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Saturday Deluxe / 6 June 2020

By Paul Sinclair

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85


Rupert Hine

Very sad to report that record producer Rupert Hine died yesterday, aged 72. He is probably best known as producer and mentor to Howard Jones and he worked with Jones on his first two solo albums Human’s Lib and Dream Into Action.

When I spoke to Howard a couple of years ago about the reissues of both those albums, he was effusive in his praise of Hine, telling me that “it was perfect, really, to have Rupert”. He added that while Hine understood the technology and knew how to use all the synths “it’s not really the technical side [that makes a] great record. Rupert was a proper producer in the sense that he knew how to get the best out of me. It’s a psychology, it’s enthusiasm.”

It is notable that when Howard Jones choose to work with another producer – Arif Mardin – for this third album One to One, this was when the hits dried up and in the interviews he conducted around the promotion of that reissue, I sensed a kernel of regret that he hadn’t continued with Rupert for that third record.

Of course, by the time Rupert got around to working with Howard in the early eighties, he already had a decade of producing under his belt, working with artists like Kevin Ayers, Anthony Phillips, Murray Head, Camel and The Waterboys – as well as putting out his own solo material. Post Howard Jones, Hine would go on to work with Tina Turner, Rush and the Thompson Twins (to name but three).

Actually, I have quite an interesting story about Rupert, because while at school in Buckinghamshire, I had a friend, Derek Murphy, who was in a band and obsessed with music and Paul McCartney. Like many of us, he dreamed of being a rock star, but while we were sensible and stayed on to do our A-levels, Derek just left to make the tea and learn to be an engineer in Rupert Hine’s Farmyard Studios, which was in Little Chalfont, not far from where I lived (this must have been around 1986-7).

Anyway, Derek – who later changed his name by deed poll to ‘Derek McCartney’ – ended up working on Stevie Nicks’ fourth solo album The Other Side of the Mirror (which Hine was producing) while we were all still swotting away for our exams! Even cooler for him, was that as well as being credited in an assistant engineer capacity, one night they needed some bass guitar on a song and Derek said ‘I play bass’, and so if you examine the album credits all these years later, there he is listed as a bass player, his name alongside other legendary musicians like guitarist Waddy Wachtel and drummer Jerry Marotta! We were all very impressed. It seemed a lot cooler than learning about elasticity of demand in Economics!

RIP Rupert Hine.

CD Player Blues

My CD player broke a few days ago! I say ‘CD player’, it’s an OPPO BDP 105D, so as some of you will be aware it’s a multi-function unit that will play CDs, SACD, DVD-A, Blu-rays etc.

I’ve owned it for three or four years and it’s a great machine (with network streaming capabilities), but every disc I insert now results in a ‘unknown disc’ error. The advice seems to be that it will be laser related, so I can either purchase a new ‘laser assembly unit’ online and then have a go at replacing it myself, or find a hi-fi specialist that can do all that for me.

These machines aren’t cheap, so it’s rather disconcerting that some small internal error can render it completely useless after such a relatively short period of time! Also, it was only back around Feb time that I finally got the SDE office surround sound set-up sorted (I spent £1000 on used speakers/sub-woofer and theatre amp) and it was all running off the OPPO!

I do have an old Yamaha SACD player (DVD-S1700) – thank God I didn’t get rid of it – that I will have to call into action as a back-up, but in the meantime the SDE office has been a vinyl-only affair for the last week. Now, without wanting to kick the ‘CD v vinyl’ hornet’s nest (really) I have been enjoying playing my vinyl, immensely. Don’t get me wrong, I love CDs, but I think its undeniable that you do engage with the physical item a bit more when you play a vinyl record.

One of the albums I put on yesterday was The Divine Comedy‘s Office Politics. First off, what a great album, but secondly that artwork inside and outside the gatefold cover looks fantastic. And there’s some great detail, where they’ve really run with the concept, because on the lyrics/credits printed on the inner sleeves there’s some annotations/corrections in ‘red pen’ a bit like your boss would do when he reads over a report you’ve written. I chuckled at a ‘post-it-note’ next to some lyrics with a scribble that said ‘better run this past legal’. All this wonderful attention to detail was really enhancing the pleasure of listening to the actual music. It exists to a lesser extent on CD but you certainly do miss out if you are just streaming this stuff (but I guess we all know that).

