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I was hoping this thread might be able to give me some turntable advice. Basically I’m trying to figure out whether it’s better to fix an old turntable or buy a good modern table. I’ve got two turntables, an old JC Penny’s MCS 6502 and an old Sony HP-161 that my parents had back in college. The Sony has a number of issues and the multiplay feature doesn’t seem to work. I currently use the MCS to listen to stuff, but the pitch is off just enough it’s an issue with several albums. I’ve tried messing with the pitch adjustment but can’t ever get it correct and usually just make it worse until I feel like the deck is gaslighting me on what the right sound is. Plus I don’t have any real attachment to the deck and wouldn’t mind getting a good, modern one. I’d also be willing to spend some money and fix up the HP-161, but I suspect that even if I did so, it’s not going to sound as good as a quality modern deck. I’d really just like to play stuff and enjoy it without worrying if I’m damaging the record, considering how much I’ve spent on vinyl at this point. I’ve got both the bookshelf speakers from the sony set up and some studio monitors that sound great to my untrained ear, so it’s definitely not anything that I’d consider audiophile. What is my best course of action? -Buy a new cartridge for the MCS 6502, and possibly troubleshoot or take it somewhere to be fixed -Pay for the Sony HP-161 to be fixed -Buy a new modern turntable (budget ~300$) If the last, does the thread have any recommendations on what to buy? Thanks in advance!
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Dec 20, 2020 23:24
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 03:52 |
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KozmoNaut posted:The MCS 6502 is apparently a rebranded Technics SL-23A, which is a very decent turntable, and one that is probably easier to find parts for than the Sony. Much appreciated! I’ll go ahead and order a new belt and take a look at the manual... thanks for the link and the info! Would you have any recommendations for a new cartridge? Figure I wouldn’t mind upgrading that while I’m poking around in there. The needle is cattywampused to one side so I’m thinking it may have gotten bent at some point in its life.
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Dec 21, 2020 17:25
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VladimirLeninpest posted:In case you haven’t seen, there are apps designed for testing turntable speeds. RPM on iOS is my go to for making sure my table is going the right speed and it should take any guesswork out of seeing the pitch. That is absolutely perfect... I’ll give that a shot! Ordered a new belt, started flipping through the instructions, and I’ll take the MCS deck apart and get that serviced! Also started reading up on cartridges, about moving coil vs moving magnet, and picked up a stylus protractor to align my tone arm. I’ll also check out the app and see if I can’t dial in my tone problems. The Ortofon Red looks perfect for my situation... gonna search around and pick one up. Are counterfeit carts much of an issue? Saw a listing on fleabay for a new blue at 160 with “generic packaging”, and seeing the impressive degree to which other high end stuff like Mitutoyo is counterfeited I’m curious how careful I need to be about good deals E: KozmoNaut posted:Yeah, Ortofon Red would probably be my go-to. Currently it has what I’m presuming is the factory default yellow cartridge with a silver audio technica label. Unless something is really wrong, there’s not much benefit in me doing something like swapping out the tone arm or headshell, right? Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 08:06 on Dec 22, 2020 |
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Dec 22, 2020 07:54
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KozmoNaut posted:If it has an Audio-Technica cartridge, odds are you can get a brand new original stylus for it. Are there any model numbers on it? There might have been some numbers if I’d pulled the cartridge off, and I did see some replacement recommendations while poking around online (AT95 I think), but in the end I wound up getting the Ortofon Blue I found on ebay for 160. Not because I think I’ll be able to perceive any difference over the red, but because my monkey brain couldn’t let go of the thought of it being decently on sale whereas I couldn’t really find the red for much of a discount. I also picked up the blue aluminum SH-4 headshell because I found one for 30$ and because I thought it looked snazzy ~*~aesthetics~*~ VladimirLeninpest posted:Someone else correct me if I’m wrong, but i don’t think you need to worry about bootlegs. The ortofon carts are commonly included with new tables and i bet the generic packaging is related to that. Good to know counterfeit cartridges aren’t a widespread problem! I was initially concerned because the price seemed too good on the blue cartridge and I initially didn’t see the blue logo on the side of the cart (blended in on the pictures) Appreciate all your guys’ help and guidance! I’m really excited to get everything dialed in... there’s several records I recently picked up that I’ve been wanting to listen to but haven’t because I couldn’t get the pitch right and was pretty bummed out about not knowing what to do so I could enjoy listening again 
