The M75ED should track at 1.5 grams. The ED stands for elliptical. The stylus can be replaced by an N75/6 in the same cartridge. The 6 means the size and the stylus is conical and should track at 2.5 grams. Often used in less good arms. The M76ED was a very good and popular in it's day. I sold dozens of them with the Pioneer PL12D. Be careful with isoproprinal, Ok with Shure cartridges, but with Goldring Cartridges of the day, G800 series melts the glue that holds the diamond to the shaft...not good!!
when younger i use to set the weight as it stayed down on the record so for a lot of years in diferent turntables i only put the weight as it stayed totally on the records ,not less or more ,and i did this because i saw a older man that had hundreds of records doing this on his turntable, only in the 90´s i discover that some stylus had to be around 2.0 grams, but the ones that i had were okay at 1.3 to 1.5 grams, some i had were technics others pioneer ,and the one that i used the most was a thorenz that i thought it was very good in reading records, also had a dual and a sansui from my grand parents and my father that both had this cartridge you refer to from shure ,i even need to buy another but i could never found where to read about the diferencies in eliptical ,conical or spheric stylus ,that i a week ago found a eliptical and a spheric for this cartridge but didn´t bought it yet, this to try to discover wich is the best, istill own several lp´s bought in the late 60´s without any cracles or any type of noise either than some estatic that when you clean the records it´s normal to have, but not that noticeable, this because i´ve been reading in blogs about the use of records and some talk about the experience or the noises that in the 90´s i bought a couple of cd´s that they inserted the noises on the records, i use vynil because most of the records i bought the cd version they sound so bad trhat i couln´t hear them normally when trhere are guitars with some distortion either from the amp. or known pedals, but even the voice in some records it sound tottally diferent, so i listen to records because i had a lot of them ,than i receive the records from both my grand parents and the colection from my father, that already passed away, but since 1993 i started to buy more cds ,now i have hundreds of them but some i never heard them because they sound so bad compared to the records i have equal to the cds,regards
I still have the PL-514 I bought new back in the day. It still works great. I originally purchased a Shure M95ED cartridge for it and later upgraded to the Shure V15 Type IV cartridge. A few years ago I picked up a PL-518 and transferred the V15 to that table. I love both tables.
It's one of those pieces of gear that isn't going to get anybody's heart racing but is still way too good for the landfill. Another one saved. Well done.
I've fiddled around with turntables for several years and I'm always looking for a good deck for analogue-to-digital transfer. My only need now is for a good audio mixer. (I also have my own CZcams channels and the mixer needs to have at least two microphone inputs for voiceover work).
Novus plastic polish #2 (medium grade) should polish that dustcover nicely. Also works well on bakelite and fancy Catalin Radios. Mother's Mag Wheel Polish purportedly works very well for plastics but I haven't tried it.
Hey bud, nice turntable. The PL-514 was from mid 1970's. Cheaper than the PL-516, also belt drive, it lacked the 516's strobe and specs were about the same. A very good "budget" model. I purchased the PL-518 in 1979 for $118 and a Shure M95ED pickup. I later upgraded to an HE (hyper elliptical) stylus. The 518 is DD and has a two pound platter. Also has a +/- 2% speed adjustment and strobe. Specs are S/N 73dB and W/F 0.03%. Excellent specs for a 1970's turntable. Listed as a Manual turntable in Pioneer's literature. I still use it when "spinning discs". The S shaped tonearms fell out of fashion and ain't seen much on todays models. Thanks for posting this video. Glad the old record players are making a comeback. It's really swell.
I have to disagree with your statement that this is not good quality. I have a this particular table and it is very well built and plays a stable and correct speed, unlike my REGA P1 with its wobbly platter and too fast speed (with no speed pot) BTW my arm bearing does not rattle like that one--- yours must be damaged.
Alcohol (isopropanol) has a drying-out effect on rubber, so avoid getting it on the flexible rubber stylus mount that forms the suspension. The Jazz Singer is on my top 10 list of the worst movies I've ever seen. I felt really badly for Sir Lawrence Olivier, who looked terribly uncomfortable throughout.
