Pioneer PL-L800S ... looks like it's a goner

BMW rider

BMW rider

Active Member
Original owner here of a Pioneer PL-L800S that I bought in the early 80s. It has been in storage for a LONG time, but with my recent acquisition of a Marantz 2270, it was time to bring out the vinyl. I cleaned up the linear tracking and tonearm elevation/lowering mechanism and had it working well, but the platter would not hold a constant speed on 33-1/3. Realizing I now needed more equipment than I personally own (oscilloscope and signal generator), I let Alpha Tech in St. Louis have a go at it last week. They just called with their assessment ... one or more of the Pioneer proprietary chips that control the direct drive motor is bad and they haven't got any sources for these now long obsolete parts. It's no longer cost effective to try and repair. It has served me well for ~32 years and is now relegated to looking cool on a shelf, but not working. So, now begins the dilemma ... go new (along the lines of a Rega or Pro-Ject), or go vintage. Alpha Tech has a "candy land" of vintage equipment above their shop that I'll go look through in the next day or two.
 
Register to hide this ad
BMW rider said:
They just called with their assessment ... one or more of the Pioneer proprietary chips that control the direct drive motor is bad and they haven't got any sources for these now long obsolete parts.
Click to expand...

That's frustrating because what is it? one? or more? why can't they diagnose it do you know if they are competent or are they guessing? Sorry about your table you'd be surprised at what ICs can still be had was at TI and Analog Devices sites a while back asking for some samples and it blew my mind
 
I would think that an electrolytic capacitor or something else might be the culprit, particularly since you said it had been in storage a long time. I would recap it first, clean the pots next, THEN check for a bad IC.
 
I'll talk to the service techs when I pick it up about whether they isolated it a particular IC. They serviced this turntable back in the late 80s or early 90s, so it's not totally foreign to them. When they called, I had to pull off to the side of a bicycle trail to take the call on my cell phone. I was still huffing and puffing, so I didn't hear everything perfectly. I do like the idea of recapping the boards first. Sounds like a good project that can't hurt. I'll probably pick up another turntable anyway, so that if I bring this one back to life, I've got a spare!
 
When I went back to the shop, I decided to pick up a gently used Technics SL-1900 (yeah, not the greatest but it works well). It had a Stanton N400 stylus/cartridge mounted, but I replaced it last night with the AT 132 from my Pioneer. Now I'm rediscovering all the albums I forgot I ever owned. Each gets a good scrub with a paint pad using a 3-1 mix of distilled water/denatured alcohol with a little wetting agent and then dried with microfiber towels before going on the turntable. Some of these LPs are in great shape and sound amazing, but others, including my Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon copy (:tears:), have seen a lot of abuse in the past and the dust must be welded to the grooves.
 
Agree with a couple other AK members that if the shop is only checking with the mfg Pioneer for chips or anything else no parts will be available but if other sources are checked there's a very good chance they will locate the ICs, caps etc.
 
I'm going to look at one of these tables at an estate sale tomorrow... assuming it doesn't sell today.

This thread has me a bit concerned about buying it.

Can anyone speak to the reliability of this table and if these parts are available or not?

Anything in particular I should check out on it? This is my first foray into linear tracking tables.

Thanks!
 
I picked one up that had a noisy drive motor ("grau-au-au-aunch" on startup), a failing arm lift motor and an arm drive motor that moved in quite noticeable starts and stops. This last most likely was the result of a problem with the optical sensors that measure and adjust for arm deflection caused by the grooves.

John
 
boreas said:
I picked one up that had a noisy drive motor ("grau-au-au-aunch" on startup), a failing arm lift motor and an arm drive motor that moved in quite noticeable starts and stops. This last most likely was the result of a problem with the optical sensors that measure and adjust for arm deflection caused by the grooves.

John
Click to expand...

Thanks boreas!

Was it fixable and if so, how difficult?
 
Decatur Greg said:
Thanks boreas!

Was it fixable and if so, how difficult?
Click to expand...

The arm lift motor would have been repairable only with a replacement from an organ donor. Likewise, the drive motor. The arm motion could have responded to an adjustment done by someone more competent than I but I do think I got it adjusted correctly. If so, that would probably point to a bad sensor, again probably from a donor turntable.

It was a shame because it was 100% cosmetically but I didn't really have the patience to fool with it any more.

John
 
My PL-L800 had a long, slow decline into non-functionality. It started with it getting very dusty during some home remodeling in the late 80s or early 90s that caused the arm to become jerky. I'm sure it was just a function of dust on the sensor, but I was too stupid to fix it and just stopped using it and started listening to CDs. It sat without power applied to it for well over a decade. When I tried to get it back up and running, the motor wouldn't stay locked on (horrendous wow). A local vintage stereo repair shop declared that one of the proprietary ICs was bad and replacements were unavailable. If I were truly motivated, I'd recap the circuit boards to see if that might help, but I now have 2 Denon turntables that are beautiful, so the PL-L800 is in a closet.

It was a great turntable, but parts are difficult (or nearly impossible) to find. If it's working properly at the estate sale, I'd take a chance on it. I think the reason mine died was my fault from the initial abuse (dust), followed by lack of use which I suspect may have resulted in one or more electrolytic capacitors to fail and kill one of the ICs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom