Arcam Alpha 5+ CD strange problem

Hi again, long time no visit.
I have a strange problem with my 5+ CD player. Have been using it for a good few years now with black box 500 DAC. Am now doing up the house to sell and am going minimal so have put the black box into storage, however when plugging the CD direct into my amp there is no sound now. It still works when I replug the DAC in and have tried different cables and different inputs on the amp so its definatley something to do with the onboard DAC in the CD player.
I have taken off the top and had a good look round and everything looks in order. There was a very slight smell as if something had burnt out.
Whats the best/most cost effective way to go about fixing it?
I've done a good search of the site but its not turned anything up
Thanks in advance for any help
Jim

 

does the cd player have a digital out mode, if so it may be directing the signal to the output instead of the internal dac??????????

 

I've checked and re read the manual and there is definatley no way to switch the output mode that I can see

 

i would ring avondale audio, net audio or arcam. my micromega never mentioned a digi out on off mode but it had one, you held a certain button (assigned to something else if pressed quickly) and it turned it on / off.

 

thanks, I've emailed arcam. will ring avondale tomorrow as well

 

If you have a digital signal out that fairly well pins it down to a the opamps and physical connections.

check to see if the cheap pcb mounted rca socket have not come loose. The A5 I've played with [ten plus] seem to have a habit of breaking the solder joints.

The likely cause is that the psu supplying the opamps has a problem some of the resistors have a tendancy to over heat.

An alternative is that the dac board has lifted on its silly pins ...though mine normally displays an error or the disc spins very fast.

 

Had a reply back from arcam, usual we don't know take it to a dealer.
Everything seemed ok on the board. Is the DAC board the small one that sits on top? if so I took it off and reseated it but this made no difference