They are very nice sounding turntables from the late 70’s. It’s very well engineered for the day. The pl5xx series were pioneers top of the range line. From the basic 512 to the automatic direct drive 518. All sound the same. The equivalent price nowadays is high 3 figures.
Question: This turntable returns short on longer 7" singles. I have adjusted the plastic screw undernesthn the weight, got it right and then it has started happening again. Is there anything I can do?
I still have the PL-519 that I bought new in 1977...the difference appears to be the visual sync adjustment control on the 519. AND if that's not enough of a coincidence, as I'm watching the video immediately above the computer is a VHS tape (if you can believe it!) of the movie the Jazz Singer, one of my favorites of all time as well...we're not long lost brothers by any chance? ;-)
I just restored a PL-512 and I am encountering a speed issue. I’m getting about 34.2 RPM. I’ve tried to swap belts and cleaned some buildup off the motor pulley but still am getting the same issue.
1.5 grams is fairly normal for mid to higher quality cartridges (for example: my Ortofon 2M Black is 1.5 grams, Benz Micro is 1.6 grams and CC Century is 1.8 grams). The 3 or 3.5 grams cartridges often are DJ cartridges and higher tracking force is common for low quality cartridges. I don't really get why you would want to dump fine piece of equipment, someone is earning way too much money I suppose. In the meantime, all hipsters buy crappy suitcase turntables that are outmatched by this one, with ease.
At about 2:20: to attach the "earth" (ground) wire or not.... Many turntables stupidly connect one of the audio-signal grounds to the metal of the tone arm and the metal parts of the turntable, sometimes inside the turntable base (where it usually isn't difficult to get to the wiring and separate the earth ground from the signal ground), or inside the tonearm itself, typically at the headshell (typically much more difficult to fix and do it the right way). Use a multimeter to look for a connection between the earth lead and the ground barrels of the RCA plugs; *if you measure continuity, its wrong!*. Best case scenario, you might merely have to remove a jumper inside the turntable base near where the arm cables leave the arm or plinth. Worst case scenario, the tonearm itself might have only 4 wires, two for each channel, and is missing a 5th ground wire. It's possible to snake a 5th wire up inside the arm, but it's not easy! (Undo one signal wire and and use it as a pull string, pulling two wires up and through in it's place ---- you'll probably only get one try at this, so don't muck it up!). Also, the metal parts of the tonearm may not have electrical continuity from the mounting post through the bearings and up to the headshell, due to paint, anodizing, assembly with glue, use of plastic, loose-fitting press-fit parts, and so on. On the other hand, you might encounter a turntable which has separate earth grounding throughout, from the headshell all the way through and out, and where the earth grounding also includes the platter and spindle bearing, motor housing and other internal metal parts ( as it should!).....but the phono cartridge itself may have a ground connection between the metal shell/ body of the cartridge and one signal ground pin of the cartridge, usually done with a removable metal clip that is press fit into place (commonly found on older Shure, Stanton and Pickering cartridges). If you have more hum on one channel than the other, and everything else about the earth grounding is separate and correct, you should try removing that metal clip and see if it improves the hum or not...... By the way, I've seen many otherwise good quality turntables such as Thorens that don't even ground the spindle bearing for the platter, which can lead to static buildup and noise. And there are Rega arms that don't include a separate ground wire coming out of the arm base! A 5th ground wire is usually included internally from the tone arm wand through to the base of the arm pillar where it connects to the RCA cable shield. It is possible to separate these and add a separate ground wire, but it's not something that I recommend for novice wanna-be techs!
Hi Simon -ideally you should take the spindle out and retrieve the ball bearing and give it all a good clean with some q tips then 2 drops of oil and some grease on the spindle and jobs a good un.
