VladTheImpal
Active Member
Greetings!
A bit of an introduction/background: I recently acquired my first ever turntable - a gorgeous, freshly serviced Yamaha PX-2 with an upgraded brass counter-weight. I did some research before purchasing and I'm very pleased with the table. Since getting into audio, I have tried to seek out excellent products at great prices - the kinds of products that outperform everything in their price range - the "giant killer" type products which make you wonder why someone would pay more, as one would have to spend double or triple to hear any substantial improvement. I think this PX-2 was an amazing find, especially as I only paid $689 Canadian for the thing, and it came with a mint condition Shure V15 V-MR with a fresh retip by Soundsmith that had just 1 hour on it. The copper mat in the pictures is sold separately. It's 100% copper, CNC machined. For now, I just purchased the table with the rubber Yamaha mat, but I do plan to upgrade to the 100% copper mat next month. According to the previous owner, the mat is a substantial upgrade which makes this table rival certain other tables hew has tried that cost up to 10k.
I've been very impressed with the sound coming from this table, even before upgrading the phono stage and cartridge. At first I had it set up with my Sanyo JCX 2300K integrated amplifier, running the Shure V15 V-MR, but now I am using an iFi iPhono as my phono stage and running an Audio Technica OC9ML/II. The OC9ML/II has not yet broken in, it probably only has about 20 hours on it - it sounds a little bright but great to my ears.
I got into audio a year ago, and into vinyl about 8 months ago. I originally distrusted vinyl and was confused by audiophiles who listen to "vinyl rips." One day, however, I decided to sit down, pay close attention, and do some serious critical listening with my Resonessence Labs Concero HP DAC to see if there was any merit to vinyl. The reading I did on the subject lead me to trying out some vinyl rips by the famous pbthal, and that was what ultimately convinced me of the superiority of vinyl to CD. The sound coming from pbthal's system was incredible, and I after spending a couple of weeks trying to pick my jaw up off the floor and listening to as many of pbthal's rips as I could, I set a goal for myself to build a system that rivals his. He uses a VPI Scoutmaster with quite a few upgrades, and after seeing how much high-end audio gear can cost, I decided to see if I could build a great setup on bit of a budget.
I'm not saying this to start a debate about whether the Yamaha PX-2 matches the quality of the Scoutmaster, but for my personal taste, it gets close enough to a very satisfying high-end sound that it leaves me thoroughly impressed and extremely pleased. It sounds natural and musical enough that it makes it very easy to get lost in the music. It's a truly fantastic table capable of outperforming other tables that cost many times more.
So, what I would like to do is make some modifications, over time, to further improve its sound. The main mod I'm targeting is the tonearm rewire, and while I'm at it, I'd like to install an interconnect/junction box instead of using the original yamaha phono cable, kind of like how this guy has done. Unfortunately, he does not leave instructions. The only other mod I was able to find online is this one, and it doesn't have instructions either.
I'm very confident in my technical abilities as well as my soldering abilities, although I admit that I'm much better at taking things apart than putting them back together. This is a really complicated table, and I'd like to undertake this mod while keeping any disassembling to a minimum. I'd like to undertake this mod, and while I'm confident, I also want to be sure that I don't mess it up, so I'm wondering if any experienced Yamaha PX-2 users or technicians would have any advice for a procedure like this. For example, the two mods I was able to find (linked above) use slightly different strategies for the rewiring - one guy forces the wire out of the arm itself, while the other guy either drills a hole in the side of the arm assembly, or gets the wire to come out from underneath it somehow.
Do I absolutely need to remove the arm assembly in order to undertake this mod? If I insert new wiring into the tonearm, run it outside the arm to a junction box like the two mods I linked to, would it then be necessary to remove the old wires that go into the machine itself and eventually come out of the old phono cable? Or can I just leave them there, since the new wires would just go out into a new location?
And finally, does anyone know of a more detailed set of instructions/pictures for Yamaha PX-2 mods?
