First-time poster here. To give some context, I don't consider myself an audiophile, but am a musician and music-lover who wants the best possible equipment for my budget range (no more than $1000 for my entire system). I built my first real home stereo back in 2001 and it's definitely entry-level (Rotel RA-931 integrated amp, B&W DM 601 speakers, Marantz CC4300 CD changer, Stanton STR8-50 turntable), but has served me well for the most part. We also watch DVDs through the amp, and the stereo sound serves us just fine.
I first noticed glitches with the Marantz (purchased new in early 2005) when it started skipping on even the most slightly scratched CDs, which it didn't used to do. What's even more puzzling is that the same CDs will play just fine on my computer, on my DVD player (Sony DVP-NS75H), and in my car. Then, a few weeks ago I installed a new DVD burner in my computer (Lite-On DH20A4P), only to discover that the Marantz wouldn't recognize a single CD-R audio CD burned with the new drive. Again, these CD-Rs worked fine on all my other devices, including a cheap little boom box. Noticing that CD-Rs burned prior to my installing the new drive seemed to work fine on the Marantz, I thought it might have been a compatibility issue between the Marantz and the DVD burner, so I re-installed my old CD burner (Sony CRX140E) and burned a new CD (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds' "Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!"). Low and behold, it was read by the Marantz and seemed to play fine. Then, at track 9 it started skipping horribly and basically stopped the player in its tracks, which eventually skipped to the next track. WTF? So, I tried the same track on my computer and on the DVD player, and guess what, it played fine on both of those. Very frustrating and mysterious.
Has anyone else ever heard of or had a similar issue? Since I'm able to play these discs on my DVD player, I'm still able to listen to them through my stereo, but I'm just perplexed by the Marantz's extreme sensitivity. Given that it's my stand-alone CD player and I bought it because of its good reputation, I would think that it would be rock-solid in terms of CD playback performance, not the weakest link in my available devices. My crappy little boom box can play CD-Rs but the Marantz can't? I just don't get it. I've emailed a question to Marantz asking what they suggest, but got the automated reply saying they're backlogged from the holidays and are currently addressing questions from mid-January. Yeesh. So before I send it to a repair shop (the closest of which is over 25 miles away) or think about replacing it, I thought I would come online and see if anyone else has had similar problems, or has suggestions about where to go from here. Again, it's not a critical issue because I can play everything through my stereo one way or another and the Marantz plays most CDs just fine, but it's just irksome that the device that's supposed to be my primary CD player is outperformed (in terms of playback) by my car stereo and boom box. Could it be a laser alignment issue? How easy/expensive is it to get such things fixed? Thanks in advance for any insight or advice.