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Blistex posted:Here, made this easy for you if you go the digikey route. All the part numbers and amounts are there. Wasn't expecting this, thanks a bunch!
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May 29, 2012 15:59
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Basic Beater posted:Would there be any problems with plugging my turntable into something like this so it stops spinning if I fall asleep while listening to a record? I guess it should be OK. Save some wear on that needle. It doesn't tick, does it? I hate stuff that ticks.
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May 29, 2012 22:38
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Well, after buying new speakers, I think I've finally completed my TT system. http://imgur.com/a/XrHXq (Ignore the dirty sock in the last pic) Technics 1200mk2 with a Denon DL-110 Yamaha CA-410 and CT-410 Yamaha NS-A960YS Sounds great, but I need to rearrange my furniture so as to accommodate the new speakers...
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May 30, 2012 05:51
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I bought a pair of Realistic Minimus speakers yesterday, and within minutes of bringing them inside I dropped one  Two of the speaker grill pegs snapped off so it only attaches on one side, so if there's any bass the grill rattles a little. Where can I buy spare pegs to replace these?
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May 30, 2012 20:15
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Ashex posted:I bought a pair of Realistic Minimus speakers yesterday, and within minutes of bringing them inside I dropped one You might get these to work. http://www.simplyspeakers.com/speaker-grill-pegs.html
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May 30, 2012 22:58
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So the cue on my Technics SL-Q202 is slow. It takes a long time to drop down to the record. I've looked around, I probably need to oil the tonearm, right?
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Jun 1, 2012 14:19
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nrr posted:Cool, thanks for all the advice guys! Looks like I got real lucky, cos the guy called me back, told me he managed to fix up the Yamaha, and then told me I could just have the Marantz anyway and all he wanted was $20! I asked him if he was sure, and he seems super cool with it, so I guess I'll just wait and see what kind of condition it's in when he drops it off tomorrow. Either way it looks like a pretty damned good deal to me. There you go, nice. If the Marantz needs work its probably just the caps which you can do yourself. I keep forgetting to look these up but does anyone know the hi-fi tonearm resetters, I think Rega might have made them, anyways its just a spring in a little plastic housing that kicks the tonearm back to the start on non-auto tables and its approved by dumb hifi magazines. Probably from the 80s or 90s? Maybe earlier. FOUND IT. This isn't the one I originally saw, my boss has one on his nicer table, but they work great. http://www.thequp.com Don't buy this one, 60$ is a scam but he said he got it for ~15$. Thorens made the original QUP I guess, there's an Audio Technica one (6006a) but they are going for 170 on ebay. drat I guess this was harder than I thought. If anyone finds a cheap source please post it. Not an Anthem fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Jun 9, 2012 |
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Jun 9, 2012 05:25
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Alright, I've read through about half the thread so far; I'll catch up on the rest sometime tomorrow. I'd like to put together a setup to listen to vinyl in a studio apartment; I don't need to blast metal loud enough to piss off my neighbors, I'd just like to be able to put on some rock albums or listen to some classical in the evening. Initially I had put a Sony PS-LX250H into my amazon shopping card, but by the time I got to about 15 pages into the thread it seemed like the consensus was that a turntable like that will really only last me about a year before it gives out. Everybody recommends stuff like used Technics 1200s or Pro-ject Debut IIIs, but I'm not especially comfortable buying used when I don't know how to diagnose and fix problems, and I'm worried about saving money on a used table and then having to spend twice as much plus time and effort to get it working again. Do good-quality turntables exist that can be bought new, ideally from some place like amazon, for $150-200 dollars? The OP recommends the cheap turntable that apparently isn't that great, then jumps from ~80 bucks to a 350 dollar table, and that's a little more than I'm willing to swallow. Especially since I'll have to pick up a receiver and speakers as well.
