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Technics SP-10 mkII speed adjustment question

Hi,

I'm on my way to complete my Technics SP-10 mkII project. Actually, a friend of mine, a professionnal audio technician, is working to upgrade the PSU, which is done but a small adjustment on the speed must be done and he need some cue on this issue.

We already asked Bill Thalmann, Artisan Fidelity and Oswald Mill audio. Plus, I'll post on DIY Audio today. We'd like to get the answer as quickly as possible to finalized this for the week-end. Hope someone on Audiogon can help.

Here's the message from my technician:

"Hello,

I'm an electronic technician and I do repair for audio equipments, vintage, hifi pro and more. I have a client here that brought me his turntable Technics Sp-10 MKII to fixed. I have a little question about it and he gave me your email because he pretended that you have some experience with this kind of materiel. So, hope that you can response my technical question.

I replaced all capacitors in the power supply and a big solder job. I checked for defect solders or capacitors on the circuit boards inside the turntable and I tied to do the adjustments . Everything seem good right now, the turntable work fine. I tried do do the period adjustment with the VR101 and VR102 potentiometers like in the service manual ( see attachment, Period adjustment method). When I looked the stroboscope at the front of the turntable, It's pretty stable but I can see a tiny rumble at 33 1/2 and 78 speed. 45 is the more stable speed for the stroboscope. So, I fixed the phase reference with T1 at 18us of period and I try to do the period adjustment at the point test T and S on the board with the O point for reference. When I put my scope probe on the T point, I can observe the stroboscope running. It is not stable at all. If I pull off my probe, the stroboscope is stable again. So When I have the 2 probes at point S an T at the same time to do the adjustment, it's impossible to fixed the wave T because it going right to the left on my scope. When I turned the VR101, the T wave going faster or slower but never stable. I tried to ground lift my scope, plug it into the same power bar and try to pull off the reference at the O point. I can't have a setup that I can see a stable T wave in my scope with the one that I can do the right adjustment. Why? Is there a problem with the turntable or maybe it's a incorrect probe or ground setup? Please let me know what you think.

Best regards"

Thanks for help,

Sébastien
128x128sebastienl
sonofjim
557 posts
 
Sebastien, Sarcher,
Yes I have tried the CU-180 with the mkll and did like the sound. I have two CU-180s and currently use each on custom MKlll tables. I thought the mkll sounded more dynamic and alive with the Boston mat ll, which BTW is an upgrade from the mat l, and the SAEC SS-300. The SAEC is actually closer in weight to the Mat ll than the CU-180 which does weigh 4 lbs(essentially what a TT weights mat weighs). Both the SAEC and Boston mats are closer to the original mat weight. I prefer the CU-180 on the mklll with it's considerably greater torque. The Boston is affordable and sounds great, no worry about counterfeiting.
The SAEC I believe was made with the MKlll in mind and is Steve Dobbins recommendation. Believe it or not, even though I have the SAEC I haven't yet gotten around to trying it on a MKlll as of yet.
lewm
13,362 posts
 
Dear Sonofjim, I went from an SAEC SS300 to the Boston Audio Mat2 on my Mk3. Both are good, but I do slightly prefer the BA. Both are far superior to the factory rubber mat, for sure. I could envision that with certain tonearm/cartridges, the SAEC might be preferable to the Mat2. Don't know for sure.
pryso
1,956 posts
 
Sonofjim, do you have more than one system set up? Your system photos show a VPI, but neither of your SP-10s.

I'm always looking for ideas/recommendations regarding the Technics.
sarcher30
596 posts
 
Sonofjim, Thanks for your input. I have changed back and forth a couple of times between the cu-180 and BA-1 and still prefer the cu-180. Maybe I should try the BA-2 one of these days.

Lewm and Sonofjim, Do either of you guys plan on having Bill Thalmann do the latest mods on your MK3 like Albert Porter has recently done? I wonder if Albert has changed his prefence of mats after the mods were completed.

Sean
lewm
13,362 posts
 
Sarcher and Pryso, Albert is ecstatic about the new modifications, but he really did not know much about what was done. I then talked to Bill about it. Mostly it is about dampening vibrations and firming up the stator supports. Bill notes that as the servo system corrects for speed errors, some of the energy of the motor is used up in micro movements of the stators, predicted by Newton's Third Law (For every action, etc...) (Ideally, all motor energy would go into moving the rotor/platter.) These tiny wiggles of the stator then in turn produce a tiny correction error sensed by the servo, which senses the fact that some of the torque went into moving the stators instead of the platter. This begets another correction from the servo. And so on. With the modification to the stator mounts, there is less energy dissipated in moving the stators, more precise speed correction by the servo, and far fewer events that trigger the servo. Everything gets even smoother than it was. There is also some work done inside the PS, about which I know nothing. Anyway, Albert likes. I will get it done, but the cost is $1200, so I am waiting a bit before I can commit those bucks.
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