steviechick
New Member
Hello,
I have a few questions about my Philips GA212 - I've read up a number of the other threads on the site but none of them exactly scratch my itch.
I got the turntable last summer - my dad had one in the 70s, and it became mine in the 90s when he ditched his turntable, though I then ditched it as the decade closed, "upgrading" to a frankly unremarkable and much lower-fi Ariston deck with my first proper paycheck. When the Ariston finally died last summer, I found a cheap GA212 on eBay, and was overjoyed with the sound quality at such low price.
However. It's always had a bit of a hum issue - mostly silent, but sometimes feeding back, and losing sound in the left channel. I put that down to the connection to the amp - it had a DIN plug, so I bought a connector with PHONO plugs at the end, but it seemed crackly and intended to upgrade at some point. I'm not entirely sure about how well grounded it is - I can't see a grounding wire, which I'm guessing is inside the DIN cable? Also, while the sound was wonderful, if the needle encountered any non-mint, non-recently-cleaned vinyl, it would skip, which made buying cheap second-hand vinyl a disappointing experience.
So, a few weeks back I purchased an AT-95E cartridge to replace the original Philips 401, and last night finally got around to installing it. The new cartridge, with its elliptical needle, is like Snowpiercer - it just bulldozes through the dirt and the scratches, as I wanted to. But there is a constant low-level hum now, which subsides a little if I poke my finger around the back of the cartridge, but never entirely.
The headshell has the kind of sliding carriage/sled with the copper connectors, if that makes sense? I'm tempted to take it to my local record player shop for the guy there to repair, but I'm on a tiny budget and also the guy at the shop told me last year, when I bought the DIN-PHONO connectors, that the repair guy doesn't work on Philips 212s as he thinks they're too finnickety. Is there anything I can do to solve the problem? Is this a common issue, with a simple-enough-for-a-simpleton cure? If I replaced the headshell, would that solve the issue, and would I have to get a vintage Philips headshell or would a generic one work?
Thanks in advance for your help.
I have a few questions about my Philips GA212 - I've read up a number of the other threads on the site but none of them exactly scratch my itch.
I got the turntable last summer - my dad had one in the 70s, and it became mine in the 90s when he ditched his turntable, though I then ditched it as the decade closed, "upgrading" to a frankly unremarkable and much lower-fi Ariston deck with my first proper paycheck. When the Ariston finally died last summer, I found a cheap GA212 on eBay, and was overjoyed with the sound quality at such low price.
However. It's always had a bit of a hum issue - mostly silent, but sometimes feeding back, and losing sound in the left channel. I put that down to the connection to the amp - it had a DIN plug, so I bought a connector with PHONO plugs at the end, but it seemed crackly and intended to upgrade at some point. I'm not entirely sure about how well grounded it is - I can't see a grounding wire, which I'm guessing is inside the DIN cable? Also, while the sound was wonderful, if the needle encountered any non-mint, non-recently-cleaned vinyl, it would skip, which made buying cheap second-hand vinyl a disappointing experience.
So, a few weeks back I purchased an AT-95E cartridge to replace the original Philips 401, and last night finally got around to installing it. The new cartridge, with its elliptical needle, is like Snowpiercer - it just bulldozes through the dirt and the scratches, as I wanted to. But there is a constant low-level hum now, which subsides a little if I poke my finger around the back of the cartridge, but never entirely.
The headshell has the kind of sliding carriage/sled with the copper connectors, if that makes sense? I'm tempted to take it to my local record player shop for the guy there to repair, but I'm on a tiny budget and also the guy at the shop told me last year, when I bought the DIN-PHONO connectors, that the repair guy doesn't work on Philips 212s as he thinks they're too finnickety. Is there anything I can do to solve the problem? Is this a common issue, with a simple-enough-for-a-simpleton cure? If I replaced the headshell, would that solve the issue, and would I have to get a vintage Philips headshell or would a generic one work?
Thanks in advance for your help.
