From 66 & 2/3 to 33 & 1/3

I have not posted in awhile but thought I should start it up again. This one is about another Dual turntable problem and a solution for it. Hmm, that kind of makes it sound like Dual turntables have a lot of problems. That's sort of true, but they had a lot more turntables than most. More models and more in quantity sold too. Have a look at this page if you don't believe me:

http://www.dual-reference.com/tableinx.htm

So, the problem fix for the evening involved a Dual 510. The motor on the original version of the 510, and a few other models as well such as the 601 and 1249, had a tendency to run at twice the standard speed occasionally. This apparently did not happen on the Duals at home in Germany where the electricity from the wall is 240 volts at 50 HZ, but here in North America at 120 volts & 60 HZ it sometimes occurred. The motor in question was the SM-840. Later versions included the SM-840-2 and -4 and they had found a fix by then.

The motor runs at the right speed about 80% of the time and simply turning it off and back on usually makes it run at the correct speed. This is the second of these turntables I have had this issue with, and while you could live with it, I would rather make it go away.




The later motor model SM-860 also fixed the problem, and a kind person on Audio Karma sent me one very inexpensively.

With the turntable flipped over (yeah I know, the picture could be flipped too) here is the original motor. I took out the 2 large screws and 1 small one on the motor, and removed the cover for the electrical connections.



Swapping the entire motor is not required. You really only need to change the motor winding part which is off to the right in this pic. The entire motor can be taken out but there are several more screws and the pitch control belt to mess with if you do that. This is easier...sort of.



I often take close-ups of the wiring or other important details so I can make sure they go back the same way.



This is a good time to oil the motor bearings. Note the scarring on the armature. I'm not sure how that came about.



Top bearing with some fresh oil.



And going back together.



Fully reassembled, but I still had some fiddling to do. I found that there was a lot of stiffness in the motor and it barely turned under hand pressure and not at all with power applied. I played around with the tightness of the 2 bolts that hold the bearing mount and that did not help right away.




I swapped the armature from the 860 in place of the 840, thinking that maybe the scoring you see was a factor. The brass capstan was not at the same height though and I have trouble with those little screws before so changed it back to the original (on the right). This time when I put it back together it worked smoothly. It could have just been the orientation of the top and bottom bearings which are in kind of ball and socket joints.



Anyway, it all worked out! I cleaned the entire table up further, oiled the platter well, gave the lid a quick polish and here you go! Starting and stopping a bunch of times and the speed is just as it should be every time.



In this pic you can also see the cuing lever I made from a bicycle spoke and spoke nipple. That lever was missing as well and this stuff was handy.



It still has a few cosmetic issues but it looks good and works well.

Advent 400 Radio

I had another mini success story today. Someone on Audio Karma was asking for tips on how to repair his Advent 400 radio recently and it tweaked me into working on one of my own procrastination projects.

Aside: I would like to make "project" and "procrastination" into one word. Projectination? Procrastiject? I'm not sure either quite has the ring I want...

Anyway, the Advent 400 is a neat, high quality table radio with external speaker from c. 1975. The FM only tuner is supposed to be of very good quality and the fairly substantial (for a radio) speaker is quite decent. The tuner does appear to be quite sensitive. It has an auxiliary input and a tuner out so you can run a CD player or other device through it or send the radio signal to a larger amplifier.



The fellow on AK described a similar problem to mine, and that is very low, almost non-existent volume. I have had this radio for a year or 2 and even bought a batch of capacitors with this radio in mind, among other projects. Someone else chimed in on the thread there with specific capacitors to try first so I decided to go for it after work today.

As usual, I forgot to get pictures while I had the patient under the knife, but the operation was a success! I am listening to CBC Radio 2 right now and it comes in well with no antenna attached. The volume is all I could want from a table radio and the bass and treble controls work well. Tuning is vernier style which allows for accurate fine tuning.

I had a few minor glitches along the way. I ended up replacing 3 capacitors but at first only did 2, those being the ones closest to the volume control. Along the way I blew the fuse and had to solder a new one in. Also the caps I had were the right value but the wire leads were radial (both at one end) not axial (one out each end) so were a bit tricky to get into a tight spot. It all worked though and it is now working great!



Too bad about that little scratch on the face...




Edit: I found the new home for the Advent 400 in the dining/kitchen area at our cabin. It works over there and looks good next to the Dansk Kobenstyle coffee maker and those sushi plates (or whatever they are)

Holy Steuerpimpel!

It seems to be raining turntables around the home front, especially Dual turntables. Actually it has rained Kenwoods and Technics as well but that's for later.



I brought home for repair 3 different Dual 12XX series tables lately and in the last 2 days have worked on all of them. The 1225 has already gone back to the owner but I still have the 1228 I brought home yesterday and the 1242 from today. Even the ones that I still have I made progress on though and they should be working well soon.