Anyway, back to the problem at hand and at the moment I’m planning to order a laser assembly unit from eBay and try and fix this myself. If anyone thinks that’s a really bad idea, please speak up now!

Have a good weekend, and stay safe.
Paul

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85 Comments

85 thoughts on “Saturday Deluxe / 6 June 2020”

  1. Really sad to hear about Rupert Hine. His three “classic” A&M albums have always been very important to me. Probably already well known by all of you, but he achieved some well deserved success here in Sweden. Mainly thanks to just one guy on national radio; Kjell Alinge (credited on W N D) who never stopped playing Immunity on his weekly show.

    Here’s a link to a performance made for Swedish TV back when bands played for real when on stage. A truly excellent gig!

    https://www.svtplay.se/video/13943448/mandagsborsen/mandagsborsen-avsnitt-8?start=auto

    It probably can’t be viewed outside of Sweden but I thought I’d link to it anyway. Some of you tech-savvy guys can probably find some proxy-server to go through or whatever.

    I guess this is the same show that, according to Discogs, was released on DVD at some point. Haven’t seen that one myself but it’s well worth checking out!

    And don’t forget he produced Jona Lewie as well…

    …no more than a firefly in the night…

  2. “He is probably best known as producer and mentor to Howard Jones”

    Not in my house. To me he’s the producer of Saga’s Worlds Apart (a perennial favourite) and Heads or Tales, and Rush’s Presto and Roll the Bones. Sad news. And great story.

    Too bad about your CD player – mine died a while ago, and I’m aghast that I can’t even find a cheap machine that will record tapes (I still tape things off the radio) – many are now built with “play-only” cassette decks. Madness.

    PS: May want to look at the RIP line again.

    1. Not exactly cheap,but if you want to splash out you can get,, Coby mpcd-102,,£192,,on buy,com!,,, does a lot of stuff, probably pick one up on eBay or gumtree for about£100,hope this helps,your right they are few and far between theas days,

  3. Some bands/artists and producers are made for each other. George Martin and The Beatles being the obvious one. But when the Human League decided to work with ‘name producers’ Jam and Lewis instead of Martin Rushent again, it was the beginning of the end of their golden period. Same goes for The Stone Roses. Touches of John Leckie’s magic were evident on Second Coming (the ones he worked on), but the ones he didn’t record/produce are glaring. I also think it was a big clanger when the re-formed Roses chose current ‘name’ Paul Epworth over Leckie. Hence the diabolical All For One and the below standard Beautiful Thing. Howard’s first two are indeed 80s pop classics. And that was down to both him and Rupert.

  4. Really good to see some positive comments on here about The Fixx who Rupert Hine worked closely with on their first 4 albums that also still sound so good today 30 years later, Jamie West-Oram is a very innovative talented guitarist The Fixx are an extremely underrated band but those who know them are huge fans and all 10 of their studio albums have some superb songs on them.
    Their whole sound and song construction plus the lyrics are top notch as working with Rupert Hine gave them a rich palette of sounds to expand on, I preferred them to Rush who I found too bombastic at times though still a good band, but if you like the socially aware lyrics of Rush and are prepared to hear something more melodic and accessible try The Fixx, I have asked Paul if he’s ever heard of them but it’s gone right over his head haha sorry Paul but there’s probably just too much music out there to keep up with everything.

  5. One of the best producers has gone. I have to admit that I love his WAVING NOT DROWNING album and the song THE FORMULA (as THINKMAN). He gave commercial sucsess to SAGA (but not their best albums) and some excellent albums of the “Intelligent Pop” by THE FIXX.

    RIP – Rupert Hine

    1. Well, I think the first four SAGA albums are all on roughly the same level… I tend to vary between the debut, Silent Knight and Worlds Apart. So, Hine took an already very well-formed band and made them more commercially appealing without losing the edge. I think songs like On the Loose, Wind Him Up, Framed and No Stranger all speak for the quality of the collaboration.

  6. Hine gave The Fixx their signature sound. At a time when everyone was leaning hard into reverb settings, The Fixx instead sounded like they were playing right in front of you. I always appreciated the balance he brought to all the instruments. Everyone in the band was represented in the mix.

    His work with Rush was inspired. He brought their sound into the 90s in a way they would not have been able to achieve with their previous producers. I will always appreciate the Prince-like touches he gave Alex Lifeson’s guitar on several tracks on the album Presto.