normally the old turntables from pioneer ,do need new capaciteurs to boost the sound level at least the ones i have ,i received a pl-512 if i´m not wrong that came out after this without the brand on the front panel but only as this seen from above, it´s a very simple turntable but when working properly it seems very good, and now they´re selling as simple as it could be for around 1.000€ new, so this looks like those new turntables with the minimum possible ,so with the years it become a high-end turntable ,i know there are very expensive ones but i´m refering to prices around the 1.000€, even technics sold a couple of years ago a 70´s model made from diferent materials but they were the high-end series of technics around 79 ,that you could choose what type of turntable you wish already with all made with 1st class materials ,so anyone can buy for around 100€ a 2nd hand turntable and refurbish it properly and give a better or same sound as a new one ,some didn´t work that much ,so the engine is good the rubber belt and normally the stylus if not the cartridge also need to be substituted ,i some cases re-wiring it ,but i bought as being a record spinner(as people from older generation talk about their turntables in Portugal, where i live) an akai and after a couple of monthes a pioneer ,this thinking of selling them after restore it to perfect working condition, but when arriving there to see the "record spiner" i looked and it was on top of a good components system from akai and i paid 50€ and start to carry the turntable ,as i was walking to my car i heard the seller walking behind me saying that he could help or will take time ,but i notice him carrying a tuner and a amplifier and he put it on my van next to the turntable and i was going to ask him if he wanted to sell it also but before i ask he said "there are more things there" ,i went to his garage and looked to the deck, but i was confused so he said to me"after is the more heavy" so he showed me behind a cloth that covered what was underneath the working table two huge speakers from akai laying on the side because up they didn´t fit so it was all included ,the deck i refurbish it and sold it after 10 days for 150€ ,the turntable 200€, and the ones who bought them said to me that i was selling this components cheap, they were not the best from akai´s 77 catalog but the midle-range up ,if you know akai the deck was a GX reference and the turntable was direct drive and made of wood still and in need of a stylus and noything else just cleaned the dust and it was perfect, then i had the idea of searching only for record spiners, and bought a complete pioneer system from 79 just like a friend of mine bought already complete with a nice price , a pl-200 turntable mint condition a stereo receiver sx-700L a ct-200 deck and a pioneer furniture that it was fashion to have with big glass doors also a big speakers not that great sounding ,with a big woofer ,a kid with 20 years old bought them to me he said he like them so i did for 50€ and this one was clean no dust it was in a living room and so many things covering it that didn´t get dirty ,this one i paid 120€ for all, sometimes we are lucky, regards
@@SoddingaboutSi I don't think it is "budget" in the sense that most people think of "budget" it was built in an era where the automation of features and strobe tracking etc were becoming the standard, this is a very well built turntable but with just above the most basic features. In terms of simple belt drive turntables I think that these don't get the credit they deserve, aside from modern "audiophile" belt drives I feel that these hold up against any mass production belt driven model.
Nice work Simon, and I have an even more budget Pioneer Pl 335 low end turntable made in Japan early nineties I think, and would not part with it. The modern decks just seem to lack a bit of quality Sir 👍 Tam.
Play a record to the end and watch what happens as the trip mechanism enters the picture. These early auto-return models were specified as needing higher tracking force than their non-return cousins. (PL15D v PL-12D, etc.) Factory specs listed 3-4 grams for them vs 1-2 for their plain cousins. Modern synthetic oils could lower this a good deal.
I bought one of these in 1972 at University Stereo in Los Angeles. It worked nice but I was jealous of my friends who had the one that you could stack a whole pile of lp's and not get up to change the record or play it again. The problem with it was no matter what I tried it would refuse to play anything but the BeeGee's.
72? This is much later. Post '76. Stacks of records? Play different records without getting up? Sounds more like a changer than a single play turntable.
Definitely to good for the tip, and miles better than the rubbish hipsters are buying now. I drove a Routemaster over a steepletone in a recent video and it just squished, total rubbish.
Shure 75ED type 2 tracking should be between 0.75 to 1.5 grams with the original elliptical N75ED stylus. I track mine at 1.25 grams. I bought it from Berry’s of Holborn in the early 1980s.
That looks like the Mobile fidelity half speed mastered version of that Neil Diamond album. That record is too expensive to use for testing a turntable in my opinion. I really enjoyed this video. Have a great day
Yes it is a mobile fidelity record. It's pretty worn out now and not in great condition. But it still sounds great. Tried to find a good copy but so far no luck
@@SoddingaboutSi I see it on Ebay once in a while and they are expense. I had one but like a fool I got rid of a lot of my albums when cd first came out and records started disappearing in stores. It was a good sounding album. I have a regular copy of that album, but it's not as good.
