Technics SL 10 tonearm wire: replacement source?

[birchoak]

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.

 

[WSideWitness]

Thread resurrection because I'm having the same issue. My SL-10 isn't playing on one side. I ended up discovering that the one of the tonearm wires didn't have continuity from the tonearm to the plug on the board under the platter. I traced to this area.


There's a crack from years of flexing as the tonearm travelled that only affected the blue wire inside.


I tried for hours to find a workaround, but none of my "repairs" would maintain continuity throughout the entire travel of the tonearm. So I'm in need of something like this, part #107 in the service manual.


I don't expect to find the exact part. I'd like to find 2' or more of the 5 wire twisted and shielded cable and I'll make it work. Ideas or other known workarounds?

 

[Blue Shadow]

Mogami 2739
Hard to find in short chunks except the UK bay with associated tariffs.

Maybe Cardas 4x33Ga with shield could be found in North America.

Replace the wire on any connector the table has.

 

[Aerobat]

How are you repairing it? If you cut the outer jacket and shield open with an exacto, cut the blue wire at the break, test continuity from each end, solder the ends together using an extra piece of wire and heat shrink it, that should do the trick.

 

[trollchu]

Iirc, the user in the below post removed the connector entirely and soldered new wire direct to the board. I think further in, he replaced the wires with silver cables and explains both the issues he ran into there and solutions: https://audiokarma.org/forums/threads/technics-sl-10-restoration-and-setup.725197/post-9790062

 

[WSideWitness]

How are you repairing it? If you cut the outer jacket and shield open with an exacto, cut the blue wire at the break, test continuity from each end, solder the ends together using an extra piece of wire and heat shrink it, that should do the trick.

This was my thought too, but it was difficult to find the spot because the break was entirely inside and I couldn't see it. I kept stripping and stripping and never found it

 

[WSideWitness]

Maybe Cardas 4x33Ga with shield could be found in North America.

I will check this out. Thank you

Iirc, the user in the below post removed the connector entirely and soldered new wire direct to the board. I think further in, he replaced the wires with silver cables and explains both the issues he ran into their and solutions: https://audiokarma.org/forums/threads/technics-sl-10-restoration-and-setup.725197/post-9790062

Excellent info. Thanks for the link!

 

[Fishead]

Hey @WSideWitness, I have a couple questions. Looking at that picture, at the plug, I indeed see 5 wires. Assuming one, the black, is ground, the other four being blue, white, yellow and red. If this is correct, those are likely the positive and negative wires for the left and right channels. Most often, I've seen white (L ch. pos.), blue (L ch. neg.), red (R ch. pos.) and green (R. ch. neg. and in this case it seems to be yellow?).

If that is correct, then might you have some Apple earbuds lying around, or actually earbuds of any reputable company? If you cannibalize them, taking the wires, you will have a loom of the correct gage wire in the form of copper litz for a whole lot less $$$ and immediately available! I learned about this here on AK in another thread about tonearm re-wiring and decided to try it. Earbuds don't work for me, odd shaped ears I suppose, so I took some Apple earbuds and used those wires to re-wire my Nottingham Analogue Studios Spacearm, which originally came with silver litz wires, and found nothing was lost by going to the copper litz wires, only around $250 cheaper than the US dealer would charge me for the Nottingham stuff.

I since have acquired a new "Ace" Spacearm, the upgrade from Nottingham from the Spacearm, and am still trying to tell the difference between the old, re-wired arm and the new, "improved" Ace Spacearm with the silver litz wires.....

So, just an idea I'd like to offer you to resolve your dilemma amigo......you could re-use the black wire for your ground and basically be done with the job. The wires are color coded although you have to look pretty hard to see it. One is reddish, one bluish, another greenish and the one that would be white is left straight copper colored, at least that was the way it was with my earbuds. Carry on.....

 

[WSideWitness]

Thanks @Fishead. The issue is that the entire cable is shielded. The cardas cable mentioned by the previous posters is just what I need and is available in the UK. I'm hesitant to order internationally right now because I recently got a package from Poland and was surprised by an extra $25 charge weeks later from Fedex. I don't like surprise charges. I'm considering this right now. Waiting for a reply from the seller.\

edit: I just noticed cardas lists the US sellers so I'll probably go that route