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Apocalypse Now?—Technics sp10 problem s

I’d been enjoying my Technics sp-10 mkii for a couple of months now but recently it’s sending out signs of giving up the ghost.

When I first bought it, the start/stop function was halting in the sense that I would have to push the button several times in order for it to perform the function. Independently of that, I bought bearing grease and after adding some drops, the halting start/stop problem more or less disappeared. Great.

But then the strobe light went out. It still comes on occasionally but it’s intermittent. Unless that’s a sign of deeper ailments though, I could care less about that.

Worse: if I play a record now after first turning on the TT, the speed is obviously haywire. One symptom is that the gear mechanism is clearly audible in the form of an unusual and grating grinding sound. Playing records when it’s like this is of course out of the question. The good news is that, for now, if I let the motor spin by itself (without the cartridge on) for about 10 minutes or so, the issue goes away. That is, the speed is dead on for the remainder of the listening session (I played it for almost 8 hours yesterday with no problems), and the grinding noise is gone. The bad news is that all this may be just a sign of an impending apocalyptic failure.

So, I'd like to deal with the issue before it gets to that stage. Can someone suggest the cause? Or better: the cure. Or, alternatively, and best of all since I’m not handy enough to actually fix anything complex, can anyone suggest a reputable service shop where I could bring it? I live in Los Angeles. I’m hesitant to ship it because I don’t have the motor clamp for shipping. For all I know, that may be the original cause since the seller shipped mine without the clamp. I guess I could have a clamp fabricated if that’s my only choice.

It’s a wonderful TT and would hate for it to die so soon in our journey together. Final question: if there’s a repair shop, should I go ahead and replace capacitors, etc..? What are people’s opinions on that?

Thanks.
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halcro's avatar
halcro
2,664 posts
 
Tsk tsk Lewm.
I believe it was Raul who started this whole Project (at least for me), by stating that his Technics SP10 Mk2 or Mk3 sounded better 'nude' than in a plinth?
So he has heard it both ways.......and you haven't? :-)
But perhaps you will say that Raul's plinth was not "excellent"?........and this I fear will be the standard response of all who insist on plinths.
If it doesn't sound better in a plinth then the plinth is not "excellent".
A circuitous argument unwinable by the opposing camp? :-(
lewm
13,118 posts
 
Hi Halcro, I am not arguing and never have argued that I know that a good direct-drive table sounds better in a good well-designed plinth than in a no-plinth. I have argued only that I like what I hear from my own tt's in a slate plinth of my own making. In other words, my experience is about as broad as yours on the other side of the coin, which is to say, not very broad.

Raul does not like it when I write this, but in my opinion (please note), marble and granite are not the best materials for a plinth, or at least their use is controversial. (Raul's plinth was made of marble.) So, while I respect Raul's observation that he likes his present set-up better than when he had a plinth, it does not tell me much about the relative merits when the plinth is a known high quality type. (As I wrote elsewhere, my SP10 came in an MDF plinth that sounded dreadful.) That's why I say I would like to hear from someone who has gone from an Albert Porter or a Dobbins plinth to a no-plinth. So, yes, I am saying that Raul's plinth was not "excellent" or at least I don't know that it was excellent. But I don't "insist" on anything. In fact, your experience has stimulated me to give it a try. I want the best sound reproduction possible (defined by my ears and brain), and I don't give a hang how I get there.

On the other side, it is tough also for you no-plinthers to argue on principle that your way is best. Why did the top engineers of Technics, Kenwood, Pioneer, etc, all develop elaborate plinths for their moon-shot efforts at a state of the art direct-drive turntable back in their heyday? (This is meant as a rhetorical question; no response is required. I'm just sayin'.) Kenwood even invented a new composite material to use as the basis for their multi-component plinth structure, which weighs 65 lbs in the L07D. �And they started with a coreless, slotless motor that has inherently less cogging than that of the SP10s.
ct0517's avatar
ct0517
2,041 posts
 
Banquo – thx for the feedback on my setup. Most family members think I am losing it so it is good to hear encouragement - thank you and yes the black button is a cover to keep it from being pressed accidentally when it was used in a broadcast studio. .
Lewn – I have a couple of turntables the other being a VPI TNT - it has a plinth and I enjoy it.
Great that you are giving the plinthless a try and if you use a pivot arm can’t wait to see how you set it up so I can get a second set of ideas for mine.

For the record I mentioned in an earlier post - I did AB testing with my TNT and SP10 in a plinth. I used two two ET arms and a Dynavector xv1.
This AB testing confirmed to me that my SP10 plinth performs as it should - using the benchmark that the TNT plinth is a good one. Could it be made better - maybe - and I was thinking since it was DIY about another plinth but then I saw Halcro’s thread and that got me going, like you, and I tried it. It sounds better to me so I am sticking with it for now – who knows where I will be a year or two from now.

Finally - Standards, Guidelines, now the word principles – its all the same – think out of the box - go with what your ears tell you.

From my thinking even if the plinthless setup is as good as your current set up - it wins due to the all the advantages going plinthless brings when it comes to your choice of experimenting with different arms.

If you don’t like it - its cost you about a tank of gas to find out – at Canadian prices : )

Cheers Chris
lewm
13,118 posts
 
FWIW, My slate plinths are huge, and I could mount as many as 3 tonearms with much much less effort than it would take to de-plinthify my SP10, if I wished to do so. The DP80 is a better candidate for deplinthification. (George W Bush, where are you? Never mind. I don't want to know.) But I think I am guilty of going way off topic. On the other hand, Banquo seems happy and that's what counts.

Ct, Plinth for belt-drive is a whole other kettle of fish. I had come to prefer no plinth for belt-drive, when last I owned one.
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banquo363 OP
371 posts
 
I visited the guy who will try to fix my TT. His name is Mirko Djorkevik and he has a shop in Huntington Beach, CA. He listened to the noise emanating from my TT motor and says it's the shaft that the spindle sits on. It's the same thing I said, earlier in this thread, was worn when I opened it up a couple of days ago. Since he arrived at that judgment independently of my mentioning anything, I feel we may have hit upon the actual cause. We'll see in a couple of days after he opens the thing up and closely examines it.

Mirko is a great guy and I think he primarily restores Thorens and Garrard TTs. He has an eBay store (user name: sq38s) that sells newly machined parts for those. You can contact him through ebay or if anyone wants his phone #, PM me and I'll be happy to give it to you. It is good for me that he has those skills, since when I opened the Technics up and saw the wear on the top of the shaft, I judged that there's no way to fix it but to replace it with a new one. Hopefully, it's possible. I'm also having him machine me a tonearm pod and some new counterweights for my tonearm. No problem, he says.

At any rate, I'll update this thread when I see how things turn out. Fingers crossed.
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