Yep Good Turntable Simon Will Never Beat Your Linn But Honest Turntable All The Same !! I Have a Mobile Fidelty Half Speed Master Of Abbey Road As Well Sounds Great Regards mike
2:13 the ground wire grounds the pick-up cartridge ONLY! Otherwise you'll get a hum when playing any records. The phono cartridge wiring is totally isolated from the rest of the deck. The wires from the arm come out to a tagstrip mounted under the plinth and the left-and-right phono leads and ground wire come off that tagstrip and out to the RCA plugs. The ground wire would come off the left-and-right negative wires bridged for a common negative(the same way stereo headphones are wired) from the tagstrip and away to that horseshoe clip held in place on the back of the amp by the ground terminal screw.
Had to scroll down to find the comment, deleted "idiot" and replaced with "man". But I stand by my comment about the turntable, you'd have an excellent deck for transcribing your vinyl collection to MP3.
I call B.S on it being no good. Most of us could only dream of having a table this good when we ere young. Mine is close to 45 years old and still dead quiet and rock steady at 33 1/3 rpm!
Simon Spiers I was relating to the the classic not the nine o’clock news hifi sketch. And what about my old 78s and I want a bag on my head czcams.com/video/DvswW6M7bMo/video.html
You probably knocked it off the stylus when you were bashing it about on the metal platter you have to be very gentle diamond is very brittle easily can damaged cantilever
@@SoddingaboutSi yes but bashing it about on the platter is not going to do the styli any good is it. Plus there's something wrong with the arm shouldn't have that much play
Yes I suppose so, what do you mean you can't feel any movement? it was knocking when you were moving the arm, you stated that! couple drops of sewing machine Oil wouldn't go amiss either. Even the most crappiest turntable can be made good you better of gutting it and using the parts, and just getting some inch HDF glue to half an inch of beech ply. Isolate the motor on a separate board, put some brass round headed screws in the plinth and in the board the motor is connected to, with the screws diagonally opposed to each other, find a large o-ring that can be wound in between to suspend it, another brass screw opposite the spindle of the platter and on the main plinth might be needed as tension an elastic band to give it tension if you're screwing isn't very accurate, What is the plinth made from on that tt. There's a project for you especially being a AC motor I think you said! it is better but more noisy than a DC motor. Cover the underside of the platter with with underseal check afterwards it is is balanced or check before it probably isn't anyway. A decent arm would help or you could make that arm better. Paint your counter lever on your stylus with underseal leaving about a millimetre from the suspension and about 2 mm from the needle, of course if you're cleaning it with isopropanol you're going to wipe it off!! you don't really need to use isopropanol and never cleaning a record with isopropanol neat only 10% is a bad thing it dissolves the vinyl. Better off using white spirit.
I bought one these along with my Brother back in 1980 - Had a TERRIBLE SOUND/Tonal quality for a Pioneer T~table!!! -turns out the tONEarm mounting base is Too Resonant- HOLLOW PLASTIC ---- Compared to my PL-112D which was great!! . so in order to Correct this terrible sounding t-table - I applied Mortite / Plasticine /"modeling Clay " to the interior of that Hollow Tonearm Base - the Wooden /particle board Plinth was OK--- just a purchasing disappointment - learned ALOT about Turntable design /sound crafting from that experience!!!
@@SoddingaboutSi By my experience, yes, it should! Otherwise you'll get the hum. The only wires other than the phono left-and-right is the power lead, and even though Britain has a three-pin power plug, more often than not, only the active and neutral wires are used as the lead is just two-core flex with the earth pin in the plug unused. That happens here in Australia too, indeed, it's the general practice with the ground wire running out with the phono leads. It's only on the RARE instance where the phono ground is run out with the turntable motor power on a three-core flex with the earth pin wired up in the plug, in which case the phono cartridge is grounded through the house power point, but again, that's a rare instance. Quite often, you'll see the power plug on turntables is an American two-pin(vertical flat pins) which plugs into a power point on the back of an amplifier. The amp will have three, two of which will be switched(for cassette deck and radio tuner) and one unswitched(for the turntable). The amp my computer feeds its audio to has that type of arrangement, it's a Pioneer SA-720 amplifier. So there you have it.
