I’ve owned my Akurate CD player for nearly 15 years now and has given me much enjoyment in that time.
But I’m having more and more issues with it reading redbook CD’s. SACD’s will hardly ever load.
However I took the case off the other day and by tapping on the the little black disc clamp on top of the silver disc engine most discs would then load and play ok.
Any idea what the issue is here please?
Also how do you clean the laser on the Akurate cd player? Can’t see any access to it at all.
Thanks in anticipation.

I take it Linn no longer services the Akurate CD player?

Sadly Linn no longer offer repairs or services on any of their CD players as far as I’m aware.
Anyone know how to clean the laser on the Akurate CD player?

I took a unidisc SC to a local music electronics repair specialist and he replaced the laser for £120.

Worth checking locally for someone who can do the same

You have to be careful with laser replacements. The original lasers haven't been made for quite some time and NOS units are quite rare. You can find all kinds of replacements on eBay and other places but they are generally cheap Chinese knock-offs. The service center next to our store, which is really good, will only rarely work on a CD player like that because the Chinese lasers are mostly junk - many don't work out of the box and some work initially but die prematurely.

I hope that springwood's continues to work but it is definitely a situation of buyer beware on servicing pretty much any Linn CD player. While Linn no longer lists service for any of their disc spinners I think they might still work on the CD12 if you ask. But on other units you are generally out of luck. This is not just a Linn problem, most CD players that are 10 or more years old are difficult or impossible to find proper lasers for. The parts used have generally been from the computer industry for some time, DVD ROMs and such. Those parts change rapidly and service spares for older units are obviously not a priority for products that are expected to have a short service life.

My dealer has a Unidisk 1.1 that was serviced by Linn at the very end, maybe 2-years ago but never used since then - I may have mis-remembered this. Could that be swapped around I wonder and the Unidisk sold on?

Akurate CD player was the first time I recall properly enjoyed CD although I'd not heard CD12 or Ikemi at that point.

Thanks for the replies so far, but could anyone answer my two original questions please?
That is why tapping on the top of the disc clamp enables CD’s to read and play thst wouldn’t otherwise?
And how do actually clean the laser on the Akurate CD player? Which presumably is very similar to the other Linn Unidisk players? Someone must have done it or knows how to do it?
Thanks in anticipation.

I would speculate that the mechanical components could benefit from lubrication?
If you belive the laser is dirty you could try to carefully reach it with a tops drenched in isopropanol.
I would not insert anything mechanical to try to clean it.

It seems like it was eons ago that I last spun a CD but I do remember having a CD cleaning disc that had small brushes on it that cleaned the laser. Remember using it in my car when CD’s starting skipping and from memory it seemed to work. Not sure if they are still available.