Rega Planar 2 with R200 arm issues & motor induced hum

[Montycat]

A guy dropped off a Rega Planar 2 for repair the other day.

It has the R200 arm which has the classic antiskate problem. The belt is obviously broken and the arm is getting way too much antiskate applied, and flies back to rest on it's own. I'm loathe to open it up to try to fix as I expect that to take a couple of hours of work or more to get right and hear it's very easy to break the tonearm leads on this arm when taking it apart. I've outlined the risks to the guy and don't believe he wants to spend too much money.

I'm kind of thinking I might be able to apply some extra skating force in the other direction. Not sure of that of course.

Rega R200 crop by Buhduh, on Flickr

The other odd thing about the arm can sort of be seen above. If you look closely at the (sorry about the cellphone) pic above you can see the cue mechanism area seems to be bent downward at the right or twisted clockwise relative to the plinth and the rest of the arm. Weird...

That doesn't appear to affect operation but is odd.

However the other issue is significant hum as the cartridge end of the arm approaches the motor. If the motor is off it goes away. And this is not a Grado cartridge, though I am going to try different headshells and carts to see if it changes. I've seen references to shielding the motor with copper foil being effective. Thoughts?

 

[grottyash]

Assuming this is not a freebie, what's the price difference between dropping in a replacement arm, which takes minutes, and working on this one? Also, what cartridge is currently on the arm? Definitely worth trying with a different one to see if that's the problem.

 

[WaynerN]

The anti-skate mechanism is actually two magnet assemblies that the control knob brings closer together or farther apart. The magnets are located inside the pivot shaft. I suspect that the whole tonearm and perhaps the whole turntable was once dropped (on the tonearm) and that bent the que and (besides the broken AS belt), somehow lodged the magnet assembly in place, giving it a permanent (and too powerful) AS.

'ner

 

[dshoaf]

That table took a whack for sure. IMHO, all bets are off, mechanically including the spindle assembly. It is heading for good-for-parts status fast. I wonder how it got that way?

Cheers,

David

 

[Montycat]

Yes it's an odd sort of damage. The turntable everywhere else is very nice and unblemished in every way. You would think an impact that could cause that would have left other marks, such as to the arm tube at least.

I know it's a magnetic system. There's an excellent thread at VE (I think I saw it there) on the topic. I imagine I could fix it given enough time but I'm not sure it's worth it. I might have a spare tonearm from a parts table that I can make work with luck.

 

[WaynerN]

I used to own one, but decided that the best place for it was in the garbage can, so off it went.....

 

[grottyash]

Yet that arm has a good reputation. The one that replaced it was far, far better.

 

[Montycat]

I think I might have a solution for the tonearm. My stash of parts revealed a tonearm from a Sansui SR-222. The dimensions of it and the R200 I think are fairly similar but I'll still have a bit to do to make sure.

I still have to address the hum. My copper foil stash is not so good.

 

[Montycat]

Any Sansui owners out there who can measure the mounting distance on the arm please? Center of spindle to center of arm pivot in mm please?

I have the arm here with the Rega and want to make sure of the placement. I might not even have to enlarge the hole as I think the Rega arm uses a fatter one. The RB200 is longer so I know I have to come in some.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

The R200 tonearm was actually built by Acos. It uses a belt in the antiskating mechanism and that belt is a failure item, and that belt is difficult to find today. My old Planar 2's anti-skating belt failed. Steve Lauerman of Lauerman Imports, the original Rega importer in Knoxville wound up giving me the first RB tonearm to replace it 6 months before he died. That old demo Planar 2 he gave me also got the motor changed out (original liked to hum). .

 

[Montycat]

Yup, I know what the arm internals are like. That's why I'm potentially changing it out too.

As for the hum, I removed the motor and lined the motor recess with copper foil with no apparent improvement. I did swap headshells and cartridges though and it greatly improved with an AT or Ortofon. I'll try a Shure as well. The owner had a very cheap looking cart with no name on it. It made more noise than a Grado.

For mounting distance of the Sansui arm I think I found it should be 202.5 which looks about right. I would have to enlarge the hole by about 1cm toward the spindle if I use it.