@@neilforbes416 By your experience. By my experience and others the ideal place for least circulating currents is indeed the amplifier chassis.We used to set up customers decks in the 80's for Unilet It was often found that you can often get improvements to hum by mounting at different earth points. Sometimes this wire can actually induce an earth loop and had to be left off. I would just like to know why you decided I was an idiot? Because you think this deck is better than I gave it credit for? It's a budget deck that's fairly well made and sounds OK. That is my opinion. You may think otherwise but that doesn't make YOU an idiot in my eyes, just you have differing opinion.
@@SoddingaboutSi The Pioneer brand is one of the best you could get in the 70s and 80s. Even their entry-level gear is top quality. I'll take back the "idiot" remark, but yes, it is a better deck than you give it credit for, and when you've finished restoring it you'll see how good it is. The only variance would be to replace the rubber turntable mat with an anti-static felt turntable mat(they should still be available).
Actually, with a very small number of turntable to amp connections, I found that using the earth ground could make the problem worse. I never understood why.
The M75ED should track at 1.5 grams. The ED stands for elliptical. The stylus can be replaced by an N75/6 in the same cartridge. The 6 means the size and the stylus is conical and should track at 2.5 grams. Often used in less good arms. The M76ED was a very good and popular in it's day. I sold dozens of them with the Pioneer PL12D. Be careful with isoproprinal, Ok with Shure cartridges, but with Goldring Cartridges of the day, G800 series melts the glue that holds the diamond to the shaft...not good!!
when younger i use to set the weight as it stayed down on the record so for a lot of years in diferent turntables i only put the weight as it stayed totally on the records ,not less or more ,and i did this because i saw a older man that had hundreds of records doing this on his turntable, only in the 90´s i discover that some stylus had to be around 2.0 grams, but the ones that i had were okay at 1.3 to 1.5 grams, some i had were technics others pioneer ,and the one that i used the most was a thorenz that i thought it was very good in reading records, also had a dual and a sansui from my grand parents and my father that both had this cartridge you refer to from shure ,i even need to buy another but i could never found where to read about the diferencies in eliptical ,conical or spheric stylus ,that i a week ago found a eliptical and a spheric for this cartridge but didn´t bought it yet, this to try to discover wich is the best, istill own several lp´s bought in the late 60´s without any cracles or any type of noise either than some estatic that when you clean the records it´s normal to have, but not that noticeable, this because i´ve been reading in blogs about the use of records and some talk about the experience or the noises that in the 90´s i bought a couple of cd´s that they inserted the noises on the records, i use vynil because most of the records i bought the cd version they sound so bad trhat i couln´t hear them normally when trhere are guitars with some distortion either from the amp. or known pedals, but even the voice in some records it sound tottally diferent, so i listen to records because i had a lot of them ,than i receive the records from both my grand parents and the colection from my father, that already passed away, but since 1993 i started to buy more cds ,now i have hundreds of them but some i never heard them because they sound so bad compared to the records i have equal to the cds,regards
I still have the PL-514 I bought new back in the day. It still works great. I originally purchased a Shure M95ED cartridge for it and later upgraded to the Shure V15 Type IV cartridge. A few years ago I picked up a PL-518 and transferred the V15 to that table. I love both tables.
It's one of those pieces of gear that isn't going to get anybody's heart racing but is still way too good for the landfill. Another one saved. Well done.
i had one of these turntables..served me well...i bought it back in 1978.
I picked up one a few months back to add to my Philips GA 427-and i love mine
The sound of the brush when he was cleaning the stylus made me nervous. It sounds too stiff.
Locky it was knacked anyway
I have the 516 and love with some TLC they are nice vintage gear
I have one ; it’s a fantastic turntable ! Its oversized platter gives it steadiness and a great look too. I love it. Peace- Patrick from France
I've fiddled around with turntables for several years and I'm always looking for a good deck for analogue-to-digital transfer. My only need now is for a good audio mixer. (I also have my own CZcams channels and the mixer needs to have at least two microphone inputs for voiceover work).
I cringed every time you dropped the stylus on the platter!
Same here. A few of the lowest quality turntables of that era didn't have damping on the arm lift mechanism.
