Frustrated Newbie Needs Help

H

haroldbloom

New Member
I got a vintage Marantz 6200 TT; the guy that sold it to me said it worked, but when it arrived there was no stylus and the lead wires were screwed up. I ordered a new cartridge and used some old lead wires from a record player and hooked it up all up with new speakers to a vingage Pioneer 850 tuner. I can't get anything to play. Some of my issues could be: the headshell from the TT didn't have any color coding so I am not sure if the lead wires went to the right spots (I know they went to the right spots on the cartridge). I am not sure if I hooked up the ground wire correctly on the tuner. Any other suggestions? Also, the tone arm seems to be off kilter. The stylus won't stay directly on the record and slips around. How do I adjust for that? Any help would be greatly appreciate. I live in the middle of Vermont and there is no one anywhere around that can help or fix.

Thanks,
Nathan
 
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It might be of help if you could post a close-up photo of the headshell and cartridge.

There are tools available for do-it-yourself tonearm alignment and weight (stylus tracking force) measurement.
 
Hi Nathan, I am no record specialist, but here is a few tips.

At first, you say that you hooked it up to a vintage Pioneer 850 tuner? I suspect that you maybe hooked it up to a SX-850 receiver. If it is a TUNER you are connecting it to you will never get sound out of it. You need to connect your record player to a receiver/amplifier with a phono input.

I guess that you have connected the record player to the phono input and connected the smaller cable(ground wire) to GND (ground) on your receiver.

Finding were to put the wires on the headshell can be difficult. Is it a original headshell for the marantz? If yes, I suspect it is the same headshell I have on my 6100. On my original headshell for the 6100 the cables are placed(considering it is placed on the tonearm):

Top left: white
Top right: red
Bottom left: blue
Bottom right: green.

There is a lot of things to adjust on a TT but probably the problem with slipping needle/cartridge is needle pressure. You can adjust the needle pressure at the back of the tonearm. You have one weight and a scale. The scale is often "lose" and that is because you can adjust it regarding to what cartridge/weight you are using. Unplug the TT, place the tonearm over the platter. Screw the weight on the back of the tonearm until you get it completely in line horizontal. It should not go up och or down, it should be exact parallell to the platter/record. When you have acheived this, rotate the scale and set it to zero (0). Now you have 0 grams of pressure on the needle. I don't know which cartridge you are using, check the specs for your cartridge and follow the recommendations for needle pressure. To set the right needle pressure hold both the scale and weight and adjust it to the right pressure(for instance 2 grams).

You can often use approx the same value to the anti-skating, set it to the same value as the needle pressure. (place on the right of the tonearm).

Now try to listen again, if it still doesn't sound, we will take it from there.

Best regards

Filip
 
Thanks so much for all the help. I did some messing around with tuner buttons and I am getting sound. Some skipping on records that have never been played before. There is quite a bit of popping going on, which I know is great about vinyl, but a little too much. I am going to try to adjust the arm. ALso, my cartridge is a shure m97xe and I am not sure where to put the little brush on the front. Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
Filip,
I am little confused about adjusting. Is the scale the small knob next to the arm? I am not sure what you mean by horizontal. What should it be in line with horizontally? My cartridge says 1.75 g for down and 1.25 g for up, but I have no idea what that means or how to achieve this.

Josafan said:
Hi Nathan, I am no record specialist, but here is a few tips.

At first, you say that you hooked it up to a vintage Pioneer 850 tuner? I suspect that you maybe hooked it up to a SX-850 receiver. If it is a TUNER you are connecting it to you will never get sound out of it. You need to connect your record player to a receiver/amplifier with a phono input.

I guess that you have connected the record player to the phono input and connected the smaller cable(ground wire) to GND (ground) on your receiver.

Finding were to put the wires on the headshell can be difficult. Is it a original headshell for the marantz? If yes, I suspect it is the same headshell I have on my 6100. On my original headshell for the 6100 the cables are placed(considering it is placed on the tonearm):

Top left: white
Top right: red
Bottom left: blue
Bottom right: green.