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Jun 10, 2012 07:20
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Coca Koala posted:Everybody recommends stuff like used Technics 1200s or Pro-ject Debut IIIs, but I'm not especially comfortable buying used when I don't know how to diagnose and fix problems, and I'm worried about saving money on a used table and then having to spend twice as much plus time and effort to get it working again. Do good-quality turntables exist that can be bought new, ideally from some place like amazon, for $150-200 dollars? The OP recommends the cheap turntable that apparently isn't that great, then jumps from ~80 bucks to a 350 dollar table, and that's a little more than I'm willing to swallow. Especially since I'll have to pick up a receiver and speakers as well. Unfortunately since a good quality turntable is a precision instrument, the tight machining tolerances of thier construction dictate that they are also necessarily somewhat expensive pieces of equipment. With the 1200 out of production, you won't find much brand new with the same build quality. They are however very hardy, and there are many that are not thrashed out there. As long as the arm doesn't rattle, the spindle doesn't rock and it keeps speed, they should be good to go. The Audio-Technica clone seemed to have praise here, but I cannot comment personally on these. For bang for your buck vintage might be the way to go. Not an Anthem posted:I keep forgetting to look these up but does anyone know the hi-fi tonearm resetters, I think Rega might have made them, anyways its just a spring in a little plastic housing that kicks the tonearm back to the start on non-auto tables and its approved by dumb hifi magazines. Probably from the 80s or 90s? Maybe earlier. Now I want one. I always fall asleap and wake up with the stylus having rode around the leadout for the past 8 hours.
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Jun 10, 2012 07:39
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Coca Koala posted:Alright, I've read through about half the thread so far; I'll catch up on the rest sometime tomorrow. If you're worried about it breaking shortly after picking it up, there are a few niche audio stores that refurb and resell with a warranty included. Are you in or near Chicago? http://saturdayaudio.com/ is where I grab all my used gear from, everything comes with a 90 day warranty. Be aware that they do know what things are worth - they've got a SL1200M3D listed right now - for $429. They also turn over turntables very rapidly, I visited a dozen times before I found a Technics that I liked (I'm crazy and insist on at least a partially-automatic setup) http://www.decibel.com/ is cool as well, no idea on their warranty. http://www.trackonevintagestereo.com/ is out in Antioch. I've never visited, if you do, ask the guy if they have a warranty on their things. http://www.soundsclassic.com/ is way out by Rockford, again, i've never visited, but they do have a really extensive list. If you want a Dual, talk to the guy who runs http://fixmydual.com/, he sells refurbed units directly.
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Jun 10, 2012 15:38
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minivanmegafun posted:If you're worried about it breaking shortly after picking it up, there are a few niche audio stores that refurb and resell with a warranty included. I'm in Rochester NY; I swung by the main record place yesterday to see if they sold vintage turntables, but didn't have any luck. After your suggestion, though, I searched for vintage audio stores in the area and found this place, so I'll check them out on Monday and hopefully they'll be able to help me.
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Jun 10, 2012 15:55
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Coca Koala posted:I'm in Rochester NY; I swung by the main record place yesterday to see if they sold vintage turntables, but didn't have any luck. After your suggestion, though, I searched for vintage audio stores in the area and found this place, so I'll check them out on Monday and hopefully they'll be able to help me. Ha! Used to live there. Dunno what record stores are still around but Rochester and surrounding areas have HUGE vinyl junkies everywhere. Look on craigslist in the city and surrounding areas all the way out to buffalo, its all really close driving distance and every goddamn house in western new york is brimming with great vintage vinyl. If you don't see what you like put an ad up, wanted: used record player, 40$. If you're looking for a nice one at a pricepoint or a specific one mention it.
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Jun 10, 2012 17:07
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So I discovered my dad's record collection the other day and thought it'd be cool to get into vinyl. I was originally gonna go with an OK newer turntable and receiver, but after looking at and absolutely falling in love with vintage receivers I am on the lookout for some bitchin' woodgrain poo poo. I came across this today, and was wondering if anybody could offer any insight: http://baltimore.craigslist.org/ele/3040656291.html I can do basic soldering and stuff, is something like that able to be repaired easily? Or will I save myself a bunch of headaches and time by getting something else?
