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Topic: Questions concerning a turntable and cartridge. (Read 8110 times) previous topic - next topic
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Questions concerning a turntable and cartridge.

My uncle gave me a Technics SL-D3 turntable.  I really don't know too much about it except that it's old, direct drive, has a pitch control, and a tonearm/headshell that looks identical to the ones on newer turntables that DJs use.  It has a silver-colored plastic housing on what feels like a very heavy fiberglass base.

It probably cost a lot when it was new.

It also has a Shure M95-ED cartridge that takes the N95-ED stylus. (It was worn out, so I  got a Shure 5X as a 'quickie' replacement from the store and shoved it in there.  It works just fine, though doesn't have the same high-frequency detail as the N95, but I'll get the correct one later.)

I also replaced the flimsy 24AWG ground wire with a 16AWG one. No hum. 

Is this thing any good?  It seems to have more rumble than I think it should, but without knowing anything about it, I have no idea how worn out it is, if at all.
godzilla525

Questions concerning a turntable and cartridge.

Reply #1 –
You are the proud owner of a direct drive servo turntable dated 1979-1980
Technics was always known to have reliable turntables.
I have several.  My favorate is my SL - 1600
Some of your Specs. are
Wow & Flutter:  0.03% WRMS
Rumble:            -53dB DIN A / -75 DIN B
Fairly sensitive Tonearm, Weight approx. 12 grams
Anti skating mech. works well on this unit
You might want to upgrade cartridge to an ortofon(my choose) or one with similar freq range / fim distortion
The weakness of that turntable is lack of isolated suspension.  To close to speackers you will get feedback.
Sturdy middle of the road turntable

Price new around $150 - $175 US
What if the Hokey Pokey....is What it's all about?

Questions concerning a turntable and cartridge.

Reply #2 –
Thanks!  (...I noticed a need to use headphones and tell people not to slam doors when I was using it...)

Do you know how to properly adjust the anti-skating?  I don't have the manual and the only place I found on the net with details was in Korean...
godzilla525

Questions concerning a turntable and cartridge.

Reply #3 –
Quote
Originally posted by godzilla525
Thanks!  (...I noticed a need to use headphones and tell people not to slam doors when I was using it...)

Do you know how to properly adjust the anti-skating?  I don't have the manual and the only place I found on the net with details was in Korean...


If you do not set the rest of the tone arm and cartridge up proper the anti skate is worthless anti skate is is a vector force which tends to draw the tonearm/cartridge towards the center of the record when the cartridge is mounted in an offset headshell i.e. a headshell that is at an angle to the line of the arm tube (most modern tonearms utilize offset headshells in an effort to minimize tracking distortion).
Here is excellent link that will take you through the entire process of setting up;

http://www.audiophilia.com/features/cartridge_setup.htm
What if the Hokey Pokey....is What it's all about?

Questions concerning a turntable and cartridge.

Reply #4 –
Thanks. That article is just what I was looking for.
godzilla525

Questions concerning a turntable and cartridge.

Reply #5 –
I'm not familar with that turntable at all, but if you say it has a lot of rumble then it might be possible that its lubrication has dried. I would look for a little hole somewhere (the platter may not be removable, but sometimes there are gaps in it that give you access when you take off the mat) that could accept a few drops of sewing machine oil. Again, I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about (the Technics I owned was the SL-1300 and that was a long time ago), but perhaps something to look into.

Questions concerning a turntable and cartridge.

Reply #6 –
"Rumble" can be caused by a lot of different factors, a few I can think of are:

* Old record or dirty record (some vinyl noises sound like rumble)
* Table poorly isolated from motor (I think maybe direct drive might be a factor in this, a rubber belt acts as an excellent isolation from the motor).
* Tonearm poorly isolated from the rest of the turntable
* Turntable poorly isolated from surroundings
* Mistracking, various imbalances
* Oversensitive pickup or cartridge (the noise of air rushing past the cartridge can be a factor)
* (Poor quality) phono preamp overemphasizing low frequencies

So on... trying various records would determine if it's just a few records with a lot of background noise.

Questions concerning a turntable and cartridge.

