Okay, well ... perhaps NOT the complete overhaul, but most definitely an upgrade and/or damage repair.
Long story short, I was given this particular table back in 2020, and it was mostly in working (although neglected) condition. It needed a replacement stylus, RCA leads, new power brick, new belt & tonearm adjustments. The original DN239 stylus was replaced with (more superior?) ATN-3600L which worked okay ... pretty much as you'd expect.
Unfortunately, this particular model does not have user-adjustable counterweight & anti-skate, thus forcing you to stay within the original cartridge weight group (5.1 grams, if I'm not mistaking), which considerably reduces the upgrade path(s). However, at some point base of the tonearm snapped off and I had to glue the plastic housing back together. It was never meant to be a permanent fix obviously, I just wanted to get it up & running ASAP ... sooo now I finally got around to find & replace the entire arm assembly, from another (similar) unit. These things were produced & sold in bulk, featuring all sorts of units & turntable designs. Thorens, Dual, Grundig and (since 2022 or 2023?) Pro-Ject, which they called Pro-Ject Automat A1. Same design, same mechanism just different label.
I didn't bother taking photos of the actual repair & soldering the leads since it was never meant to be anything more than a simple repair. However, the replacement arm (which came from slightly different unit) came with counterweight which actually had a screw holding it in place. Compared to the original arm (below), which was simply fused, embedded together into the plastic housing:
Which now had me thinking... Can I add more weight to the CW, make it heavier & put something better on the tonearm, instead of 3600? Long story short, the answer is YES. I took couple of metal washers, put them in front of the CW and then screwed the whole thing back together again. Washers not only provided the necessary weight, but also shifted the position of the weight itself more to the back, providing more counter-force necessary for something as precise and delicate as VM540ML
It actually tracks UNDER the recommended tracking force ... around 1.85 grams to be precise. One washer too many (or rather, less) and it would go above 2.5g and besides the recommended range (as provided by AT) is anywhere between 1.8 and 2.2 grams, so this kinda works okay. And more importantly, sounds great!
Long story short, I was given this particular table back in 2020, and it was mostly in working (although neglected) condition. It needed a replacement stylus, RCA leads, new power brick, new belt & tonearm adjustments. The original DN239 stylus was replaced with (more superior?) ATN-3600L which worked okay ... pretty much as you'd expect.
Unfortunately, this particular model does not have user-adjustable counterweight & anti-skate, thus forcing you to stay within the original cartridge weight group (5.1 grams, if I'm not mistaking), which considerably reduces the upgrade path(s). However, at some point base of the tonearm snapped off and I had to glue the plastic housing back together. It was never meant to be a permanent fix obviously, I just wanted to get it up & running ASAP ... sooo now I finally got around to find & replace the entire arm assembly, from another (similar) unit. These things were produced & sold in bulk, featuring all sorts of units & turntable designs. Thorens, Dual, Grundig and (since 2022 or 2023?) Pro-Ject, which they called Pro-Ject Automat A1. Same design, same mechanism just different label.
I didn't bother taking photos of the actual repair & soldering the leads since it was never meant to be anything more than a simple repair. However, the replacement arm (which came from slightly different unit) came with counterweight which actually had a screw holding it in place. Compared to the original arm (below), which was simply fused, embedded together into the plastic housing:
Which now had me thinking... Can I add more weight to the CW, make it heavier & put something better on the tonearm, instead of 3600? Long story short, the answer is YES. I took couple of metal washers, put them in front of the CW and then screwed the whole thing back together again. Washers not only provided the necessary weight, but also shifted the position of the weight itself more to the back, providing more counter-force necessary for something as precise and delicate as VM540ML
It actually tracks UNDER the recommended tracking force ... around 1.85 grams to be precise. One washer too many (or rather, less) and it would go above 2.5g and besides the recommended range (as provided by AT) is anywhere between 1.8 and 2.2 grams, so this kinda works okay. And more importantly, sounds great!
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