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Jun 12, 2012 20:58
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That's a nice receiver. A quick search shows that the folks at Audiokarma seem to think it's worth keeping (I usually always loosely judge a receiver's worth based on their opinions  )If the knobs are scratchy, it may just need the pots sprayed with a cleaner. The best you can get is DeoxIT D5 spray. A general guide can be found here. The process is quite easy and essentially the same for every kind of vintage receiver. After cleaning it, it will likely fix the channel issue as well. If the channel issue persists, you might need to replace the capacitors which requires quite a bit of soldering work. The burned out lamps are probably easy to fix as well, but sourcing modern equivalents might be the hardest part.
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Jun 12, 2012 23:23
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Dumbledore 64 posted:That's a nice receiver. A quick search shows that the folks at Audiokarma seem to think it's worth keeping (I usually always loosely judge a receiver's worth based on their opinions Awesome, thanks for the link! I guess I'll pick it up then, worst case scenario I can't fix it and can probably sell it to somebody else for what I paid for it. While I'm here, what are the best brands of old turntables to look for?
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Jun 12, 2012 23:29
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Dual, Thorens, Marantz, Pioneer, Technics etc... They all made some pretty lovely turntables later on though, just avoid the plasticy stuff. A good idea would be to post anything you're interested in here, we can give you some advice if it's any good or not.
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Jun 13, 2012 00:30
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1985 seems to be the general "Quality->lovely" period where all those companies either got bought out or decided that they would start trying to make everything as cheaply as they could, or just pay a crummy no-name company to let them put their logos on their crap. Butter Soup: that's a decent unit that I'm sure will serve you well with a little work. Like was mentioned, clean up all the pots and buttons with some Deoxit or any other contact cleaner that's "plastic safe". You can pick up cheaper stuff at any automotive supply store that will do the same thing as Deoxit and not break the bank. Another thing to try is re-flowing the solder joints on the grounds to each board. There might also be grounds that are just wired and attached with a screw to some CCT boards or the receiver frame. Spraying some contact cleaner on a Q-Tip and cleaning these contact points and then re-tightening those connections could make a difference in noise. My current receiver was a dump find, and had a horrible buzzing when I first got it. re-flowing and cleaning up connections fixed that. Finally, like mentioned above, re-capping might be a good idea as well. Those caps are probably all dried out and some might even show signs of rupturing or bulging. 1970's capacitors are not as good as the stuff we get today, and a re-capping job will only take you a few hours and $20-30, but will make your receiver ready for another 30+ years of use. It's really not that hard to do. I'm no soldering whiz, but I managed to recap my 881 in about 4 hours total. One thing that you should remember if you choose to do this is that some manuals are not accurate when it comes to the different electronic components. A stereo model might go through a slight change and they won't update the parts list of the CCT diagram. My stereo has a few instances of that, as well as a mislabeled cap in the manual as well. Visually identify and record all the caps, then order them. When you are ready to recap, remove one at a time (while remembering how it was oriented) and then replace it. Rinse and repeat. As for turntables, pretty much what Ron just said, and you could add Sansui to the list. Check Audio Karma or some other review sites before picking them up. Duals are quite popular and are likely the ones you're most likely to encounter that are both decently priced and quality pieces of kit. Just make sure you don't get later models of them as they were bought out by Chinese and Korean companie, or any others that went the "crap" route. Marantz were always about quality, but they got bought out and went cheap and tried to coast on their name for as long as they could. I picked up a Marantz TT4200 (as in physically picked up, not bought) and it was a piece of light, plastic, rattling poo poo. A good rule of thumb is wood base = 1970's. The 1970's were pretty much the high-water mark of audio equipment, where companies could make units using quality components and labour, and still make a profit. Right now I'm in the process of rebuilding a Dual 510 that was in pieces, full of mouse nests, the cover scratched, motor not working and, the particleboard base warped and falling apart. I've got it cleaned, and the motor working now. Trying that with anything made in the mid 80's-now would be a lost cause as they were made of metal that would easily corrode, and cheap components. Just a warning, and I'm sure most will agree. Once you start down the vintage audio path, there is no going back!
