SL-1300 very low output level

yawno

New Member
Hi all,

Just acquired a Technics SL-1300 by chance, and aside from the automatic stuff being kind of crazy (tone arm goes to almost dead center of record, then skates outwards really fast, re-homes and is generally crazy...), the real problem at hand is that the output off the turntable is about -40dB peak, super quiet...

Haven't cracked it open yet, but with known good cartridge and audio interface these are my results. Any leads on what I should investigate first?

Thanks in advance
 
Your cartridge isn't a MC? (moving coil- low output)

And you say 'audio interface'- what is that? A line input?

Please confirm you are using a MM cartridge into a RIAA phono input with a MM sensitivity of 2.5mV or so.

A line input (audio interface?) is 150mV or more and it will be very quiet and have no EQ.
 
Sorry for the lack of details. I'm testing with a Shure M44-7 cartridge (moving magnet). Claims to have 9.5mV output. This is going into a Traktor Audio 10 interface. Essentially a phono preamp into an ADC.
Your mentioning the 150mV compared to 2.5mV sounds like it could explain the 40dB difference... Will do more research
 
I looked up this Traktor Audio 10 thing, it's some sort of DJ tool. Specs:

Line Inputs:
Input Impedance 47 kOhm
A/D-D/A to Output:
Full Scale Input Level +12.43 dBu
Dynamic Range, a-weighted 91 dB
THD+N 0.05 %
Frequency Response (96 kHz), +/-0.1 dB 10 Hz - 43 kHz
Direct Thru:
Maximum Input Level +13.56 dBu
Dynamic Range, a-weighted 100 dB
THD+N (Maximum Level) 0.01 %
Frequency Response, +/- 0.05 dB 10 Hz - 45 kHz

Phono Inputs:
Input Impedance 47 kOhm
A/D-D/A to Output:
Full Scale Input Level @ 1 kHz --23.64 dBu
Dynamic Range @ 1 kHz 89 dB
THD+N 0.05 %
Frequency Response IEC curve +/- 0.6 dB
Direct Thru:
Maximum Input Level @ 1 kHz -22.21 dBu
Dynamic Range, a-weighted 89 dB
THD+N 0.01 %
Frequency Response IEC curve +/- 0.6 dB

Line Outputs (D/A):
Full Scale Output Level +12.1 dBu
Dynamic Range 102.1 dB (A)
THD+N 0.05 %
Frequency Response (96 kHz), -0.1 dB 10 Hz - 43 kHz
 
In going further into this, I read the part in the manual about connecting a turntable. It sounds to me like this device is not meant as a Phono Preamp, in other words, it's not meant to PLAY records, but you can use it to have records control the device and it's digital loops. So it's kind of a way to use an analog turntable to create digital scratch and dj effects, is what it sounds like to me.

If you want to listen to records, I'd suggest an inexpensive phono preamp, like the ART or a Behringer.

I could be wrong, but that's what I got out of it after a cursory perusal of the manual.
 
For your tonearm craziness, I'm on my phone right now but am responding to remind myself to post later a link to how to fix it. Had the same problem on my 1650 and the fix is to clean and lube a pair of plastic parts related to the size selector.
 
Ok, my mistake -- too much troubleshooting at night I guess, but I just needed to set the input on the Traktor Audio Interface to Phono using the software control panel, apparently the default is line. Thanks all for helping.

N8Nagel, I'll have a look at cleaning those parts. Any additional info would be great. Thanks!
 
N8Nagel, the video pretty much matches the tone arm behavior. Will check it out. Thanks

DustyOldPile - thanks for the help! By the way, the primary use case for the Traktor Audio 10 is to play time-code vinyls to control the Traktor DJ software. It is also useful for doing mixing of 4 decks in software, and finally it is a pretty convenient way to rip vinyls to your computer.
 
I'm guessing you can make this live again, my 1650 was doing the exact same thing and a little contact cleaner and some silicone grease sorted it right out.
 
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