birchoak
Hi-Fi Nut
Hello all!
OK, so I got a Technics SL 10 from that auction site. It was in very good cosmetic condition but the right channel would not play at proper volume in "STEREO" mode until the tonearm was about halfway into playing the record. The seller was very up front about the problem so this wasn't a surprise. I know that this is an excellent tt and worth some blood, sweat and tears so I donned my proverbial surgical gloves and attempted to fix it.
I thought perhaps the RCA interconnects were faulty so I swapped in a pair that I knew were working. Still, extremely low volume sound in right channel when in "STEREO" mode. In "MONO" full sound, both channels.
Next, I swapped P-mount cartridges. Nope, not the problem as said cartridge worked perfect in another tt earlier that day.
Next, juxtapose RCA interconnects. Problem switched to opposite speaker; methinks problem is in SL 10 for sure. I opened up the base assembly, perused solder points and wire looms, especially near RCA jacks, touched up a few dull solder spots and re-assembled. No difference in sound, original problem still remained.
I decided this must a cracked/pinched/whatever tonearm cable and that at the halfway point in the tonearms's journey across the record said cable was probably being positioned in such a way as to make a decent connection to produce stereo in the right channel. Sure enough, there was electrician's tape around a sizeable nick in the tonearm cable's outer sheathing.
Now what? If you're me and there's no one you know of to perform this work, you try to do it yourself. I clipped the wires at the nick in the insulation, stripped each of the five wires back (an absolute nightmare; Gods is that wire thin!), then soldered them back together with five pieces of teeny tiny heat shrink tubing (even more of a nightmare). The outer cable shielding I wove together as best I could, then slid the final, large piece of heat shrink tubing over the whole mess, which tightly bound the shielding together, and shrank that.
It looks good, it looks neat, and now there is no sound whatsoever from the tt
Perhaps this is not a good way to fix tonearm wire and maybe this wire should not have any splices along it's length, nor any heat shrink tubing that would reduce it's flexibility? While it's possible one of the wires may have not gotten soldered together 100%, the complete lack of sound has me baffled. To clarify, this is not the super-short run of tonearm wire in the arm itself but the comparatively long run looping back from the tonearm and traversing the right rear hinge to plunge into the 5-pin loom at the pcb board in the SL 10's base.
Fellow SL 10 enthusiasts, where I can find this holy grail of tonearm wire? It is a fine, supple Hitachi 5-pin wire with shielding and I cannot find anything like it so far on the net. Though lacking feet, this is a clean table and has obviously been looked after. It is worth the effort, I feel. When it was, ah, working, the sound was outstanding even with a $30 Pickering P-mount cartridge--solid, deep, authoritative.
I thank you ahead of time for any light you may shed on this conundrum.
OK, so I got a Technics SL 10 from that auction site. It was in very good cosmetic condition but the right channel would not play at proper volume in "STEREO" mode until the tonearm was about halfway into playing the record. The seller was very up front about the problem so this wasn't a surprise. I know that this is an excellent tt and worth some blood, sweat and tears so I donned my proverbial surgical gloves and attempted to fix it.
I thought perhaps the RCA interconnects were faulty so I swapped in a pair that I knew were working. Still, extremely low volume sound in right channel when in "STEREO" mode. In "MONO" full sound, both channels.
Next, I swapped P-mount cartridges. Nope, not the problem as said cartridge worked perfect in another tt earlier that day.
Next, juxtapose RCA interconnects. Problem switched to opposite speaker; methinks problem is in SL 10 for sure. I opened up the base assembly, perused solder points and wire looms, especially near RCA jacks, touched up a few dull solder spots and re-assembled. No difference in sound, original problem still remained.
I decided this must a cracked/pinched/whatever tonearm cable and that at the halfway point in the tonearms's journey across the record said cable was probably being positioned in such a way as to make a decent connection to produce stereo in the right channel. Sure enough, there was electrician's tape around a sizeable nick in the tonearm cable's outer sheathing.
Now what? If you're me and there's no one you know of to perform this work, you try to do it yourself. I clipped the wires at the nick in the insulation, stripped each of the five wires back (an absolute nightmare; Gods is that wire thin!), then soldered them back together with five pieces of teeny tiny heat shrink tubing (even more of a nightmare). The outer cable shielding I wove together as best I could, then slid the final, large piece of heat shrink tubing over the whole mess, which tightly bound the shielding together, and shrank that.
It looks good, it looks neat, and now there is no sound whatsoever from the tt
Perhaps this is not a good way to fix tonearm wire and maybe this wire should not have any splices along it's length, nor any heat shrink tubing that would reduce it's flexibility? While it's possible one of the wires may have not gotten soldered together 100%, the complete lack of sound has me baffled. To clarify, this is not the super-short run of tonearm wire in the arm itself but the comparatively long run looping back from the tonearm and traversing the right rear hinge to plunge into the 5-pin loom at the pcb board in the SL 10's base.
Fellow SL 10 enthusiasts, where I can find this holy grail of tonearm wire? It is a fine, supple Hitachi 5-pin wire with shielding and I cannot find anything like it so far on the net. Though lacking feet, this is a clean table and has obviously been looked after. It is worth the effort, I feel. When it was, ah, working, the sound was outstanding even with a $30 Pickering P-mount cartridge--solid, deep, authoritative.
I thank you ahead of time for any light you may shed on this conundrum.
