The Official Kenwood KD 500/550 and 600/650 Owner's Thread

[gary7]

Finally, the search is over!! My 500 is now complete. Just went and picked up a parts unit, minus a tonearm but with a dust cover intact and in great shape for $100! I bought this table a couple years ago with a Jelco arm mounted but it didn’t come with the cover. So glad to have finally found one. I love these tables. I’m getting ready to do a tonearm rewire and she’ll be back up and running....

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I also have a KD-2055. It was my very first turntable I bought 8 years ago with a Marantz 2275 when I first got into vinyl and vintage audio gear. Now I am completely obsessed with the stuff. I currently own 6 turntables, 8 receivers, many sets of speakers and several other pieces of equipment. I owe all that I know about this stuff to this website. Thank you AK and keep rockin’!!!!


Jeremy

Glad to hear that. Coming across an intact cover is rare. They are just itching to break due to the design and age.

 

[Grenadeslio]

Finally, the search is over!! My 500 is now complete. Just went and picked up a parts unit, minus a tonearm but with a dust cover intact and in great shape for $100! I bought this table a couple years ago with a Jelco arm mounted but it didn’t come with the cover. So glad to have finally found one. I love these tables. I’m getting ready to do a tonearm rewire and she’ll be back up and running....

View attachment 2207282 View attachment 2207283


I also have a KD-2055. It was my very first turntable I bought 8 years ago with a Marantz 2275 when I first got into vinyl and vintage audio gear. Now I am completely obsessed with the stuff. I currently own 6 turntables, 8 receivers, many sets of speakers and several other pieces of equipment. I owe all that I know about this stuff to this website. Thank you AK and keep rockin’!!!!


Jeremy

schveet table indeed

 

[Grenadeslio]

Glad to hear that. Coming across an intact cover is rare. They are just itching to break due to the design and age.

yes, a working cover adds $100 minimum to the tables value

 

[sunvalleylaw]

This is motivating me to finally get around to putting some work into my stock KD-550, just to clean things up, re-align things, and finally put on that SME 3009 I bought along the way to replace the stock arm, but never did!

 

[sunvalleylaw]

And @AubRock , congratulations! I have a couple tables, but only the one Kenny. Sounds like you are getting a nice collection of tables and sundry!

 

[jbjsr]

FYI. In case someone here is looking for another KW table there is is an original owner nice condition KD550 that showed up on USAM yesterday. Is complete with a low mass Denon arm, vintage Grado cart, and dustcover. Owner will ship. No affiliation.

 

[HiFiDidi]

I recently picked up a kd-850 that need a lot of work. It's missing a leg, are the legs on the 650 and 750 the same?

 

[losthorizon]

It's great looking at all these Kenwoods, I love the style of them, I treasure my KD 990 and wouldn't part with it.

 

[Grenadeslio]

in case anyone is interested I saw this last night. it shows the wrong headshell but the seller has the correct one, why he has the wrong one installed is anyone's guess lol.

way more than I paid for mine but that was 5yrs ago.

 

[Nat]

Looks like the arm tube has been replaced with a straight one - I'm assuming it isn't original and that Kenwood didn't suddenly up and offer an angled headshell to be used with a straight arm, but sticking with an SME connector. Whatever the origin of the non offset arm, it doesn't seem a good idea to me.

 

[salamander]

Looks like the arm tube has been replaced with a straight one - I'm assuming it isn't original and that Kenwood didn't suddenly up and offer an angled headshell to be used with a straight arm, but sticking with an SME connector. Whatever the origin of the non offset arm, it doesn't seem a good idea to me.

The 770 ( and 880) were equipped with only one tonearm tube - a straight one . And corner headshell ( HS-51 ) . But these headshells are now rare and expensive . Here is the correct headshell for the 770 ( this is a photo of my 770). And the turntable is great .

 

[Nat]

That makes sense - I assumed that if the arm were straight it would have the standard Japanese straight arm connector with the little tightening screw on top. The diameter of the tube and the standard collet confused me. So what sort of connector did they use - could an SME/Japanese style headshell be attached without modification? If so, that would seem to be an odd choice on Kenwood's part.

 

[salamander]

That makes sense - I assumed that if the arm were straight it would have the standard Japanese straight arm connector with the little tightening screw on top. The diameter of the tube and the standard collet confused me. So what sort of connector did they use - could an SME/Japanese style headshell be attached without modification? If so, that would seem to be an odd choice on Kenwood's part.

The original HS-51 headshell had a standard SME-type connector. The diameter of the connector is 8 mm. 4 pins . Everything is like standard straight shells . Some other Kenwood turntables also had a straight tonearm tube . On the corner headshell, it was equipped with a different connector-a diameter of 6 mm (such as a Sony mini-socket). For these models, the Sony 151-series headshell was suitable . But these headshells are also becoming rare . The photo shows the headshell for the 770 (and 880) turntables .