  8. Quantum Jump it should have read. Love how my cellphone is more aware of what I want to type than I am – not my world either, obviously.

  9. 2020 – what a swine of a year for celebs dying. Never mind the state of everything else. Rupert Hine came to my my house because of his work with Chris de Burgh. Still think The Getaway is his best work. Later his name came up in association with Rush, Waterboys etc. Good solo LPs as well. Will stick Quantum Leap on later. Good man and again gone way too early.
    As to your CD player problem, hope you can get it fixed to your satisfaction. Me I still have my Sony CD player that has turned 26 and while knocking on is still healthy and is not playing up too much as of yet. Fingers crossed. Dreadful how the industry makes sure we don’t hold on to present day players too long. Not my world. As to downloads and streams – not in this lifetime.

  10. Regarding the Laser Assembly Paul, I wouldn’t recommend having a go at doing it yourself unless you are a wiz at electronics. I would most certainly ask someone who services these things to have a go at it. It may look like a straightforward swap but it isn’t at all, if it was everyone would be trying to do it. I had a Meridian DVD unit fail bought a replacement drive to swap them and wouldn’t attempt it. Sold the unit as spares and still have the replacement drive in the cupboard !!.

  11. I don’t want to be a conspiracy, but this is one more case of the programmed obsolescence, the evil strategy of capitalism to fill the planet with garbage and for us to buy again and again. I also have a Bluray Oppo, they are wonderful. A couple of years ago the laser failed, I wrote to the factory in Los Angeles and they shipped that part again. The factory closed, but it is possible that they still exist for the reference of your machine. The most ironic thing is that sometimes it works better and has more durability than other lower-end brands. Oppo is part of the Chinese conglomerate BBK Electronics, maybe if you write to them you will get an answer. I am very sorry for this mishap, it is the worst thing that can happen to a music lover.

  12. My only familiarity with Rupert is on the two Rush albums he produced, “Presto” and “Roll The Bones”. As a long time Rush fan, I view those two releases as a rebirth for the band and think they still hold up well.

  13. RIP Rupert Hine. Love Better Be Good To Me. One Thing Leads To Another by The Fixx & New Song & No One Is To Blame by Howard Jones are all good songs.

  14. Wouldn’t necessarily put the failure of his third album just down to choice of producer. Musical tastes had moved on by late 86 and that sound was pretty old hat by then. All I Want is less adventurous than What Is Love which preceeded it by three years. I don’t know any other tracks from this album but if that is anything to go by…

    1. If you read my review of the One to One reissue you will see the quality of the songs (or lack of) is more than touched upon.

    1. When I bought my Oppo from Richer Sounds I compared it to the Cambridge Audio 4K BD player. The latter had less features and was £50 more expensive. Salesman told me they were both made in the same factory and you could tell by looking at them that they were related. There were less connection options on the CA and the remote wasn’t backlit. An easy choice then, but made even easier now it’s a choice of one…

  16. Hey Paul, your Oppo story reminded me that I still have my original Akai CD player in the attic which I purchased in 1984 when CD’s first came out (and paid a small fortune for it). Yes Akai was a respected brand in the 70s & 80s. Their tape decks & Reel To Reel decks were superb. I’d forgotten how heavy the thing is – plugged it in and still works producing great sound. It has a feature which I’ve never seen on any other CD Player, a “without button” Remember in the days of old when you programmed in the songs you wanted to play. ie a 12 track CD and you wanted to hear 10 of the 12 tracks your would have to program in all 10 tracks. This player enable you to program the 2 you didn’t want to hear using the “without button” Quite ingenious for the time.

    1. I had an Akai player back in the day (a CD-62, I think). My original one was a JVC, but that never had a remote. The Akai was replaced by a Yamaha for some reason, then a Pioneer. I had 4 players in the space of about 8-9 years and the fourth of those is still here after 26 years. I recall one of the middle two having a skip track function, but can’t remember which one and it may have been both. They both had headphone sockets built with volume control, too. I also recall one of them was replaced because it was too noisy. I couldn’t listen to music at a low volume because I could hear the disc spinning!