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Jun 13, 2012 13:49
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One thing to remember when replacing old caps with newer ones is the lead spacing. The old caps are physically larger than capacitors made now. Measure the lead spacing and try to find replacements that match. You may need to go for higher voltage caps so they will sit down on the board nicely. Graham Slee insists that higher voltage caps actually sound better and they will last longer if used at a lower voltage anyway.
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Jun 13, 2012 14:22
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Wow, thanks for all the great advice everyone. I'm going to keep my eye out on craigslist/thrift stores and try to get a system put together. I'll be sure to post pics. It's kind of cool to think that I'll be listening to the same things my dad was listening to when he was growing up in the 70's. Personally I don't find many things from the 70's to be that aesthetically pleasing but drat some of this equipment is downright timeless.
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Jun 13, 2012 14:38
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Paperweight posted:One thing to remember when replacing old caps with newer ones is the lead spacing. The old caps are physically larger than capacitors made now. Measure the lead spacing and try to find replacements that match. You may need to go for higher voltage caps so they will sit down on the board nicely. Graham Slee insists that higher voltage caps actually sound better and they will last longer if used at a lower voltage anyway. I was told to watch out for this when recapping my 881 and luckily I didn't have an issue until it came to a 3 terminal, 1,000uF cap (one terminal is just for support) and two 10,000uF caps that had a special brackets holding them in place. For the most part all your regular "through hole" caps that you're going to be replacing are 1/2 the size of the 1970's versions, but the terminal spacing 99% of the time isn't an issue. Still, this is good advice, and if you see a strange size cap, be mindful.
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Jun 13, 2012 15:28
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So I found a guy who has a bunch of old stuff, and he's offering to sell me a Tandberg TR-2030 receiver and Thorens TD-160 turntable for $350. It seems like a good deal to me based on my limited knowledge but I can't find too much on the receiver. Should I bite? Edit: TD-160, not 165 Butt Soup Barnes fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Jun 14, 2012 |
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Jun 14, 2012 03:08
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Butt Soup Barnes posted:So I found a guy who has a bunch of old stuff, and he's offering to sell me a Tandberg TR-2030 receiver and Thorens TD-160 turntable for $350. It seems like a good deal to me based on my limited knowledge but I can't find too much on the receiver. Should I bite? Wow I can say that the 160 is a very nice unit indeed.
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Jun 14, 2012 03:28
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Butt Soup Barnes posted:So I found a guy who has a bunch of old stuff, and he's offering to sell me a Tandberg TR-2030 receiver and Thorens TD-160 turntable for $350. It seems like a good deal to me based on my limited knowledge but I can't find too much on the receiver. Should I bite? The turntable alone is worth almost that much in mint condition. Tandberg gear is solid stuff in general. I saw some completed listings for the tr-2045 on eBay for ~$100 plus shipping, which is a slight step up from the 2030.
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Jun 14, 2012 03:36
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The 2030 looks like it DIN connectors on the inputs, see if he has the DIN to RCA adapters.
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Jun 14, 2012 11:03
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Retarded Pimp posted:The 2030 looks like it DIN connectors on the inputs, see if he has the DIN to RCA adapters. Yep, he mentioned that he did.
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Jun 14, 2012 13:43
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Sorry for all the posts, but I'm going to meet up with the guy this afternoon and he's going to demo it all for me. What should I be keeping an ear out for in regards to both the turntable and receiver?
