I've been getting intermittent one-sided audio from a Technics 1310 MK2 I recently purchased, I'll lose the left side after switching records or after a few songs play. The oddest characteristic about it is that when the left side is dead, there will always be a brief burst of sound when I stop the record the moment the needle lifts off the vinyl.
At first I thought the stylus was bent a bit and only reading one side of the groove. I replaced the cartridge, made sure everything was level, verified the tracking force etc., but no change. I ruled out the receiver and tried a whole new headshell too. I also moved the RCA's around where they came out of the TT while I had no left audio, and heard nothing cutting in or out.
I started to think maybe it's a short that would come and go based on the placement of the tone arm. I took resistance measurements between the RCA's and the wires in the headshell and got some interesting results. On the right side where there is no problem the results were as expected - I had continuity from the green wire to the negative/ring and no continuity to the positive pin on the RCA. For the red wire, it was the opposite, nothing to the negative side and continuity to the positive pin. On the left side however, it showed continuity from the blue wire to both the neg and pos points on the RCA cable, and also showed continuity from the white wire to both the negative and the positive. I moved the tonearm all over the place while the probe leads were connected and this never changed.
My first question is are these results the reason for my issue? I'm assuming having each left side wire connected to both pos and neg would kill the signal right? If so, it still seems odd that it'd work sometimes given that I could never break the continuity to both pos and neg by moving the tone arm around. And does this explain the burst of audio I get when the needle lifts somehow?
The second question is what now? I've never taken a turntable apart, but I'm guessing the wires come out of the back of the tone arm and are soldered to the ends of the RCA cable. Are these points super close, where some solder may be connecting the two? Or could this be some lack of isolation between the positive and negative wires in either the tonearm or the RCA cable?
Thanks in advance for any insights, I tried to take this as far as I could solo but would def appreciate any community assistance
At first I thought the stylus was bent a bit and only reading one side of the groove. I replaced the cartridge, made sure everything was level, verified the tracking force etc., but no change. I ruled out the receiver and tried a whole new headshell too. I also moved the RCA's around where they came out of the TT while I had no left audio, and heard nothing cutting in or out.
I started to think maybe it's a short that would come and go based on the placement of the tone arm. I took resistance measurements between the RCA's and the wires in the headshell and got some interesting results. On the right side where there is no problem the results were as expected - I had continuity from the green wire to the negative/ring and no continuity to the positive pin on the RCA. For the red wire, it was the opposite, nothing to the negative side and continuity to the positive pin. On the left side however, it showed continuity from the blue wire to both the neg and pos points on the RCA cable, and also showed continuity from the white wire to both the negative and the positive. I moved the tonearm all over the place while the probe leads were connected and this never changed.
My first question is are these results the reason for my issue? I'm assuming having each left side wire connected to both pos and neg would kill the signal right? If so, it still seems odd that it'd work sometimes given that I could never break the continuity to both pos and neg by moving the tone arm around. And does this explain the burst of audio I get when the needle lifts somehow?
The second question is what now? I've never taken a turntable apart, but I'm guessing the wires come out of the back of the tone arm and are soldered to the ends of the RCA cable. Are these points super close, where some solder may be connecting the two? Or could this be some lack of isolation between the positive and negative wires in either the tonearm or the RCA cable?
Thanks in advance for any insights, I tried to take this as far as I could solo but would def appreciate any community assistance