 

[Grenadeslio]

That makes sense - I assumed that if the arm were straight it would have the standard Japanese straight arm connector with the little tightening screw on top. The diameter of the tube and the standard collet confused me. So what sort of connector did they use - could an SME/Japanese style headshell be attached without modification? If so, that would seem to be an odd choice on Kenwood's part.

And as I stated he has the correct headshell, if you look for the ad on eBay you will see it.

I contacted him to let him know I almost skipped over his ad because of the incorrect headshell in the picture and recommended he reinstall the correct one and change the pictures. All before posting the picture here, and why I mentioned he had the correct one.

 

[Grenadeslio]

The 770 ( and 880) were equipped with only one tonearm tube - a straight one . And corner headshell ( HS-51 ) . But these headshells are now rare and expensive . Here is the correct headshell for the 770 ( this is a photo of my 770). And the turntable is great .

I much prefer the straight arm on these tables over the J arm on the other decks. It's an aesthetic bias of mine, currently all of my tables have them, my son has my AR XA, one of the few decks I've owned without one.

And I have to admit the AR was my main deck for many yrs.

 

[Narrowfellow]

I was just recently fortunate to buy a KD-500 with Grace G-727 tonearm and NOS Grace F9E cart, plus a pair of Icon Lumen speakers (I'll post separately about those. Interesting speakers...). It's all working great, and sounds wonderful. A real step up from my SL1200MK2/ATVM540ML. I'll be doing a full cleanup and oiling of the spindle soon.
I haven't seen much about the G-727/747 tonearm -- other than the removable headshell, does anyone have any insight into this tonearm?
One last question regarding the platter mat -- mine came to me stiff as a board. I shook it a bit and it loosened up. It's otherwise in find visual shape. What's the stock mat supposed to be like? Fairly stiff, or flexible? What would a suitable replacement be if I need to go that route? Looking for suggestions other than Herbies

 

[Grenadeslio]

I was just recently fortunate to buy a KD-500 with Grace G-727 tonearm and NOS Grace F9E cart, plus a pair of Icon Lumen speakers (I'll post separately about those. Interesting speakers...). It's all working great, and sounds wonderful. A real step up from my SL1200MK2/ATVM540ML. I'll be doing a full cleanup and oiling of the spindle soon.
I haven't seen much about the G-727/747 tonearm -- other than the removable headshell, does anyone have any insight into this tonearm?
One last question regarding the platter mat -- mine came to me stiff as a board. I shook it a bit and it loosened up. It's otherwise in find visual shape. What's the stock mat supposed to be like? Fairly stiff, or flexible? What would a suitable replacement be if I need to go that route? Looking for suggestions other than Herbies

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first, how serendipitous is this lol?

can you post a picture of your mat, I'll let you know if it's original or not.

here's the funny part, I've had my KD-500/Grace G707 for 8yrs, the original mat and table were pristine. but about 2 months ago for reasons I won't go into here I needed to replace the mat, so went on line looking for another OEM mat.

While looking I wanted to play some records in the living rm so I borrowed the mat off my Kenwood KD-770D in the media rm and was floored at the very noticeable improvement. So I remembered while looking for the OEM mat I had seen an ad from Germany stating "original KG mat", that's it, but it looked exactly like the mat from my KD-770D.

The mat was $70 plus shipping from Germany, but well worth the price if the mat I thought it to be. So I ordered it, shows up still in its original sealed packaging, compare it to my KD770D mat and they're identical, even has the same numbers stamped on the underside.

D-2
G16-0355

My 500 isn't stock, but this is the one biggest improvement I've made.

 

[Grenadeslio]

I was just recently fortunate to buy a KD-500 with Grace G-727 tonearm and NOS Grace F9E cart, plus a pair of Icon Lumen speakers (I'll post separately about those. Interesting speakers...). It's all working great, and sounds wonderful. A real step up from my SL1200MK2/ATVM540ML. I'll be doing a full cleanup and oiling of the spindle soon.
I haven't seen much about the G-727/747 tonearm -- other than the removable headshell, does anyone have any insight into this tonearm?
One last question regarding the platter mat -- mine came to me stiff as a board. I shook it a bit and it loosened up. It's otherwise in find visual shape. What's the stock mat supposed to be like? Fairly stiff, or flexible? What would a suitable replacement be if I need to go that route? Looking for suggestions other than Herbies

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View attachment 2452931

Schveet cartridge, hard to deny the synergy of having the cartridge on the arm it was designed for.

 

[percivilla]

I've got a 550 and 500/Grace 707, both OEM mats are floppy as a tortilla

 

[Narrowfellow]

I've got a 550 and 500/Grace 707, both OEM mats are floppy as a tortilla

Good to know, thanks. Mine's as floppy as a rock. Guess I need to find something new.