I have Pioneer Stereo above (all-in-one w/25 disc changer). It no
longer plays CD's; picks them up and everything, but can not read them.
Took it to a shop. They say that the CD lens is missing. Sounds
plausible. Part is $100, difficult to put in so labor $100. Couple of
questions:

1) Part is AEA-7004 CD lens and pick-up assy. It is used on several
other 25 disc models. Any ideas on where I could pick up a used lens or
buy a unit for parts? Ebay doesn't have much.

2) Anyone have experience replacing this? How much knowledge/skill does
it take? I.e. if I bought the part, would it make sense to try it
myself.

The unit is several years old now, but I like the sound quality,
features, etc. Still not sure if it is worth putting $200 into though.
Thanks for any advice.

-Mark

On some of the older Pioneer units, they had a problem where the lens would
fall off of the laser. If the tech was able to find it, he would try to
carefully glue it back on with some good quality epoxy. The key is to do it
and maintain the accuracy, and at the same time, not obstruct the optical
path.

If this cannot be done, then the complete laser unit has to be replaced.
This involves the work of removing and installing the new one, and then
going through the complete alignment procedure to adjust it to track
properly. This can easily involved an hour to two hours of work, if all goes
smoothly.

I would not bother with a used laser assembly. These are taken out of
scrapped units. The laser, and some of the transport parts are usually the
things that generally fails in these units, and there is a chance that the
one you put in may have some type of defect, or not last very long. Then you
would be at greater loss.

Personally, I would get a new more up to date radio with a full new
warranty. There are new models that will play MP3 music files. The older CD
players cannot play MP3 music files.


--

Jerry G.
=====

"mark3189" wrote in message
ups.com...
I have Pioneer Stereo above (all-in-one w/25 disc changer). It no
longer plays CD's; picks them up and everything, but can not read them.
Took it to a shop. They say that the CD lens is missing. Sounds
plausible. Part is $100, difficult to put in so labor $100. Couple of
questions:

1) Part is AEA-7004 CD lens and pick-up assy. It is used on several
other 25 disc models. Any ideas on where I could pick up a used lens or
buy a unit for parts? Ebay doesn't have much.

2) Anyone have experience replacing this? How much knowledge/skill does
it take? I.e. if I bought the part, would it make sense to try it
myself.

The unit is several years old now, but I like the sound quality,
features, etc. Still not sure if it is worth putting $200 into though.
Thanks for any advice.

-Mark

The price quoted is pretty reasonable in my opinion. I don't think there's
any way the average person could fix this themselves without botching it, no
disrespect intended.

Mark Z.


"mark3189" wrote in message
ups.com...
I have Pioneer Stereo above (all-in-one w/25 disc changer). It no
longer plays CD's; picks them up and everything, but can not read them.
Took it to a shop. They say that the CD lens is missing. Sounds
plausible. Part is $100, difficult to put in so labor $100. Couple of
questions:

1) Part is AEA-7004 CD lens and pick-up assy. It is used on several
other 25 disc models. Any ideas on where I could pick up a used lens or
buy a unit for parts? Ebay doesn't have much.

2) Anyone have experience replacing this? How much knowledge/skill does
it take? I.e. if I bought the part, would it make sense to try it
myself.

The unit is several years old now, but I like the sound quality,
features, etc. Still not sure if it is worth putting $200 into though.
Thanks for any advice.

-Mark

Thanks for the replies. I hadn't thought about the MP3 issue, and it is
always good to get other takes on your thoughts.