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Hitachi HT-550 Resent acquisition

kensn

kensn

New Member
Hitachi HT-550 Recent acquisition

I recently acquired a Hitachi HT-550 turntable. It was in really nice shape with original paperwork, manual and setup quide. It needed a bit of cleaning, but not much.

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Installed was a Nagatron 195 IE cartridge with missing stylus and the original headshell was nowhere to be found:tears:. I purchased a temporary headshell and new cartridge. I am really liking this turntable. Dead quite and speed is right on the money.

I was wondering if anyone owning this turntable might have any tips or tweaks they have done that they feel has enhanced their experience...

And if anybody knows where to find an original silver Hitachi headshell, please let me know!

Ken
 
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Nice looking turntable. I thought you were going to tell us how much you resent purchasing it, though.
 
Hitchi table

Those were nice tables I have the Ht660 the next one above your table it has a Stainless steel case. They are pretty much bullet proof table just clean the controls once in awhile, I have owned this since it came over on the boat.
 
I have the same table,dead quiet, great sound. I did have speed issues but after a recap and cleaning the speed control pots it sails right along.
I like the looks and it's got some weight to it as well.I'm running a Shure 97xe cart and no complaints.
Where did you find yours?
 
Lbcgav - yea.. fixed that..

comish4 - Nice to hear. Look forward to a lot of listening with it. That 660 is a very nice looking table too.

Don - on an aution site. I had contacted them before bidding to ensure the packaging for shipment would be done correctly. After recieveing an excelent response on how it would be packaged, I was confident while bidding on it.

I was debating recapping it, but I think I will enjoy it for a bit before digging into it.

Thanks,

Ken
 
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Very nice. I have two HT500's. Both are dead quiet. The first has a broken spring clip underneath which kills auto start/stop functions. Loved the sound so much I had to buy another when it popped up.

No tips or tricks that I'm aware of, put it on something solid, balance the arm and play the heck out of it.

Parts for Hitachi's is real tough. I've looked and looked for the parts I need to fix that first HT500, ebay is about the only place I've found anything. A headshell may be easier to find than internal parts. Look for junk tables that may be parted out, take what you need and pass it down the line.
 
The first picture is a replacement part with an arrow pointing to the piece that is broken. Glue, cement, etc can't fix it with the tension of the spring. This part is essential to raising and lowering the arm during start and return. The long silver bar above the arrow actually raises and lowers the arm. Without the spring I pointed to the auto start would simply slap the arm halfway to the record with raising it. Bad. At the end of a record, the arm would simply sweep back across the record. REAL bad. So that table is a fully manual table and not in use.
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Here's a pic of what the HT500 looks like on the bottom.
bottom_zps2c766f1c.jpg


I'm not sure how the HT500 relates to the HT550, but I believe the HT500 is very close to the HT67 in parts. Not a ton of info out there about Hitachi.
 
Inside the HT 550

The inside of my 550,Recap on this is a piece of cake.The speed controls are in the lower left in the second pic
 

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That is a most beautiful TT to behold!!

I love the looks of that TT, simply timeless restrained wood and metal design.

Cheers
 
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