TD125 SME 3009 Confusion

[ScrubLaddy]

Hi everyone, I’m a bit new to this so please bear with me!

I’ve just purchased a very nice Thorens TD125 with an SME 3009 tone arm, and am having a bit of confusion on the best way to connect it to my amplifier etc.

In short, the previous owner was clearly very knowledgable and had a 3 pin xlr output (I think) installed from the tonearm as pictured. My amplifier (Yamaha CA-710) will only except RCA based phono inputs. My first question is, will a simple female 3 pin XLR to 2 RCA be sufficient for an (acceptable) sound? Brief research suggests it will no longer be balanced, but I don’t think this is a major concern for me right now (maybe in the future!). My key concern here is that there’s no grounding wire to connect to the relevant terminal on the amp, which I’m guessing will fall inside the 3 pin XLR. This would be a bit of an issue based on the above restrictions on inputs accepted by my amp I think.

The other issue is the power connection is the 3 pin one shown in the second photo (not sure what it’s called, sorry!) for which I was given an adapter, but just wanted to check if anyone had any thoughts on this and whether it will be safe to use plugged into the wall as such.

Any advice is absolutely welcome, but please bear in mind some of it may go straight over my head!

Thanks in advance.

 

[Blue Shadow]

Be best to show how the wires are connected inside the unit.

I would return the arm to the 5-connector system almost all SME 3009 use today. The RCA plugs and the ground wire which collects both the tonearm ground and turntable ground. It has been totally adequate for over 50 years, why change it?

Same with the electrical power. We have no idea where those three prongs go to be able to help you get it wired correctly to use in you system.

 

[frankmarsi]

What voltage is it set-up for, it seems it may be for European use?
You may have to find a qualified and fair priced person who can rewire from the arm to RCA output. You might find something pulled from another table for sale on E__y auction site also. The AC connections will be needed also besides knowing the operating voltage.

FM

 

[ScrubLaddy]

Be best to show how the wires are connected inside the unit.

I would return the arm to the 5-connector system almost all SME 3009 use today. The RCA plugs and the ground wire which collects both the tonearm ground and turntable ground. It has been totally adequate for over 50 years, why change it?

Same with the electrical power. We have no idea where those three prongs go to be able to help you get it wired correctly to use in you system.

I’ll have a look inside today and see what we’re dealing with- thanks for the tip!

 

[ScrubLaddy]

What voltage is it set-up for, it seems it may be for European use?
You may have to find a qualified and fair priced person who can rewire from the arm to RCA output. You might find something pulled from another table for sale on E__y auction site also. The AC connections will be needed also besides knowing the operating voltage.

FM

I’m fairly certain it’s 220V as the owner was running it in the UK and I did test the operation before purchase from a standard UK mains plug so I think that’s all fine. I know of a few places local to me that would probably be able to do that work so I’ll have a look. I know there are conversion kits to RCA available for the SME 3009 so maybe that would be the best option. Thanks for the advice!

 

[mdc701]

I suggest you get something like this:

Pardon Our Interruption...

You’ll have to check though that the connection from the tonearm has not been modified and still accepts the 5 pin connector. If your arm is a Series III, i think you’ll be fine with regular rca cables and a ground wire. Best to have it checked by someone knowledgeable. It should be a simple fix.

 

[ScrubLaddy]

I suggest you get something like this:

Pardon Our Interruption...

You’ll have to check though that the connection from the tonearm has not been modified and still accepts the 5 pin connector. If your arm is a Series III, i think you’ll be fine with regular rca cables and a ground wire. Best to have it checked by someone knowledgeable. It should be a simple fix.

thanks for sending this through. I’ve had a look inside the unit today and it looks like the original cable is partially intact, as the end connector from this eBay post is present (picture 1). It looks like the cables from it connect first to the chassis of the board (picture 2) and then out again, with the three cables being brought together under one cover which leads to the 3 pin output from my earlier picture (picture 2). This makes me wonder whether it would be possible to just remove the jacket from the outgoing cables and replace the 3 pin connector with two RCAs and a ground connector (but as a bit of a newbie I appreciate this may be complete madness?)

The main power supply is a bit of a mystery as it just seems to come out straight into the kettle lead from my earlier picture.

As always, thanks for everyone’s advice and any further thoughts would be much appreciated!

 

[Blue Shadow]

I would terminate the SME connector-cable with what you want to use be it wiring to a pair of RCA plugs with a ground wire to the preamp or a pair of RCA jacks and ground terminal on the back panel of the turntable to be able to use any interconnects you want.

Things to consider:
1) The wiring should be shielded, even lower level turntables have metal sheets or foil on surrounding panels to protect the open wiring from RFI and EMI.
2) The SME connector at the arm should be wired in such a way to allow the movement of the table with little restriction to keep the suspension in the mix for best phono playback.

Magnepan tonearms have a jumper from the tonearm connector to the main wiring harness about 7” away to allow the movement of the turntable in suspended machines. The main cable is physically attached to the base and the jumper is free to move as necessary with the turntable suspension. The Magnepan jumper is made of something like the Mogami 2739 ultra-flexible mini cable, available on the bay: Mogami 2739 - Ultraflexible Miniature Cables - 2.1mm OD - 4 Core & Screen | eBay.de but you can probably use the wiring with the SME connector with the SME wiring and additional wiring positioned correctly.

 

[ScrubLaddy]

I would terminate the SME connector-cable with what you want to use be it wiring to a pair of RCA plugs with a ground wire to the preamp or a pair of RCA jacks and ground terminal on the back panel of the turntable to be able to use any interconnects you want.

Things to consider:
1) The wiring should be shielded, even lower level turntables have metal sheets or foil on surrounding panels to protect the open wiring from RFI and EMI.
2) The SME connector at the arm should be wired in such a way to allow the movement of the table with little restriction to keep the suspension in the mix for best phono playback.

Magnepan tonearms have a jumper from the tonearm connector to the main wiring harness about 7” away to allow the movement of the turntable in suspended machines. The main cable is physically attached to the base and the jumper is free to move as necessary with the turntable suspension. The Magnepan jumper is made of something like the Mogami 2739 untra-flexible mini cable, available on the bay: Mogami 2739 - Ultraflexible Miniature Cables - 2.1mm OD - 4 Core & Screen | eBay.de but you can probably use the wiring with the SME connector with the SME wiring and additional wiring positioned correctly.

Okay, this is really helpful thankyou! As I work through the process I may be back with more questions but I’ll have a go and see how I get on. Cheers!

 

[ScrubLaddy]

Hi all,

Just a quick update. I’ve been working on the arm separately but took the opportunity today to have a closer look at the power side of things under the intimidating black box . Looking at images of other examples of the unit nothing seems super unusual other than a few things:

One of the wires (labelled number 3(?)) seems to be holding on for dear life- think this will
Need cutting back slightly and re soldering.

The long fuse on top of the other fuse I’ve seen in some photos seems to be missing.

I can’t figure out where the grounding for this part of the turntable comes out as the power lead only seems to have two wires in a pair. Wondered if anyone had any thoughts on this?

Cheers everyone!

 

[Blue Shadow]

The two fuses, one is used for 120V and one for 240V mains. I think it is in the manual.

The power system is not grounded. The turntable and tonearm are grounded through phono leads.

 

[Blue Shadow]

The SME wiring has a ground wire at the tonearm end that is connected to the turntable chassis.

 

[Mr Boochie]

The SME wiring has a ground wire at the tonearm end that is connected to the turntable chassis.

If you have this style SME connection, be sure the split-piece is tight over the collar. This is the ground connection for the tonearm.