Nakamichi CD-400

[silversleeper]

So.. after purchasing my E30, I installed the Nakamichi HU that I pulled from my wrecked Civic. The car sat for about 6 months after that because I was riding my R6 everywhere. Now I start driving the E30, and I pop in a CD and it gives me a disc read error.

The unit worked fine before that, so I figure it maybe a bit dusty. I purchased a CD lens cleaner from Best Buy (Maxell 6 brush CD lens cleaner) and it does its thing. Then I pop in a CD and it starts playing fine. After some time though, it starts to skip again. And every morning when I first start the car and turn on the CD player, it gives me the error again. I feel it maybe a temperature related issue, because after the car gets warm inside (with the heat blowing and all) the player starts to work. I have also had luck by warming the CD a bit by holding it next to the heater vents.

Anyone have any ideas as to where I can start fixing this problem? Or any relating experience?

[AndrewBird]

My moms blazer used to do a similar thing. What I figured it out to be was that when the CD was cold, the slight warmth of the laser would make the disk fog up and make it so the lazer could not read it. When this happens, does the CD have fog on it?

[silversleeper]

it might, it is very chilly here these days.

[StereoInstaller1]

Foggy lens is one option. Worse, cars in wrecks often shake the lens out of alignment.

Never waste time/money on lens cleaners. If the lens is dirty enough to require cleaning, nothing short of a qtip is really gonna clean it.

If re-alignament is required, a shop should be about $100 to do it.
An oscilloscope is required, plus knowledge.

Luke

[ed94r]

Did you try resetting it via the reset on botton on the face?

Mine freaked out, I reset it, and it's fine now.

Ed

[silversleeper]

u kno, i have been meaning to find a paper clip to reset it, and just keep forgetting. i will try that tomorrow and hopefully it will fix it. all my hopes are lying in a straightened paper clip, how lame.

[ed94r]

Tip of a pen my lad, tip of a pen...

Ed

[Ziggens96]

I was just wondering about some general info/recommendations for the CD-400; it seems to be the ideal HU for an E30 and I now may have a reason to buy one.

The Pioneer that came with the car began to skip excessively recently (it may be the same problem described earlier in the thread,) but the HU is old anyway and it has volume buttons, not a knob. I have only kept it this long because it matches the backlight colors for the rest of the dash/guages and there are other things I would rather spend money on.



Anyway, since the CD-400 has a 24-bit converter and otherwise nice specs, is it an appropriate alternative to an external amp? Speakers are MB Quart Reference 5 1/4 components (front) and Alpine type-s 6 1/2 (rear). I know that the power rating is low for the CD-400 (as with any HU) but since I don't really play my music THAT loud, will the good sound quality (0.005% harmonic distortion?) make up for the lack of an external amp?

thanks in advance, anyone who responds

oh, and BTW, does anybody else have that panel next to the rear defroster button? (^) I've never seen an anti-theft device in the car, and the PO never mentioned it. I guess I am wondering whether this is what factory security system panels look like. I've seen one just like it in an M-coupe if that's any indication.

[StereoInstaller1]

The Nakamichi may be kinda hard to source. Seems Nak is on the skids again, but has been through so many rough spots since old Ken sold the joint, who knows.

If you can't get the Nak, go with a "Business CD" and either a three.1 or four.1 or a 6XS from Audiocontrol. You would have far better performance from any of those combos than the Nak, and it is pretty tough to beat the look of the BMW deck.

The reason the Nak sounds better is NOT the "24 bit" (CD's are 16 bit, nothing will change that) or the other razmatazz, but the quality of the pre-amp. Nak uses far better devices in their preamps, so the deck sounds better in every source.

The business CD is a decent deck, built as a pre-amp only deck. Add a world class pre-amp stage like Audio Control, and you is rockin', yo. Three.1 or 6XS will also give you subwoofer level control...IMHO, the only "feature" I care about, personally.

Just some ramblings. Toss the Pioneer, you will be shocked at the difference.

Luke

[Ziggens96]

thanks a lot, luke. that was a really helpful response. Are you talking about an E36/Z3 business CD? If so, where is the best place to find those? BTW new CD-400's still come up on ebay regularly.

oh, and which audiocontrol system would be most comparable to JL's cleansweep? any of them would still require an amp also, right? that's really what I'm trying to avoid...