Yamaha PX-2 Tonearm Rewire + Other Upgrades

Where can you get a kit for these caps?

I remember reading about someone compiling a kit that would work on all PX-2 models (maybe it was clinic-audio), apparently because different models of PX-2 are slightly different.

Even if my caps are fine, I'd like to get some spares to have on hand.
 
I just go to mouser.com and plug in the values and make one order. You can get the parts list off of hifiengine.com. It's under 20 dollars for all the electrolytic caps. 90% of my caps were out of spec by large value. I really don't get why the unit was working so well. The big 5 on the control board only had 1 cap in spec, half of all the others on the control board were out of spec. The motor board was in decent shape though with most.
 
The only thing is, he said that the auto-stop feature is disabled because for some reason it affects the playback of 180g discs - for some reason the auto-stop feature gets triggered in the middle of an LP with thicker discs. It seems weird. He said the feature works and it can be enabled no problem, but it's more of a hassle than it's worth. Is that a known thing? Has anyone heard of something like that before?

This is nonsense what this guy is trying to tell you. The auto stop & tonearm return function has nothing to do with the thickness of your records. The circuit is activated by the pitch (speed) of the lead out groove which is not a matter of vinyl weight. There is an adjustment procedure for this, check the SM.
 
Looking at the parts list now and trying to find some parts on mouser.com.

There are 21 Electrolytic Capacitors identified on the parts list? Should I try to get them all, or do certain ones burn out more than others?

Mouser.com doesn't have yamaha manufactured electrolytic capacitors, so I've been looking them up by specs, but the parts list doesn't give detailed specs, only the capacitance and the voltage rating. Mouser.com has other specs identified, like tolerance, ESR, ripple current, etc. Do those not matter as much?

For example, to find the first electrolytic capacitor identified on the parts list, I selected the capacitance to be 1uF, and voltage rating of 25V, and I get 193 results of all kinds of capacitors of different shapes and sizes.

Is there a way to know which ones I need?
 
I used all Elna Silmic II's. Any of the Nichicon Audio grades should be good as well. Since none of these caps are in an audio signal path you could argue that audio grade caps might be over kill. Avionic would be a good guy to tap for some advice on this. I would get them all and freshen up any funky looking solder connection. In other words open her up once and be done with it. Don't forget there are 2 bi-polar caps on the motor board. So when you search on mouser I went ahead and selected audio grade on the far right.
 
By the way, let me know how everything works out and if you have any notes/observations when you're finished. You're just recapping it now, haven't finished yet, right?

How long have you had your PX-2 before deciding to recap it? I'd be curious about your observations about any improvements or changes.

I'm still not completely sure how hard it will be to find the exact capacitors I need from mouser.com. How did you settle on Elna Silmic II? Did you open up your PX-2 first and identify where all the capacitors are and what they look like, and then compared it to the pictures? Because some of the results I get when I search have different types of capacitors, some with two connectors on one side, others with a connector coming out of each end, etc.

I'm actually getting weird results when I search. I can't get the same results I mentioned earlier anymore. Do you know if the Voltage Rating value that the Yamaha Parts Kit provides is AC or DC? I'm assuming it's DC but I'm not 100% sure.

I also don't see the audio thing on the far right.

Sorry about the noob questions!
 
I had the unit about a year before recapping this week. It always works fine so I was shocked at how many caps were out of spec. I am waiting on two caps to show up so I can finish. If all goes well it will be up and running again tonight. I opened it up and wrote down the caps inside and then cross reference them with the parts list from hifiengine.com. I settled on the elna's because 1, there are Elna's in the unit now, and I just recapped my CX1000 with Elna Silmic's and after they burned in it sounds fantastic. I did use a few Nichicons where the Elnas were not in stock. Everyone is impressed how the phono stage sounds on the cx mated with the px and an Audio Technica OC9 II. You want radial electrolytic caps. Set the search with this to start: Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors - Leaded, Radial, and have audio grade selected. From there search by capacitance and volts dc.
 
You don't need "Audio Grade" capacitors at all. There is not a single cap in the signal path where it would make sense using audio grades. Replace them by any quality brand, preferably 105 degree caps with the same capacitance and same or higher voltage rating. Replace one after the other and double check their values. I used Panasonic capacitors.
 
So, the first time you ordered capacitors, you got two wrong ones?

You sound like you know what you're doing, so this makes me think that if this happened to you, it will definitely happen to a noob like me. In an ideal world, I would want to be sure that all the caps are the correct ones before I open it up, just because I don't have a back-up table I can use if it turns out I can't complete the job in one sitting. I definitely don't want to open it, start working, and then discover that I don't have everything I need.

I also notice that you selected aluminium and aluminium leaded. How did you figure out that those are the ones you need?

And are all 21 caps in the PX-2 radial termination style?

When you got the two wrong caps, how did it happen? Did you order the wrong ones, or did they send the wrong ones?

I know it's tedious, but once you finish the job and confirm it works, I would love you forever if you would be willing to post a full list of the caps you used.
 
Okay, that's encouraging! So for the ones you got right, you just selected radial termination style, aluminium leaded, and then found the appropriate capacitor by selecting the required capacitance and DC voltage rating for each one?
 
Awesome, thanks! I might do this sooner rather than later. At the very least I ought to order a full kit to have around.
 
So, I looked inside my PX-2 finally, and the capacitors in particular look very new, like they'd been recently replaced. Some of the other parts look a lot older.

I'm trying to figure out why the autostop and arm return feature do not work. I'm assuming that the problem would be located either on the sensor board, the switch at the end which gets pressed when the arm is all the way on the left, or the cirquitry connecting that board or that switch to the rest of the unit. I took some pictures of possible culprits, but I'm at work right now so I will post them when I return.

Now that I've been inside this thing, I feel a lot better about working on it. Before I opened it, I assumed it would be super complicated, but it's really not bad at all.

I eyeballed the path of the tonearm wire, and I think I will attempt to rewire it at some point. It looks a bit old at this point and could probably benefit from new wiring. I'm still going to consider installing a junction box instead of using the native phono cable, as the native phono cable also seems old at this point. I know where to get a great deal on a special custom made phono cable designed for cartridge-level signals. I wouldn't use a regular interconnect cable. I think it would be worth trying, could be a good upgrade.

Yesterday I received a bunch of sorbothane pads and sorbothane feet. The sorbothane feet are the ones designed for washers and dryers. I didn't remove thethe original Yamaha feet, I just put the new sorbothane feet under the Yamaha feet, so the table is quite a bit taller now. I figure this way I'm getting the dampening properties of the original Yamaha feet AND the new sorbothane feet. They seem to be doing a great job isolating this table. I've never tried more expensive isolation methods, but I will play around with it.

Before spending hundreds of dollars on isolation, though, I'm strongly considering buying a peripheral ring clamp. Although I'm worried about it not fitting the PX-2 properly because the platter spins so flush with the table. I know that some ring clamps hang down past the top of the platter, like the ones that have weights hanging off the edges, so those wouldn't work, but I figure if I get a regular ring clamp it would work fine. I got a very heavy center weight last week, the Nagaoka Crystal GL601-II (694 grams), and it is also doing a great job. A ring clamp and a good mat would really put this table over the top for me.
 
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