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Jun 14, 2012 16:31
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Butt Soup Barnes posted:Sorry for all the posts, but I'm going to meet up with the guy this afternoon and he's going to demo it all for me. What should I be keeping an ear out for in regards to both the turntable and receiver? Scratchiness when turning dials. Making sure that left and right channels work on all modes (FM/AM/Phono/AUX) Is the turntable balanced, will it balance? Is the turntable playing at the correct speed. (take an LP you know well) Obvious damage, smell of melted electronics Burnt out lights Unresponsive needles. Making sure all speaker outputs work. Testing all inputs. That's all I've got.
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Jun 14, 2012 17:03
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Thanks for the advice everyone. I picked it up today and I think it's safe to say I've found my new Here's a lovely pic of the Thorens (it actually was a 165, but still a good deal), the Tandberg, and a pair of Baby Advents that the guy threw in for cheap.  The setup is temporary, I really need to find something more sturdy and figure out where to put the speakers. I thought the dresser would be fine because it's old and heavy as poo poo, but I guess my floor is just too creaky. Is it damaging to the needle when it bounces around? It happens whenever someone walks in or out of my room because of a weak spot in the floor and the record skips. Butt Soup Barnes fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Jun 15, 2012 |
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Jun 15, 2012 00:58
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Nice work, good to see a good quality vintage setup back in action. If you live in a house with bouncy floors, it might be worth looking into building a wall shelf for the turntable.
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Jun 15, 2012 02:05
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I swung by a vintage audio store a couple days ago and grabbed a panasonic turntable, a yamaha reciever, and some speakers. The turntable and receiver are both pretty vintage; I don't remember model numbers off the top of my head, but they have the wood base, wood veneer, all that stuff. The guy told me that he restored them, replaced the cartridge on the turntable, etc. It all comes with a warranty, so if something's not right I can bring it back and he'll fix it up for me. When I listen to records, there's often some volume imbalance; it'll drop and be quiet for a moment, then kick in loud again, or switch back and forth. Or the guitars won't be very clear. Am I correct in assuming this is just a product of dirty records? I don't have any new vinyl, just some albums I picked up from a used record store for a few bucks. I bought a brush and some cleaning solution and that seemed to help, but it's starting to look like it might be worth investing in a record cleaning machine once I get some more cash.
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Jun 15, 2012 04:40
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Coca Koala posted:When I listen to records, there's often some volume imbalance; it'll drop and be quiet for a moment, then kick in loud again, or switch back and forth. Or the guitars won't be very clear. This is not the records, it sounds like an issue with the amplifier.
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Jun 15, 2012 09:30
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Okay, so who's tried the wood glue cleaning method? I picked up a couple of somewhat uncommon records off of Discogs (an early mono press of Time Out, and a second pressing of Mingus Plays Piano). Both seem to be in good shape other than some really stubborn visible dirt, which is leading to some gnarly surface noise. My discwasher and d4+ fluid just doesn't seem like enough to lift it off. Anything I should try before I decide to hit up the thrift store for an old BSR and buy glue?
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Jun 15, 2012 23:36
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If you do go the glue route, a good tip is to put tiny pieces of masking tape at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock on the record edges. Then when you are spreading the glue, make sure it covers the tape a little bit. As seen in this lovely photo I stole from some website: When it dries, the tape makes getting a good starting peel easier. I've used glue before and it works well, and there's not really a downside other than the time it takes, and risk of getting glue on the label.
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Jun 16, 2012 02:12
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It takes 1/2hr per record side alone and the insane cost of wood glue. You could yknow, wash your records for a lot less. I have somewhere near 3,000 records. That's a lot of time and glue. If you give them a nice clean brushing before playing as you take em out that's a lot easier to roll with.
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Jun 16, 2012 16:36
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Not an Anthem posted:It takes 1/2hr per record side alone and the insane cost of wood glue. You could yknow, wash your records for a lot less. Obviously. I wasn't about to start doing this for every single record in my collection, I'd just be wasting my time on the ones that are already clean. This is for the few somewhat uncommon and grimy ones that I want to revive.
