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Sure V15 Mk IV and thorens low output

L

lexx21

New Member
I have just picked up a Shure V15 type IV cart which was described as very low hours. I mounted it on my TP13A arm on my thorens td-150. I now get VERY low output from the cart with distorted sound. I am tracking at 1.25g as specified in the data sheet.

Here is what I have tried::


1) Cleaned the head shell terminals that go to the cart with deoxit. They were very dirty.

2) Set the balance to 1.25g and verified that the anti-skate was correct using an album with no tracks (blank record side).

3) swapped the two ground wires based on information found for the TP50 tonearm wiring diagram and the output of bablefish (it was in German).

4) Set the required overhang as close as I could to 49mm. The cart is a bit longer than my empire cart so it exceeds it by a bit.

5) Reseated the stylus in the cart.

6) Ensured that the connectors were tight on the cartridge pins. There is no play and they are snug.


I am pretty much stumped here. I had an empire cart on the arm previously (as in a few days ago) that worked fine. I am running the table directly into an Onkyo TX-NR901 receiver. As I said though, the Empire cart worked fine.
 
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I still have the empire. The turntable didn't have a ground wire to attach to the receiver, so I added one. No help. I will go back and reinstall the empire and see.
 
If it's all original (including stylus) you may be experiencing suspension fatigue due to age (over 25 years old).
 
Found some new info.... the thornes color code is completely backward to the color code on the cart. Switched that around (grounds were ok), used the stylus brush to clean the stylus, and the darn thing worked fine. Playing a Bruce Springsteen box set now, jazz blue note records coming later.

I do have to say, this thing is very twitchy as far as clean records are concerned. ANY shmutz on the needle will make it sound like cats fornicating.

It does sound amazing now compared to the empire 999 ze/x that came with the table. I can hear much more depth to the music.
 
my thorens 150 with a stanton 681eee... is my keeper. I think a very underestimated TT that go for cheap..:music:
 
lexx21 said:
...it sound like cats fornicating.
Click to expand...

Which in case you've never had the misfortune of hearing, it is worse than needles on a chalk board. Think more or less the sound you'd think a dying baby would make (I know its the furthest thing from funny, but thats the best I can describe the noise).
 
Listening to some Grand Funk Railroad right now. It sounds exactly as I remember... awesome. Now that I have things sort of figured out about this cart, I am pretty pleased with it. I do need to go ahead and build my record cleaner though.

It seems that the carbon brush isn't quite enough sometimes.
 
lexx21 said:
I have just picked up a Shure V15 type IV cart which was described as very low hours. I mounted it on my TP13A arm on my thorens td-150. I now get VERY low output from the cart with distorted sound. I am tracking at 1.25g as specified in the data sheet.

Here is what I have tried::


1) Cleaned the head shell terminals that go to the cart with deoxit. They were very dirty.

2) Set the balance to 1.25g and verified that the anti-skate was correct using an album with no tracks (blank record side).

3) swapped the two ground wires based on information found for the TP50 tonearm wiring diagram and the output of bablefish (it was in German).

4) Set the required overhang as close as I could to 49mm. The cart is a bit longer than my empire cart so it exceeds it by a bit.

5) Reseated the stylus in the cart.

6) Ensured that the connectors were tight on the cartridge pins. There is no play and they are snug.


I am pretty much stumped here. I had an empire cart on the arm previously (as in a few days ago) that worked fine. I am running the table directly into an Onkyo TX-NR901 receiver. As I said though, the Empire cart worked fine.
Click to expand...

I had an exact problem with one I picked up on ebay some time ago.I complained to the seller and they reluctantly agreed to take it back. Where did you get yours?
 
On Ebay. I nabbed it for about $150 with shipping. It's working fine now. I just need to seriously clean my records, as I have found that some play better than others.

I had planned to build something like a VPI cleaner out of an old Kenwood table that I scrapped for this purpose. I just haven't gotten around to doing it yet. Guess I will work on that tomorrow
 
I am running mine at about 1.25g net.

A couple of issues that I had were that with the tp13 tonearm head shell, I could not set the vertical tracking angle to 20mm from top of head shell to stylus and the overhang with this cart would not go to 49mm as stated in the td150 manual. I was able to get it sort of close, but not dead on. I am wondering how much of an issue this could cause as far as how it performs.
 
UncleAng said:
If it's all original (including stylus) you may be experiencing suspension fatigue due to age (over 25 years old).
Click to expand...

Is this a problem with the stylus or the cart? Because I'm having the exact same issues with a Shure V15 Type IV that came on a very nice Denon TT that I recently bought. The Denon plays properly (volume wise) when using a different cart. But this Shure produces low volume, distorted output when installed both on the Denon and on a different TT (a different model Denon that was my daily driver).

from lexx21

Found some new info.... the thornes color code is completely backward to the color code on the cart. Switched that around (grounds were ok), used the stylus brush to clean the stylus, and the darn thing worked fine. Playing a Bruce Springsteen box set now, jazz blue note records coming later.
Click to expand...

I checked the marking on the pins on the cart, and if the info found under the heading, "right connections of headshell leads" in this article is correct, then the connectors on the headshell are also correct (and this table, my other Denon, worked fine with a different cart--so I don't think the headshell is wired wrong).
 
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Balifly said:
Could be an incorrect stylus. :scratch2:
Click to expand...

It's an OEM stylus, with the brush, and looks as it should. I had a tech at a local shop look at it the other day (under a microscope), and he said it looked very good and little used.
 
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Another thing to try: remove and re insert the stylus fully into the cartridge body.

Best of luck with it!:music:
 
Balifly said:
Another thing to try: remove and re insert the stylus fully into the cartridge body.

Best of luck with it!:music:
Click to expand...

I've done that already more than a few times while mounting and unmounting in all this troubleshooting. I tried to test it with a DMM the other day, and got readings of 1348 and 1352 (milliohms, I guess[?]; and l or r--can't remember which was which).
 
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