Among other issues the 1242 above had a stylus that was nearly gone and the 1228 below had no stylus whatsoever. Both of them and the 1225 all had the most common Dual problems.

The mechanism of the Dual changers has a lot of moving, pivoting, sliding, rotating parts. All of those have some need for lubrication either by oil or grease. That lubrication gets dried and caked and stops doing the job very well. Another area needs little to no lubrication and in fact relies on just a bit of friction to operate.

That area controls the movement of the tonearm during the Start phase in automatic mode and the Return of the tonearm at the end of the record side. It relies on a steuerpimpel to do the job. A what? A steuerpimpel. It's a little plasticy bumper that sits on the clutch pin and slides against a platform taking the tonearm with it during the arm start and return action. When the needle is on the record it sits a bit away from the arm and the arms nearly friction free.

This pin is where the steuerpimpel goes. (Seinfeld to Costanza: "You just like saying that don't you?")



The steuerpimpel almost always fails after 30 years or so. The piece just disintegrates and breaks apart. When it does the arm won't move properly if at all. The part is also not that easy to find but also is easy to fabricate once you figure out what to use. I tried heatshrink tubing, small sections of the end of pen refills and other sizes of wire insulation but settled on 14 gauge insulation as it seem to provide good performance and fit.




16 gauge might work but 14 goes on easily and when cut nicely to the right length seems to work well. The 1242 has a longer pin and seems to prefer about 6mm long but the other 2 are best with 4mm. The key is that it should be just a bit longer than the pin itself so that the metal does not stick out. The smaller piece shown is about 4mm and the longer is around 6mm. Below is the longer one once installed.

         

I love simple fixes. That's not to say that every Dual turntable problem has a simple fix, but this one is not bad once you work out a few details.

Aside from that these turntables work amazing well after so long that I am starting to enjoy working them. I still have some other details to address on both the Duals sitting here but once again, another day...

Who needs Linear when you have Zero 100?

My latest favouritest turntable is this Garrard Zero 100. It is not quite my latest, and perhaps not my favourite but it's very close on both counts.

This was manufactured in the early 1970's. It addressed effectively the error that linear tracking tonearms also worked to resolve and that is that cartridges with elliptical styli (or any shape other than conical) would not always be at an ideal angle to the record groove.

Records are cut or mastered by arms that move at a tangent to the groove. Most tonearms move through an arc and present a different surface to the groove that can cause a different "interpretation" of the music trapped in the vinyl. Through careful alignment one can minimize this variance but it can't completely be eliminated with the conventional tonearm.

Above is an ad from an audio magazine dated August 1973 that describes how the Garrard Zero 100 addresses the problem. It does it very well and with a great deal of style.






The Zero 100 is another idler drive, much like many Dual turntables. It's also automatic and comes with a single play spindle and a changer spindle. The extra spindle and 45 adapter are stored in a little box under a wooden cover, reminding me of a cigar humidor.

The performance is great, though I have some small issues to work out. The manual switch does not always want to stay engaged for example. Also the lid is a bit funky and someone tried an even funkier repair on it. The lid is in 2 parts and the tabs that hold the smaller piece to the base had broken off and whomever had drilled through it in the wood base. I've got a plan to fix that but more on it later.

For the time being I really enjoy the look and it does not sound half bad either!

My First Record Meet and Her First Record!

Today I had a table at the Main Street Vinyl Record Fair here in Vancouver. This is the first time I have attended a record swap meet as a vendor though I have been to a bunch as a buyer. This event is a 2 day one this year and continues on Sunday. I won't be there tomorrow...unless I go back to shop!

I had fun and made a bit of money. However I wasn't there as much to sell records as most people. As I said in my last post, I was also selling turntables. I also advertised my services in repairing and providing advice on stereo systems. I gave out a lot of cards for AFishNeedsAStereo. :)

I did have a few boxes of records though and managed to whittle that down by about half. Someone I know thought they were doing me a favour the other day by giving me a box of records to take along. Being mostly kids music, James Last, Hooked On Classics and so on, that actually became a "FREE!" box. Thankfully almost all of that disappeared so I don't have many to drop off at the thrift store. I did hold onto a couple of Bill Cosby records from it though. Oh yeah, I also kept a Breakdance instruction record. I can't wait to start headspinning.

I had some good conversations with people, met some old friends, met some new ones and made some money. Giving away records was fun too. One old gent with a cane was chatting with me for a while though I could barely make out what he was saying as he had a soft voice and the speakers were too close. However the 86 year old did say he like spoken word records, so I dug out a Dylan Thomas album that I had priced at $2 or $3 and just gave it to him. It was probably the only record he acquired that day, even though he must have paid the $2 entry fee. 

