Well, "I" call them crappy only in relation to the near legendary durable swing arm lasers.  They last damn near forever, especially the CDM-1 on the old units.  Glass optics and a quality NEVER to be repeated.

The modern 3 beam pickups are just cheaper to make and can be made far more compact.  Which is likely why everyone switched to them.

As to a "better" upgrade?  Nope.

I have several Overtures and Century's.  I do prefer the swing arm pickups, but I have 2 of the linear one's and they work perfect after replacing the laser.  The swing arms are long no longer available so you would be out of luck.  But you can fix yours.

Martin "Dillen" on this site sells belts and kits.  He is the go-to guy and I  have bought from him.  Ebay belts do not work right.

thank you for your reply.

Just to be completly sure, is this the only thing I need? beside the belts?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Philips-CDM12-4-laser-unit-CD-Optical-pick-up-No-Mechanism-UK-STOCK/254402894336?epid=1779272837&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item3b3b981a00:g:wc8AAOSwFShau77g&amdata=enc%3AAQAFAAACcBaobrjLl8XobRIiIML1V4Imu%252Fn%252BzU5L90Z278x5ickkrDx%252B2NLp21dg6hHbHAkGMXPbjjOKY4AaZT00g4Pd9kC7751oBK0cXXuEXvR3nmhv3LDlW0bHgYanfG26E2zH8KH9Xen%252BrR8w84IA9FSBQJoPn3wQB6Q0Gf7r1fVIU4SP5ciW9va3kFKn30ZAb3WxIt0qnhTqWFOtKB%252FvbECCRUsr5hjbMvtUhceBHmch%252BiiC9XLvFMt86S%252FolYSzNJ5IJjEg%252FQRZlN7hSvEFgNgwdbpoMi2fq0GrwW3NwQEARwOCvJ0tLKh85O2qgRRJrqQxr2eiHl%252F%252B%252BJ1Mk6zNIR5ah3HIObJRyXtRzud3uud3KmV1%252FUjYVVhJqhQoRu6tao2krqWHIDAlhOZw%252BlAJvfDI%252BycNsz%252FohFV0xn6TWBAYg5u9yQBIA93Mt9OtGF23hq0H7SNgkwkCbhLK3AdSiaKulCN%252FpeaNfJQV%252BoQy2ZJ3YYAJi4Ty2ebmT4Pbx8MkXpPl1utPEwML4J2%252BS5RFgI%252Bm9XYLpgpN5nHa%252BdtrMvqCrKfjOSZ9c71KrVM9Q9%252FHPcQRA78Qfs2tbQvCU6GLj6v8dudaAYRslSQHrPv8FjhYx9e4PFSZDn2Wangr3hUKM59ETsxt6cUcbGvM%252FKM%252BKITcxo2Hc7qWrpRIu6pkfJ3vIO7FaKXCA3Jul18uKMDtQPe2XlZB1ov%252B1XCswlySLU0pHFjw%252B%252Fl16s6DHoubqC%252B8jp1kHO%252BpRt%252BDM8OS%252BiVoI8E76TvrzjBQahsZysh1U8%252BWSSso2wmKr3xukCnwz9RS%252Fc0CGfjs356vjGbxSyvPWjabUQ%253D%253D%7Ccksum%3A25440289433604a20ec40e1446238b2ced6355917dfd%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A2334524

MOST of the time, yes.  But it IS possible that the decoder board may have a bad surface mount capacitor or two.  I would NOT do this without being familiar with laser replacement.  You can kill the pickup very easily with just static electricity.

There ARE tutorials for this, though.  In any case, worst is you have a spare laser if the mechanism just needed a few caps.  There are also people that rebuild them for you.