Rowe Combo, CD Attenuator & CD Players?

[MrD]

I have a couple Rowe Jukeboxes from the 1980s.  A R-90, R-91, and R-92.  The R-91 was a combo with 45s and CDs (I actually just got rid of this one).

The computers in the other two are all the same, and they can be converted to combo's if I can get the CD players.

The one that I have is a Pioneer 6 Disc, PD-M403.    Supposedly they can also use some kind of Sony 10 disc player?.     

The PD-M403 is non-working, but it came out of a combo unit.  It has a circuit board inside, and a CD Attenuator connecting to the RCA jacks on the back.

My first question is, what does a CD Attenuator actually do?   I "think" it cuts down the signal, to something more in line with the phono? 

Second, I've read online that the internal circuit board isn't necessary, and it can be hardwired directly to the CD player.    I found the following:

"You don't actually need the little board inside the CD  Player.  All
you need to do is run 3 wires from the plu in the CCC board.  The
green wire goes directly to the output of the infrared sensor "eye" on
the front panel of the cd player (plese note that this eye should be
removed in order to avoid any false triggering).   The Blue wire
should be connected to the Mute line of the CD player and the black
wire should go to the logic ground of the CD player.  Red wire is not
needed.  We ran about 10 combo's this way using sony players and never
had any technical problems. "

Has anyone actually done this? 

Third, can anyone tell me if there were other brands/models that worked besides the PD-M403? and what 10 disc versions worked and how were they hooked up?

I'd really like to convert these to combos and I'm just not sure where to get the parts. 

Thanks for any help anyone can give me!

[Ken Layton]

We had a few CD combo Rowe jukes on our route back in the day. We had both the 6 disc and 10 disk versions. The "CD Attenuator" does indeed cut the audio signal strength down to the amplifier. This was done for a good reason: so that the volume between 45 vinyl records and CD selections are exactly the same level. In other words if a customer selected a record and then a cd, so that the volume of the cd would not come blasting out!

Bruce Wentworth at A&B Jukebox Repair may be able to help you with the other parts of your question:

http://www.abjukeboxrepair.com/

[MrD]

Thanks for the info.   I think that will guide me in the right direction!