20 Most Recent Cambridge Soundworks 88CD CD Player Questions & Answers

I can't find a manual for this but my guess would be there is a setting for the Display to dim it at all times unless you touch a control.

I agree with you completely. Cambridge always tells me they do not have the part I need whenever I have called them for parts. Now if a Cambridge comes into the shop I work at we won't even take it in.

You never really asked a question, so I don't really have an answer for you. I hope you feel better after getting that out, you must realize that if they don't have the parts to fix it, nobody here can give you any secrets tricks or anything that will make it work again.

I understand your frustration, most of the electronics made today is really not very high quality. Take your walkman for example, made over 25 years ago and still works. Nothing made today will be working in 25 years from now, I promise you.

Let me know if you need to vent any more, I am a good listener.
I am on your side!

Dave

About 90% sure it is the aluminum electrolytic capacitors. My unit starting acting flaky (wouldn't turn on, clock went haywire, etc). The failure was intermediate. I did a wholesale replacement on the aluminum electrolytic capacitors and it works like a champ. Coincidentally, my LCD TV of about the same age failed at about the same time and for the same reason. These capacitors have a finite life and will often fail after about 10 years. If you are not versed in electronics repair, you'll need to find someone who has the tools and skills to do the work. The circuit board uses a ground plane which is very difficult to solder and requires either an under-board heater or hot air rework gun to preheat the plane. If you (or someone you know) is well versed, then this is how you do the repairs: Remove the four screws on the back of the unit. Gently remove the back cover. The circuit board attaches to the cover you're removing and there are a number of connectors you'll need to disconnect between the board and main unit. There are probably 6 screws that hold the circuit board, two that hold the aux board (base control, aux input) and one that holds the power cord retainer. Leave the aux board attached to the main board. Remove all of these. You'll also need to desolder the AM antenna wire. This is a short, black wire that connects between the circuit board and copper shielding on the cover. It solders into a ground plane, so it can be difficult to reflow the solder. Look for the round capacitors with a polarity marking. These are the ones you want to replace. Write down the voltage and capacitance for each aluminum electrolytic cap. Measure the lead spacing (critical) and case size (less critical). I used Digikey and matched the lead spacing, voltage, capacitance exactly. I matched the case size to the closest size available and got the lowest ESR value available. The lower the ESR the more effective the capacitor can move charge into and out of the capacitor (improving its effectiveness). There is a black heat sink that wraps around the board. If you remove the heat sink, make sure you note which regulator has a plastic bushing on the screw. This regulator has a positive voltage on its case and you will short the regulator without the bushing (it also has an insulating pad that sits between the heat sink and the regulator case). When replacing the capacitors, you'll need to pre-heat the ground plane in immediate area of the capacitor you're desoldering (or soldering). You can use an under-board heater, but if you set the temperature too high the bottom mounted components can fall off. I used a hot air solder station and heated the plane. While the plane was hot, I used my solder station and desoldered the parts. I did the same (hot air then solder gun) to install the new parts. Unfortunately I didn't document my repairs that well (sorry, no photos). I did install the regulator bushing on the wrong regulator (hence my warning above). It took me several attempts to figure out what I had done wrong. Good luck, Kevin H. Augusta, GA

it could be possible you can try on ebay and see if someone is selling there old one

i've just finished repairing one of these Model 88 cd, from Cambridge sound. It also had no audio. I found cracked solder connections on the audio amplifier IC on the amplifier board as well as an inremittent headphone jack on the front of the radio. Try it with headphones, if you get dound try to clean the jack with isopropyl alcohol. a couple of drops inside the jack then insert the headphone connector several times to move the relay inside. Good luck. took me about two hours to resolve this with limited information available.