For decades I planned to resurrect my old Philips Compact Disc Sound Machine CD555. Back in the eighties I had to safe my money for half a year to be able to buy this sound machine. I had been extremely happy for about 2 or 3 years when the unit broke – right after the warranty claim expired. I was young, had no money to get it repaired and absolutely no idea about electronics but thought I am able to repair it myself. It ended, as you may expected & as it should – dismantled in a plastic bag in the basement. After many years my parents threw the whole bag into the bin and that was the embarrassing end of my device.
Call me sentimental but over the years I missed it and the great memories I had. So I decided to get a used one. Unfortunately it was not possible to get a fully working unit. It seems that there are some of them in working condition in other countries, but not in Austria. Every single unit that goes on sale on various selling platform is broken.
More than this, it seems they are rare to get and if one shows up it is gone immediately. However, until now I got three of them all with more or less the same issues:
- The Audio-CD is spinning and returns “Error” on the display
- The Play/Stop/Pause keys of the CD-Player are not working
- The tape deck does not show any sign of life. Neither it is possible to open the lid nor does any key or the test routine start
- A horrible sound appears when switching the device on
- At least the tuner am/fm, the aux-input and the amplifier are working
Now, during the Convid19 pandemic and lock down I found some time and motivation to resurrect my devices. Maybe only one and the other two are used as donator for spare parts – it depends on what is broken and what can be fixed.
A first step for me is to refresh my knowledge about electronics and learn how the device is working. Since I do not have a working unit it might be necessary to assume, to guess and to find new ways to get things done.