Technics SL-D2 Help please

Burtuckyboy

New Member
Hey everyone I'm a rookie who picked up a nice Techics SL-D2. Sounds horrible even with a clean LP. Noticed one of the RCA/Phono cables is split. The ground wire appears fine. How easy is it to replace those, or should I take it to somebody that repairs vintage equipment? After some research I'm going to buy the AT95e cartridge too. Any other tips/suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks. Todd20180318_213003.jpg 20180318_212916.jpg
 
Depends upon your soldering skills. In the scheme of things, a pretty easy fix. But you have to be careful, as the very fine tonearm wires attach to the same board as the interconnect cable. You don't want to damage them, or you will be facing a much more difficult project.

Also, you have to be able to strip off the outer sheath without cutting off the mesh ground wrapped around the inner sheath (which contains the signal wire). The goal is to end up with a return wire (by twisting the mesh into a wire) and a signal wire (by stripping off the inner vinyl/plastic sheath). You do this on both right and left channel cables. You will see what I mean when you remove the bottom panel and look at how the existing interconnect wires are stripped and attached. Make sure to secure the tonearm (and remove the headshell by loosening the round collar where the headshell attaches to the tonearm) before turning the table on its side to remove the bottom panel.

But before you do all this, it looks like you could just split the cable a bit further (use a sharp blade at the "seam", so as not to further extend the damage) and use some electrical tape...it appears unlikely that the wiring itself is damaged. This will allow you to determine why the table sounds so bad before going to the trouble of replacing the wire.

Are you getting sound from both right and left channels? Any hum or buzzing? If yes to the first and no to the second, the cable is probably ok.

That looks like an AT11 cartridge, which is very, very similar to the AT95. However, I think the red stylus assembly has a conical stylus (needle), whereas the AT95 uses an elliptical. You can get a nice elliptical replacement stylus for about $25. The stylus assembly (the red piece) is easily removed by pulling up and out. Of course, a standard AT95e is not a whole lot more than that...but it will not be notably better than the AT11 (or the AT10, if that's what yours is). Same stylus fits either. BTW, the model number of the cartridge is on top of the cartridge body.

If you can provide a better description of the problem with how your table sounds, we can help diagnose it further. But the most likely issue is a damaged or worn stylus. If you have a magnifier, take a look at it for any obvious problems. I had a customer a few weeks bring me a turntable to repair...the stylus had broken completely off. Pretty easy problem to fix! I've also had people bring me turntables that weren't tracking, only to find that therer was so much dust and debris on the stylus it couldn't even make contact with the album.
 
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Depends upon your soldering skills. In the scheme of things, a pretty easy fix. But you have to be careful, as the very fine tonearm wires attach the same board as the interconnect cable. Also, you have to be able to strip off the outer sheath without cutting off the mesh ground wrapped around the inner sheath (which contains the signal wire). The goal is to end up with a return wire (by twisting the mesh into a wire) and a signal wire (by stripping off the inner vinyl/plastic sheath). You do this on both right and left sides. You will see what I mean when you remove the bottom panel and look at how the interconnect wires are attached.

But before you do all this, it looks like you could just split the cable a bit further (at the "seam", so as not to further extend the damage) and use some electrical tape...it appears unlikely that the wiring itself is damaged. This will allow you to determine why the table sounds so bad before going to the trouble of replacing the wire.

Are you getting sound from both right and left channels? Any hum or buzzing? If yes to the first and no to the second, the cable is probably ok.

That looks like an AT11 cartridge, which is very, very similar to the AT95. However, I think the red stylus assembly has a conical stylus (needle), whereas the AT95 uses an elliptical. You can get a nice elliptical replacement stylus for about $25.

If you can provide a better description of the problem with how your table sounds, we can help diagnose it further. But the most likely issue is a damaged or worn stylus. If you have a magnifier, take a look at it for any obvious problems. I had a customer a few weeks bring me a turntable to repair...the stylus had broken completely off. Pretty easy problem to fix! I've also had people bring me turntables that weren't tracking, only to find that therer was so much dust and debris on the stylus it couldn't even make contact with the album.
Depends upon your soldering skills. In the scheme of things, a pretty easy fix. But you have to be careful, as the very fine tonearm wires attach the same board as the interconnect cable. Also, you have to be able to strip off the outer sheath without cutting off the mesh ground wrapped around the inner sheath (which contains the signal wire). The goal is to end up with a return wire (by twisting the mesh into a wire) and a signal wire (by stripping off the inner vinyl/plastic sheath). You do this on both right and left sides. You will see what I mean when you remove the bottom panel and look at how the interconnect wires are attached.

But before you do all this, it looks like you could just split the cable a bit further (at the "seam", so as not to further extend the damage) and use some electrical tape...it appears unlikely that the wiring itself is damaged. This will allow you to determine why the table sounds so bad before going to the trouble of replacing the wire.

Are you getting sound from both right and left channels? Any hum or buzzing? If yes to the first and no to the second, the cable is probably ok.

That looks like an AT11 cartridge, which is very, very similar to the AT95. However, I think the red stylus assembly has a conical stylus (needle), whereas the AT95 uses an elliptical. You can get a nice elliptical replacement stylus for about $25.

If you can provide a better description of the problem with how your table sounds, we can help diagnose it further. But the most likely issue is a damaged or worn stylus. If you have a magnifier, take a look at it for any obvious problems. I had a customer a few weeks bring me a turntable to repair...the stylus had broken completely off. Pretty easy problem to fix! I've also had people bring me turntables that weren't tracking, only to find that therer was so much dust and debris on the stylus it couldn't even make contact with the album.
 