I have a JVC deck very much like this. Like you say, not the best but I love it!
on my very same turntable i have a buzz that goes louder with volume.its grounded well yet the buzz does not go away
Novus plastic polish #2 (medium grade) should polish that dustcover nicely. Also works well on bakelite and fancy Catalin Radios. Mother's Mag Wheel Polish purportedly works very well for plastics but I haven't tried it.
Super video Simon.
Cheers Andy.
not worth much? buddy over here in the good ol USA that would cost you $100 to $200 bucks
Decent table from around 1978. Miles better than any entry level deck today. I have the direct drive version pl518 that's 2 models up from this.
Hey bud, nice turntable. The PL-514 was from mid 1970's. Cheaper than the PL-516, also belt drive, it lacked the 516's strobe and specs were about the same. A very good "budget" model. I purchased the PL-518 in 1979 for $118 and a Shure M95ED pickup. I later upgraded to an HE (hyper elliptical) stylus. The 518 is DD and has a two pound platter. Also has a +/- 2% speed adjustment and strobe. Specs are S/N 73dB and W/F 0.03%. Excellent specs for a 1970's turntable. Listed as a Manual turntable in Pioneer's literature. I still use it when "spinning discs". The S shaped tonearms fell out of fashion and ain't seen much on todays models. Thanks for posting this video. Glad the old record players are making a comeback. It's really swell.
I have to disagree with your statement that this is not good quality. I have a this particular table and it is very well built and plays a stable and correct speed, unlike my REGA P1 with its wobbly platter and too fast speed (with no speed pot) BTW my arm bearing does not rattle like that one--- yours must be damaged.
Very good table.
Agree, The PL 514 is a fine unit, not the top of the Pioneer line, but still a solid table. I have one, it's my backup table.
@@wwz1011 The 518 is almost the same, but with direct drive and is even better than this.
Alcohol (isopropanol) has a drying-out effect on rubber, so avoid getting it on the flexible rubber stylus mount that forms the suspension.
The Jazz Singer is on my top 10 list of the worst movies I've ever seen. I felt really badly for Sir Lawrence Olivier, who looked terribly uncomfortable throughout.
Well I wouldn't use alcohol to clean the stylus. Just a soft dry brush. The alcohol can break down the glue that holds the diamond to the cantilever.
could see in the video at start there was no tip on the stylus
They are very nice sounding turntables from the late 70’s. It’s very well engineered for the day. The pl5xx series were pioneers top of the range line. From the basic 512 to the automatic direct drive 518. All sound the same. The equivalent price nowadays is high 3 figures.
This was a budget model. Poor reviews back in the 80's. Being used regularly by a mate at work. Long live pioneer!
My pl 514 quit auto returning for some reason . Could someone tell me the fix.
That stylus problem happened to me - although mine was badly worn instead of missing. A change of the stylus made all the difference.
Question: This turntable returns short on longer 7" singles. I have adjusted the plastic screw undernesthn the weight, got it right and then it has started happening again. Is there anything I can do?
Most likely the grease has all gone hard. Strip the grease with wd40 and regressed it with a lightweight grease.
I still have the PL-519 that I bought new in 1977...the difference appears to be the visual sync adjustment control on the 519. AND if that's not enough of a coincidence, as I'm watching the video immediately above the computer is a VHS tape (if you can believe it!) of the movie the Jazz Singer, one of my favorites of all time as well...we're not long lost brothers by any chance? ;-)
I just restored a PL-512 and I am encountering a speed issue. I’m getting about 34.2 RPM. I’ve tried to swap belts and cleaned some buildup off the motor pulley but still am getting the same issue.
There is a speed adjustment pot under the platter I think
1.5 grams is fairly normal for mid to higher quality cartridges (for example: my Ortofon 2M Black is 1.5 grams, Benz Micro is 1.6 grams and CC Century is 1.8 grams).
The 3 or 3.5 grams cartridges often are DJ cartridges and higher tracking force is common for low quality cartridges.
I don't really get why you would want to dump fine piece of equipment, someone is earning way too much money I suppose.
In the meantime, all hipsters buy crappy suitcase turntables that are outmatched by this one, with ease.