  17. Sad news indeed. RIP Mr Hine. Apart from being an excellent producer, I had a soft spot for his solo album, Waving Not Drowning and in particular the track “Set Up”. Always loved that track.
    Misplaced Love is another wonderful song by him

  19. In the states Oppo charges a flat $100 fee and they not only replace any and all broken parts but also bench test it and make sure it has the most up to date firmware too. I’ve had 2 of mine serviced and they even replaced parts for cosmetic reasons so it looked like new again. Plus they do all that and ship it back on their dime. I think it’s worth it.

    1. Rega did me a favour like this a few years back, I bought a Rega Osiris amplifier second hand about 6 years ago through eBay and after about 6 months a channel went down. I spoke to the guys who I had bought the rest of my equipment through at the local Audio T and they said it had a lifetime warranty irrespective of when or how I bought it, Rega paid shipping both ways (it weighed 26KG), they fixed it, cleaned it, changed out a slightly scratched side panel and updated all of the internal firmware. Came back in perfect nick and didn’t cost me a penny.
      I haven’t spent an audio penny with another company since.

  23. I always loved Rupert Hines’ solo track “Hamburgers” (still have my copy of the 70s Music For Pleasure LP Rock Reflections). By some odd coincidence a line from it popped into my head last night, and I played it for my wife, who didn’t know it. RIP Mr Hines.

  24. Hi Paul,
    Hopefully it’s just a clean the lens issue with your oppo.

    I also have a lot of multi-format discs that required different media players for DVD-Audio and SACD. Since setting up a media network, I now rip all my media to a hard drive.

    Some intelligent IT folks have found a way to rip SACD’s using your mac/pc and a network connected blu-ray player. Basically, the pc will connect to the blu-ray player via your network connection. You’ll be left will the dsd file.

    Sony have also released a free media player called ‘Music Centre for PC’ which can play dsd files on your pc. There is also a mobile version.

    There’s also a few programmes that can rip DVD-Audio and Blu-ray Audio.

  25. I have a top of the range Sony CD player that my grandma bought me for my 21st birthday- 30 years later it still works fine. They don’t make them like they did

    1. My JVC midi sized CD player is still going strong. The first CD single I bought when I got it was Dear God by XTC, so I guess that makes it around 1987!

      1. This is a universal tale. Machines from 30 to 40 years ago still working, but all the rubbish in between long since defunct. Built in obsolescence as policy

  29. RIP Rupert
    One of my favorite albums that he produced was Round the Back by Café Jacques. It was one of his favorites as well, as he once said in a comment. He also produced their second and final lp International, also a favorite of mine. The first Thinkman record is another huge favorite. Too soon! He will be missed.

  30. Two great tracks on Tina Turner’s 2nd and 3rd comeback albums. I’ll Be Thunder on Break Every Rule (title track also produced by him) and Falling Like Rain on Foreign Affairs. On Private Dancer he produced “I Might Have Been Queen” and “Better Be Good To Me”.

  31. i love the production on Dream Into Action, some of it is quite adventurous and reminds me in places of more experimental acts like Japan or Propaganda. “Elegy” and “Assault and Battery” are just so good. At the same time, singles wise it was cutting edge pop, brash and digital, but not cold, just listen to the extended “Look Mama” for that. I think you may be right and that maybe Howard had external pressure to be bigger in America hence Arif Mardin being brought in for “One to One”. But “Dream Into Action” and “Human’s Lib” remain the key HJ albums, and I think Rupert deserves the plaudits given for his role. RIP Rupert Hine.

  32. Paul, nine years ago I replaced my old Onkyo CD/DVD-Audio player with an Oppo universal player, because the Onkyo started showing error messages, and could not read any disc format I placed in the machine (plus I wanted to play SACD and Blu-ray discs).

    Later I learned about lens cleaners, which are a CD disc with a small brush attached to the plastic surface made of micro fibers that clean off any dust particles or other tiny debris that may be attached to the laser lens. When inserted in the tray, you press play so that the disc spins and cleans the lens. There is audio at the end of the lens cleaning process that demonstrates the laser is working properly again. I purchased the lens cleaner disc and tried it on the malfunctioning Onkyo CD player, and it worked! So I use the Onkyo CD player in my den, while the Oppo is in the living room attached to my main surround sound system.

    Again, I’ve had my Oppo for nine years now with no issues whatsoever. You may want to try a lens cleaner disc first before paying a large amount of money for a repair or a new universal player-component.

