I am comfortable opening the case, something which I've had to do on a number of occasions due to the mechanical weaknesses of the players, but the electricity of it is beyond me. I have sent the players to my usual repair guy, but as the players have never been sold in this country I am not sure whether he can fix them.

The positive things is that the sparks I noticed was at the plug end of the lead, not the players, and there was no burnt smell.....