Although I have a Linn Sondek..I Actually use My Pioneer Pl112d More...As Long As You Maintain and Look After Them...They Trundle On Forever..
At about 2:20: to attach the "earth" (ground) wire or not.... Many turntables stupidly connect one of the audio-signal grounds to the metal of the tone arm and the metal parts of the turntable, sometimes inside the turntable base (where it usually isn't difficult to get to the wiring and separate the earth ground from the signal ground), or inside the tonearm itself, typically at the headshell (typically much more difficult to fix and do it the right way). Use a multimeter to look for a connection between the earth lead and the ground barrels of the RCA plugs; *if you measure continuity, its wrong!*. Best case scenario, you might merely have to remove a jumper inside the turntable base near where the arm cables leave the arm or plinth. Worst case scenario, the tonearm itself might have only 4 wires, two for each channel, and is missing a 5th ground wire. It's possible to snake a 5th wire up inside the arm, but it's not easy! (Undo one signal wire and and use it as a pull string, pulling two wires up and through in it's place ---- you'll probably only get one try at this, so don't muck it up!). Also, the metal parts of the tonearm may not have electrical continuity from the mounting post through the bearings and up to the headshell, due to paint, anodizing, assembly with glue, use of plastic, loose-fitting press-fit parts, and so on. On the other hand, you might encounter a turntable which has separate earth grounding throughout, from the headshell all the way through and out, and where the earth grounding also includes the platter and spindle bearing, motor housing and other internal metal parts ( as it should!).....but the phono cartridge itself may have a ground connection between the metal shell/ body of the cartridge and one signal ground pin of the cartridge, usually done with a removable metal clip that is press fit into place (commonly found on older Shure, Stanton and Pickering cartridges). If you have more hum on one channel than the other, and everything else about the earth grounding is separate and correct, you should try removing that metal clip and see if it improves the hum or not......
By the way, I've seen many otherwise good quality turntables such as Thorens that don't even ground the spindle bearing for the platter, which can lead to static buildup and noise. And there are Rega arms that don't include a separate ground wire coming out of the arm base! A 5th ground wire is usually included internally from the tone arm wand through to the base of the arm pillar where it connects to the RCA cable shield. It is possible to separate these and add a separate ground wire, but it's not something that I recommend for novice wanna-be techs!
Hi Simon -ideally you should take the spindle out and retrieve the ball bearing and give it all a good clean with some q tips then 2 drops of oil and some grease on the spindle and jobs a good un.
Not sure it's removable?
normally the old turntables from pioneer ,do need new capaciteurs to boost the sound level at least the ones i have ,i received a pl-512 if i´m not wrong that came out after this without the brand on the front panel but only as this seen from above, it´s a very simple turntable but when working properly it seems very good, and now they´re selling as simple as it could be for around 1.000€ new, so this looks like those new turntables with the minimum possible ,so with the years it become a high-end turntable ,i know there are very expensive ones but i´m refering to prices around the 1.000€, even technics sold a couple of years ago a 70´s model made from diferent materials but they were the high-end series of technics around 79 ,that you could choose what type of turntable you wish already with all made with 1st class materials ,so anyone can buy for around 100€ a 2nd hand turntable and refurbish it properly and give a better or same sound as a new one ,some didn´t work that much ,so the engine is good the rubber belt and normally the stylus if not the cartridge also need to be substituted ,i some cases re-wiring it ,but i bought as being a record spinner(as people from older generation talk about their turntables in Portugal, where i live) an akai and after a couple of monthes a pioneer ,this thinking of selling them after restore it to perfect working condition, but when arriving there to see the "record spiner" i looked and it was on top of a good components system from akai and i paid 50€ and start to carry the turntable ,as i was walking to my car i heard the seller walking behind me saying that he could help or will take time ,but i notice him carrying a tuner and a amplifier and he put it on my van next to the turntable and i was going to ask him if he wanted to sell it also but before i ask he said "there are more things there" ,i went to his garage and looked to the deck, but i was confused so he said to me"after is the more heavy" so he showed me behind a cloth that covered what was underneath the working table two huge speakers from akai laying on the side because up they didn´t fit so it was all included ,the deck i refurbish it and sold it after 10 days for 150€ ,the turntable 200€, and the ones who bought them said to me that i was selling this components cheap, they were not the best from akai´s 77 catalog but the midle-range up ,if you know akai the deck was a GX reference and the turntable was direct drive and made of wood still and in need of a stylus and noything else just cleaned the dust and it was perfect, then i had the idea of searching only for record spiners, and bought a complete pioneer system from 79 just like a friend of mine bought already complete with a nice price , a pl-200 turntable mint condition a stereo receiver sx-700L a ct-200 deck and a pioneer furniture that it was fashion to have with big glass doors also a big speakers not that great sounding ,with a big woofer ,a kid with 20 years old bought them to me he said he like them so i did for 50€ and this one was clean no dust it was in a living room and so many things covering it that didn´t get dirty ,this one i paid 120€ for all, sometimes we are lucky, regards
Lower end but decent quality. My Dad handed his down to me. The only problem he ever had was the belt needed to be replced. It sounded great!
