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One channel troubleshooting

A

Acatlett

New Member
I'm a novice at Hi-fi and have been working ton build a working record player. I have a Pioneer PL-510 and I can only get sound on one channel.

When I switch the cables at the pre-amp it causes the sound to switch sides at the speakers, telling me that the signal isn't being pushed from the turn tables left channel.

Where should I start as far as possible culprit?
 
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Hi. Welcome to AK.

Your diagnostics are good. There's a problem in the cart to RCA plugs signal path. You'll need a digital multi-meter (DMM) to debug this. Ohm the cart's right (red/green) and left (white/blue) channels. You should get a reading of several hundreds of ohms, closely matched, from both channels. If you get 'OL' on one channel, it's dead so you'd need to replace the cart. That is not too common though but it should be your first sanity test.

Next use the meter's continuity test to debug the cart to RCA plugs signal path, in segments.
There's typically four main (logical and very often physical) segments in this path.
  • Cart pins to headshell connector - that's inside the headshell. A common gotcha is the headshell wiring not making good contact with the cart pins or with the headshell connector. Sometimes a gentle squeeze with a pair of long pliers is due. Also, it's important to make sure the headshell is wired like this (Thorens TT's are wired differently, but most others follow this scheme):

    SdrcaxQ.jpg

  • Headshell connection to tonearm - that's the bayonet pins. Another common gotcha is those pins losing springiness and/or contact due to binding/dirt/tarnish. Contact cleaner spray is your friend in this case.
  • Bayonet connection to TT wiring hub - that includes the tonearm wiring all the way to where it comes out at the bottom of the TT to connect to the RCA cable. Many times the soldering on the wiring hub must be inspected and often re-flowed.
  • RCA cable - that can be further divided into the main lead / sheath segment and what's going on inside the terminating plugs. Cheap cable can get tricky to debug as it can display intermittent connection and it's termination may arbitrarily short and show ambiguous readings.
For each segment, run a continuity test for each of the 4 (r/g/w/b) leads. When you're done with the first headshell segment, disconnect it, so that you won't get false reading due to an internal cart loop.

* Note the green lead is typically grounded in most turntables. This means a continuity test between the green lead and any of the bulk metal mass of the turntable should be positive (low resistance = meter beep). Any other lead should never ground! If, for example, a hot lead (red or white) grounds for any reason, it means the channel is muted.

Find the faulty segment in the cart -> RCA signal path and you'll know what's wrong.
 
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