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Technics SL-1600 MK II or Sansui SR-838?

gary7

gary7

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
Stopped at a pawn going to GA. They had a 1600. Oil leached out of mat. Mat hard. Edges of plinth had worn paint. Cover scratched. Had AT120 cart with slight lean to the right. Cue button stuck. Would not take my offer. Went on. Today went in another pawn. Had a SR-838. Broken Stanton 720 needle. Drifted a little with quartz lock off. A little dusty. Only a little more than the 1600. Which would you buy.
 
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Need to make sure the 838 is right without the quartz lock as it sounds better with it off.

I have had a couple 838s through here and have an SL1600II sitting over there for my semi/auto table, one that at least does something at the end of the record. I'm currently using my brother's Sony PS-X7 and a friend's PS-X5, both here for repairs. The 7 is ready to go the 5 still doesn't know where to start a record so it is a semi-auto now.

When I first got the 838 I thought it might be a semi auto. nope full manual I have other tables for full manuals so the 838s could go to some 838 fans here on AK.

I will say the 838 is a better looking table being piano black vs. industrial gray of the Technics.
 
gary7 said:
Stopped at a pawn going to GA. They had a 1600. Oil leached out of mat. Mat hard. Edges of plinth had worn paint. Cover scratched. Had AT120 cart with slight lean to the right. Cue button stuck. Would not take my offer. Went on. Today went in another pawn. Had a SR-838. Broken Stanton 720 needle. Drifted a little with quartz lock off. A little dusty. Only a little more than the 1600. Which would you buy.
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Rescue the Sansui SR-838 with the original head shell, please. :naughty:

( I have both .)
 
Blue Shadow said:
Need to make sure the 838 is right without the quartz lock as it sounds better with it off.

I have had a couple 838s through here and have an SL1600II sitting over there for my semi/auto table, one that at least does something at the end of the record. I'm currently using my brother's Sony PS-X7 and a friend's PS-X5, both here for repairs. The 7 is ready to go the 5 still doesn't know where to start a record so it is a semi-auto now.

When I first got the 838 I thought it might be a semi auto. nope full manual I have other tables for full manuals so the 838s could go to some 838 fans here on AK.

I will say the 838 is a better looking table being piano black vs. industrial gray of the Technics.
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You think it might need more than a good speed control cleaning? When I get home Monday I'll download the SM & OM off vinylengine.
 
hopefully the speed when not locked and the vr is part of the circuit (I haven't looked to see if it is out of the circuit when locked) will respond to a good cleaning.

If the table has a hitch in its giddy up locked or not the tone ring for the sensor under the motor cover below the platter may has some debris on it and the sensor isn't reading the tone ring right.

SR-838 tone wheel.jpg

That crap on the ring keeps it from running at the right speed when both locked and unlocked are bad.
 
I had a 929 with the speed hiccup and sold it before I found out about the cause. Oh well.
 
Shadow's advice is worth heeding. I had a 838 in storage for 10 years. When I plugged it in again, the platter was totally haywire, speeding up and slowing down like a blind-drunk driver. I thought I'd blown the old capacitors, which maybe destroyed a microprocessor. Should've used a Variac.

Then I checked the tone ring. An insect had crawled in, laid some eggs, which hatched into larvae that crawled around. They were all dead for lack of food, but sure messed up the speed.

A blast of compressed air, followed by gentle brushing with my lady's soft sable make-up brush, and the speed was perfect, in both modes. What a relief! Such a beautiful TT, and I thought I'd destroyed it.
 
It looks like you've already gone for the 838, but that is definitely the choice I would have made! The only knock I've found against the 838 (and I love mine!) is that it can be hard to find one where the rubber is in good shape on the feet. I went through 3 or 4 before I found enough "good" feet to keep on one. It's a great turntable, though, not terribly common, and looks pretty on top of all that. I just put an Audio Technica VM750SH on mine, in the process of breaking in now.
 
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Looked at the SM last night. The speed pot looks easy to get to to DeOx. To get to the tone ring remove the 3 large screws & 2 small screws? The feet are fine. Looks to have been well taken care of. Cover has a few light scratches. Can't wait to get home tomorrow & hook it up.
 
Have a AT13Ea, MA 282e, Stanton 681eee or a Grado RP II P-mount I can put on it. Any other recommends?
 
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Yes put a nice moving coil cartridge on it. Something that will work nicely with a medium mass arm. Gonna sound better than the nice set if cartridges you mention and if you buy a new one, it will have a brand new stylus on it.
 
Blue Shadow said:
Yes put a nice moving coil cartridge on it. Something that will work nicely with a medium mass arm. Gonna sound better than the nice set if cartridges you mention and if you buy a new one, it will have a brand new stylus on it.
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I have an AT-30E body, been wanting to buy a new stylus. Might have a good reason now.:)
 
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I’ve used an Audio Technica AT440MLa, Grado Gold(1), and Denon DL-110 before the aforementioned VM750SH; all of them sounded/sound great! I guess the key would be in the rest of your system.
 
gary7 said:
To get to the tone ring remove the 3 large screws & 2 small screws?
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To answer your question — you only need to remove the 2 small screws. Then you can take off the cover plate, and have full access to the tone ring. Removing the 3 large screws lets you remove the entire motor, which isn't necessary for this operation — and it's easier if the motor is securely in place, instead of flopping around loose, so leave those 3 large screws in place.

You'll see that the tone ring is made of very fine metal, almost as delicate as a spider web. Using compressed air and/or a very soft brush, as I described above in #10, will clean it without damaging it. Do this before Deoxing the trimpot: it's probably not needed. That's how I fixed mine last year. The TT is at my son's house so I can't look at it right now to double check, and I'm going from memory.

It's a great TT — it has both Quartz-lock and manual pitch-control, a feature I insist on with all my DD tables, and the tonearm would be near high-end if offered separately. I've used very expensive MC cartridges you'd usually see on a $5K turntable, and the 838 handles them superbly.
 
Any idea of the transport screws length? It will be in the trunk for the ride back to AL.
 
I had a SR-737 a year or so ago. Really liked it, but was missing arm lift & auto functions were wonky. Finally sold it.
 
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