Thanks,
Vlad
A bit of an introduction/background: I recently acquired my first ever turntable - a gorgeous, freshly serviced Yamaha PX-2 with an upgraded brass counter-weight. I did some research before purchasing and I'm very pleased with the table. Since getting into audio, I have tried to seek out excellent products at great prices - the kinds of products that outperform everything in their price range - the "giant killer" type products which make you wonder why someone would pay more, as one would have to spend double or triple to hear any substantial improvement. I think this PX-2 was an amazing find, especially as I only paid $689 Canadian for the thing, and it came with a mint condition Shure V15 V-MR with a fresh retip by Soundsmith that had just 1 hour on it. The copper mat in the pictures is sold separately. It's 100% copper, CNC machined. For now, I just purchased the table with the rubber Yamaha mat, but I do plan to upgrade to the 100% copper mat next month. According to the previous owner, the mat is a substantial upgrade which makes this table rival certain other tables hew has tried that cost up to 10k.
I've been very impressed with the sound coming from this table, even before upgrading the phono stage and cartridge. At first I had it set up with my Sanyo JCX 2300K integrated amplifier, running the Shure V15 V-MR, but now I am using an iFi iPhono as my phono stage and running an Audio Technica OC9ML/II. The OC9ML/II has not yet broken in, it probably only has about 20 hours on it - it sounds a little bright but great to my ears.
I got into audio a year ago, and into vinyl about 8 months ago. I originally distrusted vinyl and was confused by audiophiles who listen to "vinyl rips." One day, however, I decided to sit down, pay close attention, and do some serious critical listening with my Resonessence Labs Concero HP DAC to see if there was any merit to vinyl. The reading I did on the subject lead me to trying out some vinyl rips by the famous pbthal, and that was what ultimately convinced me of the superiority of vinyl to CD. The sound coming from pbthal's system was incredible, and I after spending a couple of weeks trying to pick my jaw up off the floor and listening to as many of pbthal's rips as I could, I set a goal for myself to build a system that rivals his. He uses a VPI Scoutmaster with quite a few upgrades, and after seeing how much high-end audio gear can cost, I decided to see if I could build a great setup on bit of a budget.
I'm not saying this to start a debate about whether the Yamaha PX-2 matches the quality of the Scoutmaster, but for my personal taste, it gets close enough to a very satisfying high-end sound that it leaves me thoroughly impressed and extremely pleased. It sounds natural and musical enough that it makes it very easy to get lost in the music. It's a truly fantastic table capable of outperforming other tables that cost many times more.
So, what I would like to do is make some modifications, over time, to further improve its sound. The main mod I'm targeting is the tonearm rewire, and while I'm at it, I'd like to install an interconnect/junction box instead of using the original yamaha phono cable, kind of like how this guy has done. Unfortunately, he does not leave instructions. The only other mod I was able to find online is this one, and it doesn't have instructions either.
I'm very confident in my technical abilities as well as my soldering abilities, although I admit that I'm much better at taking things apart than putting them back together. This is a really complicated table, and I'd like to undertake this mod while keeping any disassembling to a minimum. I'd like to undertake this mod, and while I'm confident, I also want to be sure that I don't mess it up, so I'm wondering if any experienced Yamaha PX-2 users or technicians would have any advice for a procedure like this. For example, the two mods I was able to find (linked above) use slightly different strategies for the rewiring - one guy forces the wire out of the arm itself, while the other guy either drills a hole in the side of the arm assembly, or gets the wire to come out from underneath it somehow.
Do I absolutely need to remove the arm assembly in order to undertake this mod? If I insert new wiring into the tonearm, run it outside the arm to a junction box like the two mods I linked to, would it then be necessary to remove the old wires that go into the machine itself and eventually come out of the old phono cable? Or can I just leave them there, since the new wires would just go out into a new location?
And finally, does anyone know of a more detailed set of instructions/pictures for Yamaha PX-2 mods?
Thanks,
Vlad