  33. As many others already mentioned it, what about “the FIXX” – one of the most underrated bands from the 80’s, their last sign of life was the quite good “Beautiful Friction” from 2012 (already eight years ago – puh!)
    Rupert Hine did some brilliant work altogether with some of my all-time-faves like RUSH, SAGA (“Worlds apart” still being the pinnacle of their massive output throughout the years) and the FIXX, of course. And his one-man project “Thinkman” (with a pseudo-band for videoclip and television appearance) – especially the first and the third/last record – is definitely worth a listen.
    One should also mention Jeannette Obstoj, who worked together with Hine on many records contributing lyrics, also on records from the FIXX; she already passed away in 2015.
    The english wiki article about Rupert Hine is definitely worth reading – a lot of NAME dropping, wow!

  34. While many of the artists/albums listed in the tribute are important, as others have mentioned it’s Rupert’s work with The Fixx that means the most to me. He really was a “sixth member of the band” when he worked with them, and his solo work has a lot in common with the Fixx sound. Hard to believe they meant nothing in their home country. They are my second all time favorite band (after Simple Minds) and I consider myself very lucky to have been involved in reissuing/anthologizing some of their work back in my music biz days. They went on to work with other producers as time went on, but the Rupert-produced work really stands out. Cy and Jamie from The Fixx are also featured in the Tina Turner video for “Better Be Good To Me,” with Jamie’s distinctive guitar sound front and center. Another Rupert Hine production!

  35. I bought a Tivoli CD player 20 yrs ago because its good looking. A bit of Danish Oil keeps it looking pretty and the only Chris De Burgh song I would let near it is Bill Baily’s tribute “Beautiful Ladies”.

  36. RIP Rupert.

    I am originally from Buckinghamshire, too and still have the CD player I bought when I was living there in the 90s. It’s not actually in use, as my own Oppo is now taking care of silver disc spinning, but it still works fine. There’s one on eBay at the moment for £230, which is more than I paid for it in 1994!

    1. Forgot to say that I have been mildly unimpressed with the Oppo. I frequently have to fiddle around with the video settings whenever I get a new film on Blu-ray, as it never seems to be able to handle playing each one the same way as the last. It also frequently requires switching off and on again at the wall before it’ll let me feed it a disc.

      Even though the picture is superb when it gets everything right, I actually think it’s a good thing they don’t make them any more. I bet anyone who works in their customer support team has to retire from exhaustion after a few months of working there!

  37. Do you not also have a oppo 4k machine?,can this not take over from the broken one?,,and is Derek still making a Living out of music or did he regret not taking his a levels,?was it a brief moment of fame? or did it lead to bigger things?

    1. Yeah, the other OPPO is rigged up to the main TV in our front room. Yes, I could use it – so this is definitely not a global emergency – but best if that stays linked up to the UHD telly. The Yamaha will do for the time being, although that’s useful as well for DVD watching because it’s multi-region… In terms of Derek I don’t really know what happened to him. Another mate did reconnect with him a couple of years ago. I think he’s had an interesting off-beat life but rock stardom didn’t happen.

      1. You mention multi-region capabilities of your Yamaha… are you aware of the free “super disc” region-free hack for the Oppo? It’s been around for 10 years or more, and works just as well on the latest Oppo’s as the older ones. It has never been disabled by firmware updates (at least in my experience). Basically it’s been given a wink-and-a-nod by Oppo. It’s magic works on DVDs only, multi-region blu-ray requires an inexpensive hardware dongle (Oppo has looked the other way, on these as well). I found Superdisc on the Oppo wiki site, and the dongle on eBay.

        2. Bought an Oppo a couple of years ago and fitted multi-region hardware mod myself (it was really easy!). However I’ve been declining the Oppo firmware updates since then in case they affect it – have I been over cautious?

          1. Probably- my mods are still working. Frankly there’d be an outcry if they were disabled, and you’d know it.

  40. A few things about the Oppo. I’ve owned four of them over the years, and still using two of them. They’re extremely well built, so it’s surprising that you’re having troubles. In any case, Oppo, while having ceased sales a couple years ago, is still offering service on their players. I believe there’s a flat fee option that’s very reasonable. One of their techs posts regularly and openly on Blu-ray.com and other a/v forums.