To reply, just go the bottom of the thread, type in your response, and click on "post reply".

Or go to the post in which you inadvertently reposted my response (twice), click on "edit", delete all of the content and then enter the post you were actually trying to make.

Although I do appreciate you repeating my most excellent post...and twice, no less. :)
 
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the at 95e is not significantly different from your current cartridge. I think a new stylus might be all you need
Have you cleaned the stylus btw?
 
Actually the shade tree mechanic in me considered taping the split with electrical tape as you suggest. I will try that next. The sound is flat/mildly distorted. This is the first TT I've had since the mid 80's, so I'm out of the loop. But it did sound like sound was coming from both R and L channels. I will tape it tomorrow and replace the cartridge/stylus asap then report back. Thanks for your time.
 
the at 95e is not significantly different from your current cartridge. I think a new stylus might be all you need
Have you cleaned the stylus btw?
No i haven't cleaned it. What do you suggest? As i stated in the other reply, this is my first TT since the mid 80's as a teenager. Thanks for your time. Todd
 
Sounds like a good plan. I hope that you gleaned from my post that the stylus should be checked and cleaned as a troubleshooting step. But honestly, I always replace a stylus of unknown pedigree as a matter of course. If you go with a replacement, go with an elliptical version...and I cannot recommend Pfanstiehl replacements...their quality control is just not reliable enough. EVG is a more reliable source, and turntableneedles.com is more reliable still.

Before you buy, verify your cartridge model number, as I described above.
 
Easiest option is to lower the stylus slowly quite a few times onto magic eraser.
else you can use a fine brush
 
Use a small artists brush...something with a bit of body to it, moving from rear to front ONLY.

If there appears to be a lot of hardened debris, you can dampen the brush with isopropyl alcohol, but first squeeze out the excess. You don't want it wicking up the cantilever and possibly causing internal problems.

Normally, I would not recommend alcohol for cleaning, but with an old stylus like this, it probably has hardened debris on it.

Do NOT use rubbing alcohol...it often contain oily additives.

If using a brush, it may be easier to do it with the headshell removed. If using alcohol, keep the front of the cartridge (and headshell, obviously) facing downwards. This will help keep the alcohol from wicking up into the cartridge.
 
I'll just replace the cartridge/stylus for now to keep it simple. The AT95e is fairly cheap on Amazon Prime and will arrive in 2 days. I'll order it, tape the split on cable and see how the old TT responds. Thanks again for the advice. Post the results in a few days.
 
If you don't have them, the User Manual and Service Manual are available at the vinylengine web site (free).

You will need to learn how to balance the arm to zero, set the tracking force and anti-skate, and clean the stylus.

In my experience, the AT95e sounds best at 2 grams of tracking force and anti-skate set to around 1.5 on that series of turntables.

It is important to get the new cartridge correctly aligned when you install it. Generally, this means it should be square in the headshell, and the stylus should be 52mm from the headshell washer/gasket.

To use the tracking force gauge built into the tonearm counterweight, you must first calibrate it to zero.
 
Sounds similar to the issue I had with the used SL-D2 I picked up a couple of years ago which had lousy sound and a tear on one of the RCA cables. The issue turned out to be that the wires in the cartridge were mis-matched so double check that the cartridge wires are going to the correct leads.
 
If you don't have them, the User Manual and Service Manual are available at the vinylengine web site (free).

You will need to learn how to balance the arm to zero, set the tracking force and anti-skate, and clean the stylus.

In my experience, the AT95e sounds best at 2 grams of tracking force and anti-skate set to around 1.5 on that series of turntables.

It is important to get the new cartridge correctly aligned when you install it. Generally, this means it should be square in the headshell, and the stylus should be 52mm from the headshell washer/gasket.

To use the tracking force gauge built into the tonearm counterweight, you must first calibrate it to zero.
Good idea. I'll take a look at the User manual tonite after work. Ordered the AT95e with a new headshell. Thank you for the advice.
 
Sounds similar to the issue I had with the used SL-D2 I picked up a couple of years ago which had lousy sound and a tear on one of the RCA cables. The issue turned out to be that the wires in the cartridge were mis-matched so double check that the cartridge wires are going to the correct leads.
Hopefully the taped cord and new cartridge with headshell will sort it out. Should arrive by Wed. Thanks for your time.
 
Well, having a second headshell is always a good thing. Once you get the D2 sorted out, I think you will be quite happy with it...very reliable, and can easily compete with today's good entry-level tables costing $250-500...with the bonus of auto-return. For most folks, auto return is a well-appreciated convenience. You still have all the involvement of doing the needle drop yourself, but no chance of the "hey, what's that ker-thunk, ker-thunk noise I keep hearing" 2 hours after the album ended and you got busy doing something else. Enjoy it.

Oh, and get record cleaning brush (to remove surface debris and reduce static charge before you drop the stylus down), and a stylus brush or some other sort of tool/product to clean the stylus. There are lots of debates about what's best. Personally, I clean the stylus each time I start a "listening session"....probably overkill, but it's so easy and fast to do, I've never seen a reason to change my habits in this regard.
 
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Is there a way to manually override the auto return so that for once I can say that I've heard the Sgt. Pepper's run-out groove?:)
 
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