Need Advice: Repair or Replace?

[8UWITH6]

Hey guys, well I finally got my OWN CD burner and decided to try it out. In my T-type, I have a Rockford Fosgate RFX9000 CD/MP3 player that replaced my stolen Alpine about 1.5yrs ago. So far it has been great. I burn my MP3s, and play up to 150 tracks of music.......(since my 100+ CDs were also stolen with my old radio). Well, Ive been having problems with the CDs being scratchy and sounding like CRAP.........I wasted 10+ CDs thinking it was a bad burn. It didnt matter if it was Data/MP3 or Audio CDs, they all were horrible. Well, I got really mad the other day and put one of my MP3s in my home stereo, and it played just fine. WTF? I put one of my audio CDs in and it played just fine? I put one of my audio CDs in my roomates truck, and it played just fine? WTF!!

I think my RFX9000 is taking a crap on me, and of course, it had perfect timing. Well, I got to thinking, and talked to some buddys that are into stereo stuff, and they mentioned that I should try cleaning the player with a maxwell 345 cleaning disk since I have never done it, and also since I am a smoker. They mentioned that over time the smoke can cause the player to become very dirty inside, etc. So I went down to the store and got the maxwell 340, and tried it out. It seemed to help, but not enough. The thing I dont understand though, is that it plays my old MP3 CDs just fine?!?! What do you guys think? I really kinda want to just replace it and keep it around for a spare. The "track up" button has been acting up lately too. Should I replace it? Should I pay to have it repaired? What do you guys think? If I replace it, what should I replace it with? I like the Fosgate unit, but am open to other suggestions.......heres the kicker, I dont want to spend over $250..............HELP

PS- I may want to only spend 250, but what are the best ones out there? MP3/CD players.........I have 2 amps, a capacitor and 3 subs, etc.........what specs do I need.........whats the deal with 4volt pre-outs vs 2volt, etc. Clue me in, I have been out of the stereo stuff for a while now........

 

[dconnor]

See if you can get a quote for repair costs, if it's much over $50 I say just scrap it.

Not really up to date on the latest & greatest but Pioneer, Alpine & Panasonic are all good choices for a replacement deck.

Doug C.

 

[GNandTTA]

The fact that it plays the MP3 CD's raises a red flag to me. Storage of MP3 files is very different than WAV files on a CD. I had an old crappy Alpine deck that sounded scratchy on CD's. It turned out the mechanical laser tracking system was gummed up. Cleaned it up and it worked fine.

How fast are you burning your CD"s? I know everything should be fine as long as you use the correct rated speed media. But my old Sony CDX-8000U will not reliably play CD's that are burned anything over 4x. Tried different media and burners with same results. My hypothesis, there must be a microscopic difference in how the pits are burned in a CDR when recorded at different speeds. IOW, the pits are more defined when CDR's are burned at lower speeds.

 

[8UWITH6]

Maybe water getting into the deck can cause problems? Dont ask.........lost a radio in the ttype, and obviously from my sig you can see what else I lost this past weekend. Stay away from me, Im bad luck!