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Dec 23, 2020 19:00
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KozmoNaut posted:That combo will work great and look very nice. Depending on the counterweight on your tonearm, you may have to add a small additional weight to the back of the arm, but that's very much a "maybe". I did not have the tool, but I do now! Plus or minus 4-8 weeks for shipping and handling with everything else floating through the mail right now. Shipping is so bad I only just got a record delivered that I’d ordered two months ago. It’s like sending presents to future me, except now me really really wants to listen to said record 
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Dec 25, 2020 07:10
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In the realm of I should have taken this apart and looked at it before blindly shotgunning parts, turns out the MCS-6502 turntable has a few key differences between it and the Technics SL23 it’s based on. Namely the headshell is not removable. This means the cartridge gauge I picked up for needle alignment can’t slide on for dialing it in. Also the SH-4 Headshell I bought won’t swap in.  This also means the Ortofon cartridge I bought is too heavy and I can’t get the tonearm balanced because there’s barely adjustability with the counterweight. I even removed the counterweight, took out the set screw, and scootched the weight back as far back as I could, but the new cartidge is apparently just too dang heavy.  But at least I got a new belt and that was my chief problem. Well, that and the old AT-71 cartridge’s stylus appears to be cattywampused:  At the end of the day I’m roughly 190$ of parts into a turntable that doesn’t want to take them. Do I just pop the old cartridge and new belt in, and sell this guy to put towards a new table I can use the Ortofon stuff with? Or should I look at buying a new tonearm and soldering that all in? I also have some lead wheel weights I could try putting on the counterweight to balance out the new cartridge
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Dec 31, 2020 21:21
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KozmoNaut posted:drat, that sucks that they put a non-removable headshell on there, I'm sorry I steered you in a bad direction. Not your fault! I really appreciate everyone’s advice in this thread! This is something I should have bothered poking at before buying parts, lol. Honestly it’s been a good primer for me to understand how this all works. Which, all the parts are still pretty good, so I think the thing to do is exactly what you’re suggesting, and buy a good turntable to pop them into and just get this one back up and running as is. I tried looking into tone arms since I don’t mind doing some soldering and disassembly work, but that doesn’t seem to be so readily a component and I don’t want to go too far down the rabbit hole with good money chasing bad.
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Dec 31, 2020 22:53
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Gave my MCS 6502 (Technics SL-23 analogue) turntable to a friend after putting a new belt and oem cartridge on there. I would’ve loved to keep using it but I already picked up an Ortofon Blue cartridge and headshell I couldn’t use with the turntable and my buddy wanted to get into vinyl so it worked out  I’m looking at various replacement options. Ideally I’d like to keep my budget around $300ish. One turntable that caught my eye is the U-Turn Orbit Special. Since I already have a replacement headshell and cartridge, I can get one with the walnut base, acrylic platter, basic cart, queuing arm,and no built in preamp for 389, which I’d be willing to go up to. I don’t particularly like that it doesn’t have the auto return, but otherwise it seems decent to me. Other stuff on my radar after poking around ebay and some quick googling include anything in the Technics SL-1xxx range, a Technics SL-QD 35 (replay option seems like a nice quality of life feature), Pioneer PL-1250 and Denon DP-1600. I think Marantz and Thorens tables are out of my budget. I feel like I’m pretty well out of my depth here... Any suggestions or advice on what you would do if you were in my shoes would be appreciated!
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Mar 2, 2021 00:41
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Does Turgid run an SA Mart or have a web presence for his shop or anything? Would love to buy stuff from a goon
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Mar 21, 2021 03:58
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 03:52 |
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Well I just lucked out! Father in law just gave us his old Thorens TD-160 that had been sitting in his basement We’ve been without a turntable for a few weeks since I gave my MCS 6502 to a coworker, and it was a real bummer not being able to play new vinyl that was coming in the mail. Got everything set up and it plays great! Picked up a cheap tube preamp on Amazon and I can feel myself starting to fall down the rabbit hole and wanting a dedicated receiver and cabinet instead of piping it through my bookshelf studio monitors... just have to keep telling myself it’s perfectly fine 
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Apr 1, 2021 02:45
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