There is a lot of things to adjust on a TT but probably the problem with slipping needle/cartridge is needle pressure. You can adjust the needle pressure at the back of the tonearm. You have one weight and a scale. The scale is often "lose" and that is because you can adjust it regarding to what cartridge/weight you are using. Unplug the TT, place the tonearm over the platter. Screw the weight on the back of the tonearm until you get it completely in line horizontal. It should not go up och or down, it should be exact parallell to the platter/record. When you have acheived this, rotate the scale and set it to zero (0). Now you have 0 grams of pressure on the needle. I don't know which cartridge you are using, check the specs for your cartridge and follow the recommendations for needle pressure. To set the right needle pressure hold both the scale and weight and adjust it to the right pressure(for instance 2 grams).

You can often use approx the same value to the anti-skating, set it to the same value as the needle pressure. (place on the right of the tonearm).

Now try to listen again, if it still doesn't sound, we will take it from there.

Best regards

Filip
Click to expand...
 
If you put the brush on the cartridge in the down position your tracking force should be set to 1.75g if you put the brush in the up position then the tracking force should be set to 1.25g the "down" position means the brush is touching the records as it spins on the turntable. balance your tonearm using the counterweight thats on the opposite end from the cartridge so that the arm is "floating" or level at both ends from the turntable then set the "dial" on the counterweight to zero. Now you can set the tracking force using to counterweight to 1.25 or 1.75 screwing it forward. set your antiskate to the same as your tracking force
 
Greetings, yes it does sound like the tonearm adjustments are badly out. The M97xE is quite sensitive to correct overhang and set up generally.

Please have a read of this article if you like. http://www.mds975.co.uk/Content/vinyl07.html Re the tracking weight, it is best to measure the actual tracking weight with a proper stylus gauge as the oft suggested means of 'floating' the arm is subject to considerable error.

Add .5g for use with the dynamic stabiliser. I use 1.75g as the dynamic stabiliser 'takes up' .5g and if the tracking weight is too light to start with, there will be lots of skipping. Regards, Felix aka catman.
 
catman said:
Greetings, yes it does sound like the tonearm adjustments are badly out. The M97xE is quite sensitive to correct overhang and set up generally.

Please have a read of this article if you like. http://www.mds975.co.uk/Content/vinyl07.html Re the tracking weight, it is best to measure the actual tracking weight with a proper stylus gauge as the oft suggested means of 'floating' the arm is subject to considerable error.

Add .5g for use with the dynamic stabiliser. I use 1.75g as the dynamic stabiliser 'takes up' .5g and if the tracking weight is too light to start with, there will be lots of skipping. Regards, Felix aka catman.
Click to expand...

Where do I gauge the gram weight. Is it the numbers on the weight on the back of the tone arm? What is the little dial to the right of the tone arm, but not on it? Anti-skate?
 
haroldbloom said:
. ALso, my cartridge is a shure m97xe and I am not sure where to put the little brush on the front. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Do you by chance have another/cheaper cartridge to try on? That's a really great cartridge and I'm afraid it might get damaged accidentally in the process of learning how to set up things.
 
numbers on back of tone arm for gram weight. the lil dial to the right is for anti-skate. so you are correct and learning fast.
 
neway said:
Do you by chance have another/cheaper cartridge to try on? That's a really great cartridge and I'm afraid it might get damaged accidentally in the process of learning how to set up things.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing, so be very cautious.
 
neway said:
Do you by chance have another/cheaper cartridge to try on? That's a really great cartridge and I'm afraid it might get damaged accidentally in the process of learning how to set up things.
Click to expand...

How would I know if the stylus is damaged? It looks crooked to me.
 
haroldbloom said:
How would I know if the stylus is damaged? It looks crooked to me.
Click to expand...

Crooked=bad

At this point, I really suggest you get a very inexpensive cartridge <$30 and experiment with that and start all over. Get the basics down and then you can replace the stylus in the one you have once you get the techniques down.
 
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