    Another, somewhat janky, option is to utilize the Oppo’s rear HDMI input to feed the signal from a lesser player through its superior DAC circuitry. This won’t solve for SACDs and DVDAs, but it could get you through in a pinch!

    2. Yes, Oppo will still do repairs. I’ve got 3 Oppo players (BDP-83, BDP-105D and as a spare that I never use, a UDP-205). Even after Oppo got out of the consumer audio/video business, they repaired my BDP-83(which had totally failed), though since repair, there’s an occasional skip when playing recordable media such as CD-R & DVD-R, so I play those discs on other non-Oppo players, so as to reduce wear & tear on my Oppo units. My BDP-105D is now five years old and still going strong.
      I bought my UDP-205 the day after Oppo announced they were getting out of the consumer audio/video business. I acted quickly before the scalping began. By having 3 Oppos, my ability to play my SACD & DVD-Audio discs is assured. I burn my high resolution audio downloads as DVD-Audio, because it is more reliable and cost effective than using a music server.

  41. As important as his work with HoJo was, Rupert’s work with the Fixx over 4 albums was just as important. Reach the Beach in particular was massive in the US.

  43. RIP Rupert, Thinkman and The Fixx and the fab Quantum Jump… Eight Seconds and Stevie Nicks to name a few. The loss will be felt Deep and Wide across the globe given the international appeal of his music.

  44. Still using my Audiolab 8000CDM/DAC combo which still works fine more than 20 years after I bought it. The only thing I’ve had to replace in all that time are the LEDs which work the digital display.

  45. RIP Rupert Hine – I only really know his work with Howard Jones but I admire the producer profession greatly (I think they are often overlooked).

    Office Politics is a great album and even though the artwork was derided by a few posters on SDE I think it is great (and still reminds me of How Dare You by 10cc).
    I really miss well-thought out artwork. When CDs started taking over the creative canvas became so much smaller to the overall detriment (not that there haven’t been some excellent designs that have really made use of the format).

    Hope you manage to get your disc player woes sorted out Paul.

  46. Sad to hear of Rupert Hine’s passing. His album ‘Immunity’ is a personal favourite, so it will get an airing today in his memory.
    I’m a bit nervous about your disc playing issue as that’s the machine I have, although mine probably doesn’t get as much use as yours as I mainly play vinyl, or stream to my Linn DSM player. I’d be interested to see an update post when you’ve rectified the issue.

  47. Glad I didn’t get an Oppo then LOL. I have had British HIFI since the eighties, I won’t name which makes, as I wouldn’t want to damage their reputations, but have I had problem after problem, predominantly with CD players, leading me to jettisoning one marque completely about five years ago. The replacement CD player, from another British make, lasted four years (the longest ever) then in for repair for a new laser plus capacitors and it lasted a further year. I thought eff this and bought Marantz (PCM6006 and CD6006) from Richer with a six year warranty. Guess what, it’s the cheapest HIFI I have owned since 1985 and it’s the best.

    1. I had a second hand Marantz CD62 MKII Cd Player for ten years and the drawer wouldn’t open. I got a second hand Marantz CD67 in 2010 and this was faulty. I exchanged for a Marantz CD6002 and am still using today. I possibly have used it for six out of the ten years as I did not have the use of a amp for a while. I love Marantz CD Players.

  48. It is worth a try at cleaning the lens. I have a Arcam Alpha 7 cd player and the cds stopped being read by the player. I removed the top casing of the player to get access to the laser lens, then using a soft microfibre cloth with some Isopropyl alcohol I gave the lens a gentle clean, left it for about 10 minutes for the alcohol to evaporate then gave it a try and it worked a treat, all cds being read now. Might be worth a go.

      1. Paul, more Oppo love here. I am on my third (sold my original 83, but I still have the NuForce edition I got later and then a 205). My only issue was with the first 83, when the drawer started refusing to open every time. The easiest cure, according to Oppo, was to just leave a CD in the drawer all the time. Works perfectly ever since. You would think that problem would be mechanical, but I believe they said it was a matter of startup sequence, and the laser activating before the drawer is released. Have you powered down your 105 with a disc in there and rebooting? You probably have. Also, I wonder if you could backflash the firmware to an earlier version and then bring it back to current? I’ve heard of that solving some problems, too. Beyond that, I think cleaning the laser cleaning idea is a very good one. Good luck!

