bought fro Wo Kee Hong for my Marantz 52 Mark2
This is 3rd party stuff and works just as well.

Hope the info helps.

cheers
teleman51

Tks guys for all the feedback - my tech guy says the CDM4 transport and lens on this one are in great shape ... he said the only downside was the pulley gear, which is a breaking up because it's plastic. It's only purpose is to open and close the drawer, so he suggest fixing a small lever on the outside to enable manual operation of the drawer, rather than change the whole thing. The lens is glass on this one, not plastic.

I don't recall a green drawer ...

The original gear wasn't good and replacing with that will break again in future. There's a 3rd party replacement which were or still being sold and its white in color. Not surprisingly, dealers who stock this part purposely sell at high price to make a killing. What to do? like that loh!
The other option is to entirely remove the tray and with some circuit mod, become a top loader with a custom puck. Its been done but look crude of course.