2. analog
  3. 1163296212

My brand new TT was wired out of phase ...

I just picked up (earlier today) a new Rega p3 with an Elys cartridge. And I was excited to plug it in and do some listening. Here's the problem: It seems that the thing was wired up out of phase. At least, that's how it sounds to me. And to my sweetie. My question: I'm pretty much blind, and there's no way in heck that I could deal with flipping the leads on a phono cartridge. And my girlfriend is, shall we say, no one's engineer. I asked her to describe the setup, and she told me that the white and the red wires are hooked up on one side of the cartridge (vertically). If memory serves, this would indicate that the shop wired the grounds on one channel and the live wires on the other ... I think. Am I right? (There's no central image at all, and I just cannot imagine what all else it could be.) If I'm right about what's wrong, is there anything that I might do other than getting the thing back to the store (an hour away from here) and having them wire it right? I'm not sure, honestly, what I'm hoping for. A phase-inverting RCA thingy? Some kind of voodoo phase prayer? Any help any of you could give a boy would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.
hodu
thom_at_galibier_design's avatar
thom_at_galibier_design
729 posts
 
Just to clarify further:

Red = right hot
Green = right ground

White = left hot
Blue = left ground

Typically (every cartridge I've seen) each channel's cartridge pins are vertically aligned. IOW the two pins closest to the record spindle go to one channel, the two outside pins go to the other.

Unfortunately, this still leaves you with 4 "likely" permutations.

Your cartridge clips are likely mis-wired.

If you decide to flip them around (or have someone help you with this), pick up a hemostat from Radio Shack to grip the clips with. People get into trouble and break off wire/clips when they try to pull them off with their fingers.

Don't mess with phase "thingys". At these low signal levels, extra connections degrade the signal.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier
hodu OP
316 posts
 
Thanks for your help. It is, in fact, far worse than simply being out of phase. (I spun a record for just a few seconds yesterday and had thought that that was all that was wrong.) I just tried another for the heck of it, and there ain't poo for bass. And the channel balance, if that's what one can call the "sound" coming from this thing, is all messed up. I'm thinking that my sweetie and I are going to find an excuse to go for a ride next weekend and have the offending party fix their exceedingly shoddy work. Oy. You'd think a stereo shop would know how to wire up a cartridge.
rwwear
2,873 posts
 
Being out of phase will cause bass cancellation.
240zracer
121 posts
 
I had the same thing with my Scoutmaster. But one thing, do you have a CD player that is playing in phase? I did, and that is how I knew the problem was isolated to my turntable. Otherwise, you might have one of your speakers wired out of phase. I can see ok, but sometimes my brain is disconnected :)
More to discover