Reply #7 –
The platter pops right up off the spindle--there's two holes in it under the mat that facilitate this.  I checked and the spindle itself has some sort of thick viscous lubricant in it, judging from how smoothly it resists rotation. I took the bottom cover off and looked at the wear plate under the shaft--there's still oil on it.  The platter itself is solid aluminum and is really too heavy for the motor to make that kind of noise.  It's probably a combination of the record, preamp (e.g. no subsonic filtering), and the cartridge, which seems to be really sensitive. I'll have to do more tests with it later to find out.

...or it could be that I'm just too used to CDs.
godzilla525

Questions concerning a turntable and cartridge.

Reply #8 –
I am very familar with vintage turntables:
As I stated before the "rumble" is caused by feedback from speakers.  distance turntable from speaker and keep the cover closed.  Because it is a direct drive you may get a little hum from from servo motor.  Besure and ground the turntable real well.  The platter is part of the motor assembly so it should not be removed unnesesary.  Because it spins through a magnetic field you stand the chance of unbalanceing it.  Remember this is not a belt drive or a friction drive.  If the platter spins freely,  chances of needing lubercant are slim.  If does not spin freely carefully remove platter and apply two or three drops of light machine (sewing machine) oil on the top of spindle that should be good for thousands of hours.  Set everything up as the site indicated.
What if the Hokey Pokey....is What it's all about?

Questions concerning a turntable and cartridge.

Reply #9 –
Finding the right oil is difficult. I had a Rega Planar 3, whose plate axis is very very accurate, but there was a too small belt, leading to wow and flutter. I tried to minimize it adding the same kind of green grease that can be found under the CD player trays.
I had to find the right amount needed. Too much, and the movement was too hard, not enough, and the steel ball supporting the axis would stick to it and roll out of its right place.
And after that, the effect didn't last long (though hit is said "lasts 5 times longer than regular grease"  ).
I found brown heat resistant grease for cars to work better after a little while of running in. It's much more sticky. It lasted longer.

Questions concerning a turntable and cartridge.

Reply #10 –
Pio2001
Nice system Rega Planar 3.  One of the nicest designs of seen in a turntable.  Simple
yet good looking.  The Planar 3 (P3) Had a glass platter and was available in 4 differant colors.  Also one of the cleanest sounding systems due to it's one piece straight tonearm.  Excellent with a moving magnetic cartridge.  The only fault I've heard of with that system was that the platter was so heavy and being belt driven when you started it from stop there was alot of torgue on the motor and belt thus leading to problems with belt slop which would give innacurate speeds.  So belt maintanence was a must.  Nice system to bad you got rid of it.  I understand they have that model on display at the museum of design in London.

Not sure how widely available it is but for oiling my system I use a product called Marvels Mystery Oil
What if the Hokey Pokey....is What it's all about?

Questions concerning a turntable and cartridge.

Reply #11 –
Here's a bunch of  links.. maybe not all still good (the Thorsten one I wanted to send you isn't) but there should be a few..

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/vinyl/messages/32767.html


The crazy folks at Enjoy the music have a stylus alignment protractor (paper) for free..
find the closest address and for a SASE you'll have one..

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/freestuff.htm

Lots of other stuff there.. probably a setup guide,  if you go looking for it

Questions concerning a turntable and cartridge.

Reply #12 –
Quote
Originally posted by smg
The Planar 3 (P3) Had a glass platter and was available in 4 differant colors. 


More than that : green, red, blue, purple, yellow, white, black, and my father has got one black with brushed metal effect.

Quote
Originally posted by smg
to bad you got rid of it. 


It couldn't accept Stanton Trackmaster catridges (no way to put it on the arm). My father has a Stanton 680 on his, but the arm can't go over 3.5 grams, while this catridge is given for 2 to 7 grams. And there is quite some wow after 3 grams.
Also, high end Stanton catridges needs a raised arm, and the height of the arm can't be adjusted on the Planar 3.

Questions concerning a turntable and cartridge.

Reply #14 –
I need to replace the stylus on my SL-D3...I haven't used it in years, so I don't have the old one to make know which one to buy...

Anyone know what I can get???

Thanks

Questions concerning a turntable and cartridge.

Reply #15 –
Is the cartridge still in it?  The cart in mine (M95-ED) has the part number written on the front, with only Shure printed on the stylus.

Cartridges themselves are standard and pretty much interchangeable, though someone else may be able to tell you what would be best to replace it with.
godzilla525