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Jun 16, 2012 18:55
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So I found some interesting stuff at some antique stores today. Got a Technics SL-Q2 turntable for $10:  Everything works great, but the stylus (and possibly the cartridge)needs replaced. The cartridge is an Empire 66E/X, which I can get a replacement stylus for about $30. Do you think I should just go ahead and get a whole new cartridge? I don't want to buy a new stylus to find out the cartridge is poo poo. There's also not much about that cartridge online. The dustcover is scuffed/scratched but no cracks and the hinge is fine. Going to try to polish that up a bit. Also, how important is the headshell? This one has some generic headshell on it instead of the OEM Technics. I also found this Realistic STA-860 receiver for $20:  It is in mint condition, the faceplate, the woodgrain, all is flawless. It works, but the left channel is low. I am going to pick up some deoxit and hope that it's just that.
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Jun 16, 2012 22:52
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Hey, so I've got a setup my girlfriend and I kind of cobbled together as cheaply as possible with a Sanyo TP-1010 turntable and Technics SA-110 receiver. The only problem we're having is that when the ground cable is connected it only produces sound out of the left channel. It's stereo without the ground, but it gets that low buzzing sound in the background. I've tried switching the RCA cables and the problem moves with them, so I'm assuming the problem is with the turntable. Does anyone know what it could be? Do I just need to get a better turntable?
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Jun 18, 2012 15:39
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Clothed N Famous posted:Hey, so I've got a setup my girlfriend and I kind of cobbled together as cheaply as possible with a Sanyo TP-1010 turntable and Technics SA-110 receiver. The only problem we're having is that when the ground cable is connected it only produces sound out of the left channel. It's stereo without the ground, but it gets that low buzzing sound in the background. I've tried switching the RCA cables and the problem moves with them, so I'm assuming the problem is with the turntable. Does anyone know what it could be? Do I just need to get a better turntable? First, try the TT on a different amp to see if you can isolate it to the TT. If nothing happens, then try using another TT on the SA-110 if possible. If not possible, try using an mp3 player to see if it's the amp*. *Although using something that doesn't have a ground may not cause the issue even if it does happwn to be the receiver.
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Jun 18, 2012 22:15
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Not an Anthem posted:It takes 1/2hr per record side alone and the insane cost of wood glue. You could yknow, wash your records for a lot less. You're right in that it's totally impractical to do to an entire collection, but it's amazing how it can turn a unique thrift store/garage sale find into a record you can actually stand to listen to. I found a copy of Dark Side of the Moon that was encrusted and looked to be scratched. After the wood glue I found out it wasn't scratched and in decent condition. I can listen to a record that would have otherwise been a write-off with most conventional cleaning methods. In other news, I've begun to disassemble a Dual 510 turntable, and holy poo poo does that sucker have a lot of parts. I've been taking photos every step of the way to keep track of where everything goes, but it's still a crapshoot. I've managed to get a lot of the parts cleaned, but the metal tray that everything sits on has surface rust. Going to try sanding it and spraying it. Going to have to get pretty creative with the painter's tape as well. Now that I have a dovetail joiner I can't wait to try making a new base for it! Thinking walnut. Blistex fucked around with this message at 15:04 on Jun 19, 2012 |
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Jun 19, 2012 14:52
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So I've been using the stock rubber turntable mat with my turntable for years. Recently I've gotten the urge to do some upgrades, so I got what seems to be a universally acclaimed mat. The Herbie's Way Excellent II mat: http://herbiesaudiolab.net/ttmat.htm I went with the 3.7 mm version and also splurged and got his SuperSonic Record Stabilizer to go with it. I've always seen people talk about the difference special mats and stabilizers make, but I've never heard it for myself. When it arrives, I'll make some recordings and then try some blind tests. I'll post the results here too, if anyone is interested.
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Jun 27, 2012 22:03
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