Denon DCD1520 Fault and Question

[sebbelcher]

Hi guys,

Got myself hold of an old DCD1520 as I was told by several people that if they have the right components in them (the KSS151A laser specifically, which luckily this one has) then they sound as good as modern high-end players and they are ideal for modding with their vintage over-sized boards and components.

It was in fairly bad condition when I got it, mostly thanks to Parcelforce, who must have assumed by it's weight that it wasn't breakable! I've tinkered and fixed nearly everything and it really does sound fantastic, there is one problem remaining and a question I have, any answers appriciated.

The problem is:
The unit plays CDs absolutely perfectly up until about track 20, it's not always track 20, but it's always towards the outer edge of the CD, even on a clean CD the player will skip on high numbered tracks. I assume it is a positional problem with the CD transport but I'm not sure what, any ideas?

The question is:
There are two outputs on the back of the player, labeled 'Fixed' and 'Variable', I took a leap of faith connecting the Fixed output to my Arcam Alpha 10 and because it worked I've been too scared to try the variable, what's the difference?

Many Thanks,
Seb.

[sebbelcher]

Ok, solved the 'fault', turned out the carriage lock was on but not actually attached to the carriage, so it was stopping it reaching the end of it's rails.

So just the question about the 2 stereo outputs remains, anyone?

[alexs2]

In answer to the last query...variable means a set of outputs whose level can be varied by a pot somewhere.

There should either be a level pot on the front of the unit,or adjacent to the variable output sockets on the rear.

The purpose is to allow level matching between components or to attentuate the output in the case of preamp stages that are overloaded by CD level inputs(mostly an historical issue now).