Sony PS-X500 Troubles Service in NH, MA?

hntjr

Active Member
THREE TOPICS;
1) I have owned a Sony PS-X500 Biotracer turntable with an Stanton 881 MkII-S for many years. I has worked very well until just recently. I went to play a record and the needle seemed to skate on some portions of the record. I checked to make sure the cartridge wires were not touching the record and that was ok. Could be the stylus. The last time I used it, I played well. Maybe it's not cuing down far enough?

Under the circumstances of its age, I suspect that the Biotracer may need to be cleaned, but I am at a loss as to where to bring it for service (I live in NH). I am thinking this is a take in apart to clean operation, which I don't want to mess this turntable up, so I'm not going there unless somebody on Audio Karma has some good relatively simple suggestion to do. I do have Deoxit and syringe needles and could clean specific points, if I knew where they were.

2) Additionally, about a year ago I started thinking about a stylus for my Stanton 881 and was struck by how the turntable world had changed. I guess I was surprised to see my Stanton 881 selling on eBay for $275+. I found that Stanton was gone or at least was not supporting the 881 with a stylus. So of the choices out there for Stanton 881 MkII-S styluses, what are my best options? Who makes the best replacement?

3) I have been trying to find dust cover hinges turntable for awhile. As good as I am with epoxy, I can not keep these hinges together. I have searched eBay, and tried to find a Sony parts distributor, but I come up empty. Does anyone know a source for dust cover hinges?

SO:
Service in NH or MA or Advice
Stylus source
Hinge source

Thanks for your input. Have a good day!
 
I'd start with replacing the stylus and see if that addresses the skating issue. After 20 or 30 years' of use, it's almost certainly time for a new one.

Since Stanton is now out of the game, the only valid aftermarket options are:
http://stylus.export-japan.com/adva...in_description=1&keywords=stanton+881&x=0&y=0

Other brands' replacements are probably awful, but JICO's products are top notch. That said, their Shibata replacement for the 681 is a bit brighter than the original (and one of the user reviews makes a similar comment about the 881 Shibata), but that's pretty much the only worthwhile option.
 
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I also owned a Sony PS-X500 and a couple years ago sold it to a fellow AK member and as far as I know it's still going strong, an excellent Sony biotracer that never gave me a problem in 25+ years. First off I'd check the stylus with a loupe to see if the "needle" is still there/intact. If the "needle" is missing/worn out I'd get a cheap cartridge to test the PS-X500 for issues. Also owning a Stanton 881S beatcombers advice to send the Stanton to Expert Stylus is on the mark and less costly than purchasing a new cartridge that would come close to the performance of the 881S, my guess is you would have to spend $500 today on a new cartridge to maybe equal it. You should be able to resolve these issues yourself without sending the Sony to a shop. As for hinges you have a couple options, AKs Barter Town, post a want add and watch Ebay like a hawk for those hinges, eventually they will show up. Lets see what Kent says but I'm betting he will also recommend Expert Stylus.
 
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I seem to remember someone else here looking for some hinges for one of the 80’s model Sony turntables, and he found them on one of the other models from around that time, and which someone was selling with some sort of mechanical fault. So keep a look out for one of these: PS-T22, PS-T33, PS-X55, PS-X65, PS-X75, PS-LX1, PS-LX2, PS-LX3, PS-LX4, PS-LX5 or PS-X600, and the hinges may be identical to those on the PS-X500. As a matter of fact, the hinges from the PS-X600 are almost certain to be identical, although whether you can pick up a cheap one is another matter!

Ebay is a good place to search for them – I once was after some more headshells for my PS-X600, and I got Ebay to email me automatically whenever someone was selling “Sony headshell”, and if it was the correct one (which was shared among most of the 80’s Sony turntables), I bid for it if it wasn’t too expensive (i.e. less than US$20 including postage). After several months, I had two more headshells!

And I’d try another stylus (or another cartridge) before condemning the turntable as faulty (it may be, but you might as well try the obvious first).
 
They're not all interchangeable, but a lot of those hinges can be swapped from that era of Sony tables. I've pulled hinges off of lower end tables for my PS-X40 and 55.
There's a set of them on eBay right now with a nice starting price, for the record. I don't know if they'll work with your table(I'm not familiar with it), but if you want to take some measurements I(or somebody else) could do the same so you could see if they are worth bidding on.
 
I like that idea of trying a different cartridge. It will show me immediately if the 881 is chipped. If the table plays it's chipped. If the table still doesn't play correctly, then it's not likely to be the 881, but the tone arm. I'm hoping for some insight into home restoration in that area.

Shelf Life.

Do cartridges have a shelf life? By shelf life I mean, I may have owned my Stanton 881 for a long time, but it's lucky if it sees 5 albums use per year most years, with an occasional 20 albums per year. So with this kind of little use, I'm thinking the stylus is not worn out from playing. So in the shelf life context, will a stylus go bad from just sitting around for 30 years or does it have to be played to wear out? Beyond that I'm wondering whether the cartridge body can get contaminated from air born particles over a span of this many years causing a degradation of sound quality. I' haven't noticed that prior to this present malfunction.
 
Seeing that you didn't play many records over the years it's possible that the stylus still has some hours left on it. With infrequent use and the winter cold the suspension may of hardened. First off I'd start with cleaning the stylus with a stylus cleaner, possible gunk/dirt has built up. I'v used Last stylus cleaner on a number of preowned vintage cartridges with excellent results. Review the PS-X500 owners manual to check proper setup for the tonearm balance, tracking weight and antiskate in case they are out of adjustment and also check that the turntable is LEVEL. Refer to the owners manual for the Stantonn 881 re tracking weight. Eliminate all of these possible issues before considering repair by a shop or replacing the cartridge. Much like old cars that have very low milage issues can arise from too little use.
 
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