  49. Very sad on hearing about the passing of producer extraordinaire Rupert Hine, I’ve just watched and listened to a fascinating interview he done last year on youtube for cherry red records https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rffDKi0YXto
    What a really nice intelligent guy and a superb producer who really brought the best out of the artists he worked with particularly UK band The Fixx who he mentions in the youtube interview, and he says people in the UK don’t know them but they were very successful in the U.S. he went on to produce 4 of their albums including the big hit album “Reach The Beach”.
    Paul have you ever heard of this band? They are well worth checking out, I have hardly ever seen anyone on here mention this incredible band who still produce very melodic and intelligent well constructed thought provoking songs, sadly they were very much ignored in general by the audiences here but in the U.S. but they loved the band and got their sound.
    Rupert Hine also around this time produced 2 fine albums by Chris De Burgh “The Getaway” and “Man On The Line” a few years before De Burgh got bogged down with The Lady In Red.
    Other highlights in Ruperts production credits were the Stevie Nicks album “The Other Side Of The Mirror” and the 2 Rush albums “Presto” and “Roll The Bones” for which Alex Lifeson had heard The Fixx Guitarist Jamie West-Oram’s spatial guitar sound on the radio and found out that the producer was Rupert and the rest is history…RIP Rupert Hine.

  51. I know it probably won’t be this in your case, but after I have played a bluray disc on my bluray player, then switched it off, then later put it back on and tried to play a CD – I know, all the audiophiles will disapprove – I get an Unknown Disk error. I sort it by putting a bluray disc in again, ejecting it, then inserting the CD I want to play without switching off the player in between.
    For me, as far as CD compared with vinyl is concerned, I appreciate all the advantages of vinyl, but I decided to stay with CDs, for several practical reasons. I do like it when artwork uses the very compactness of the CD to best advantage – I love the packaging for Eno’s Music for Installations, for example. However, Sgt Pepper has to be 12″ square to work best, so thank goodness for the SDE CD/bluray set!

  52. Although his “solo” work isn’t surely appealing for a massive audience, it is a pity that aside from two single-CD best ofs published by Cherry Red (one from his own albums and the other from his Thinkman project) nothing else is easily available. Perhaps more comprehensive reeditions should exist…

  53. Worth doing, Oppo players are great. I’ve done this on my Linn Unidisk CD player (£7k when new, though I picked it up second hand for a lot less). The replacement cost me £60. Took me about 10 minutes from start to finish and worked perfectly. My advice would be to buy the laser assembly from someone with at least some hi-fi pedigree (rather than a cheap grey import) and check whether there are any fitting recommendations – I had to unsolder a bridge wire on the ribbon connector which was for antistatic protection in transit. Apart from that it was a straight plug ‘n’ play job. Take lot of photos along the way (before you disassemble) so you can find your way back if you need to. Let us all know how you get on !

  54. It’s funny how much you miss something that you take for granted when it suddenly stops working! I feel your pain! My Denon RCD-M41 CD Player recently ‘ate’ a promo CD I’d put in it (I probably won’t do that again!). The CD would play but if ejected the tray would just pop out without the CD. It took me four months (and I really don’t do this stuff!) to finally take the screws out and remove the cover just enough to use tweezers to pull the CD out of the top! It’s great to have it back and it seems to be working OK, One Dove’s ‘Morning Dove White’ getting a spin at the mo! I hope you manage to fix yours Paul!

    RIP Rupert Hines… heavily involved in a lot of the music I’ve enjoyed over the years

  55. I was a huge Saga Fan back in the days and still occasionally play Worlds Apart. He also producef the Fixx, Tina Turner and Chris de Burgh (…). For some reason I thought him and Thomas Dolby are the same. Oh well, ignorance of youth. I can only imagine the fun he and Neal Peart are having these days. RIP.

  56. It is such a shame to hear of Rupert’s passing. He produced albums that are indespensable in my collection – the first two Howard Jones albums and the two Rush albums spring to mind. One of the great “what-ifs will always be what if Howard hadn’t ditched Rupert for album #3.

  57. I don’t have any knowledge of this product but I would at least take the lid off it and see if there is something obviously wrong with it before ordering new parts. Perhaps the laser unit needs a clean?

  58. Sometimes using a Good Quality lenses cleaned can sometimes fix the problem. Not sure if it will work but worth a try. Maybe you have already tried a lense cleaner.

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