And the little darling at the top also received a free record (from the free box). I am sure it is her first and though she had no idea what it was, she had a good grip on it and was hopefully going to hear it when mommy took her home. 

Vinyl Swap Meet Coming Up!

I am really going to join the ranks of the record geeks now that I have booked myself into a vinyl sale for next month. I am not sure how many records I personally will have for sale, but do expect to have a few boxes put aside by then and should have enough to fill at least half my table.

The other half will have a small stack of turntables. According to the organizer I will be the only one who plans to have any hardware for sale. I will be there on Saturday May 18th, but the show continues on Sunday the 19th.

I will post a few tidbits of what I will have to offer on the vinyl side later, but here is a sample or teaser of what might come up turntable-wise, tuned up and ready to plug'n'play:











Here's the blurb from the Main Street Vinyl Fair website:

Next Vinyl Record Fair...

Dates : 
Saturday, May 18th & Sunday, May 19th
MAY LONG WEEKEND 2013
Time : 11 am – 4 pm
Place : The Cambrian Hall
215 East 17th Ave, Vancouver, BCEntry : $2 at the door

All Ages

Featuring great music by the Knights of the Turntable!

Over 40 Vendors Over Two Days!

Only one table per vendor means only the best stuff at the best prices.

http://www.vinylrecordfair.com/

Whacking Danish Moles

Bang & Olufsen. One of those companies you have to love and hate.

They make beautiful audio equipment that is as much about lifestyle as it is about quality sound. The quality of construction is impeccable and the design aesthetic is outstanding. It might not be everyone's cup of tea but it does impress MOMA enough that they have 12 pieces in their collection designed by Jakob Jensen. I have owned one of them (the Beomaster 3000), and have recently been working on and listening to another, the Beogram 4002 turntable.



However as great as it is, the stuff does have complications that go along with it. The engineering and design is very much proprietary. Many parts are not shared with other companies or even other B&O models and are not available any more without wide and long searches through ebay and the audio geek forums. For example turntables use cartridges that can't be sourced and must be re-tipped at great expense, or you take a chance at ebay.

The good thing is that the Beogram 4002 I am listening to Santana on right now did come to me me with not one but 2 good original cartridges. In other areas it was not so great.



Cosmetically the biggest problem was the paint wear on the switch plate. The different sections depress switches for start, stop, left, right, cueing and speed. They obviously don't have good paint in Denmark as they were very worn looking. Or the original owner had very acidic skin oils...
Actually it seems to be a common problem with these. I did not want to spend time on issues like that however until I made sure it worked well.

The table came to me with reports of the tonearm not dropping to the record when it was supposed to, or at best only doing it sporadically. A little internal investigation and web searching lead me to the relay and solenoid that operates the linkages which lower the arm. The solenoid and other moving parts have old lubricants on them that can get hardened or gummy over the years. After cleaning & oiling these, though not fully disassembling, I was able to get much more consistent tonearm dropping. I went down a few of the wrong paths first but once it did seem to be going in the right direction I went for the cosmetic treatment.



It is a bit of a jigsaw puzzle, figuring out how to take this table apart but I worked it out. The switchplate is actually stainless steel glued on to machined aluminum parts. It did not take long to sand it down with fine wet sanding paper and a final pass with a 4000 grit pad. I clear coated it with 3 coat of satin Tremclad.



It looked great so I put everything back together after doing some other internal cleaning such as switch contact points. Oh yeah I also polished the lid with wet sanding and Novus polish.

There are numerous little dovetail and notchy kind of fittings that I had to reshape a bit or add some washers to in other places as some small plastic pieces had broken or gone missing. Once back together, it worked. Sort of...until up popped another mole to whack.

The motors now refused to shut off once the arm returned to it's standby position at the far right. the platter would spin and the motor that moves the tonearm was also spinning. It was even smelling a bit hot inside probably due to belt slipping. So it came apart again.





The first picture above highlights the 2 switches that control the motor and arm return points. I determined that the one on the right was not being activated when the tonearm came to rest, and by bending slightly the piece highlighted in the second image I was able to get that happening again. So it went back together...and the next mole popped back up.

This time the tonearm hesitated a bit at the beginning and end of the records before either getting to the music or heading to the leadout groove and shutting down. It would skip a few times before moving inward. After a bit of extra stylus pressure was added at the adjustment point (to just over 1 gram; these track very light) it seems fine again. I have now listened to several records and it is playing nearly flawlessly everytime. Very infrequently it seems to need an extra push of the up/down button to cue properly but that seems to be less frequent with more use. It could be that the lubricant is working its way into where it needs to be as things move it around.

In any case Glen Gould sounds pretty good right now!