Yes. Budget deck that works well.
@@SoddingaboutSi I don't think it is "budget" in the sense that most people think of "budget" it was built in an era where the automation of features and strobe tracking etc were becoming the standard, this is a very well built turntable but with just above the most basic features. In terms of simple belt drive turntables I think that these don't get the credit they deserve, aside from modern "audiophile" belt drives I feel that these hold up against any mass production belt driven model.
Nice work Simon, and I have an even more budget Pioneer Pl 335 low end turntable made in Japan early nineties I think, and would not part with it. The modern decks just seem to lack a bit of quality Sir 👍 Tam.
Play a record to the end and watch what happens as the trip mechanism enters the picture. These early auto-return models were specified as needing higher tracking force than their non-return cousins. (PL15D v PL-12D, etc.) Factory specs listed 3-4 grams for them vs 1-2 for their plain cousins. Modern synthetic oils could lower this a good deal.
Good point, I will have to try that.
It’s still worthy of being saved and still worth a few quid
I bought one of these in 1972 at University Stereo in Los Angeles. It worked nice but I was jealous of my friends who had the one that you could stack a whole pile of lp's and not get up to change the record or play it again. The problem with it was no matter what I tried it would refuse to play anything but the BeeGee's.
72? This is much later. Post '76. Stacks of records? Play different records without getting up? Sounds more like a changer than a single play turntable.
Definitely to good for the tip, and miles better than the rubbish hipsters are buying now. I drove a Routemaster over a steepletone in a recent video and it just squished, total rubbish.
Shure 75ED type 2 tracking should be between 0.75 to 1.5 grams with the original elliptical N75ED stylus. I track mine at 1.25 grams. I bought it from Berry’s of Holborn in the early 1980s.
Thanks will add to description.
That looks like the Mobile fidelity half speed mastered version of that Neil Diamond album. That record is too expensive to use for testing a turntable in my opinion. I really enjoyed this video. Have a great day
Yes it is a mobile fidelity record. It's pretty worn out now and not in great condition. But it still sounds great. Tried to find a good copy but so far no luck
@@SoddingaboutSi I see it on Ebay once in a while and they are expense. I had one but like a fool I got rid of a lot of my albums when cd first came out and records started disappearing in stores. It was a good sounding album. I have a regular copy of that album, but it's not as good.
Yep Good Turntable Simon Will Never Beat Your Linn But Honest Turntable All The Same !! I Have a Mobile Fidelty Half Speed Master Of Abbey Road As Well Sounds Great Regards mike
You need to listen to a good turntable and a turntable such as this. You might be surprised.
I Have 2 Turntables Simon a Rega Planar 2 And a Rega Planar 3 Both Are Not Bad Turntables Either Regards mike
2:13 the ground wire grounds the pick-up cartridge ONLY! Otherwise you'll get a hum when playing any records. The phono cartridge wiring is totally isolated from the rest of the deck. The wires from the arm come out to a tagstrip mounted under the plinth and the left-and-right phono leads and ground wire come off that tagstrip and out to the RCA plugs. The ground wire would come off the left-and-right negative wires bridged for a common negative(the same way stereo headphones are wired) from the tagstrip and away to that horseshoe clip held in place on the back of the amp by the ground terminal screw.
Thank you neil useful information. If you would like to edit your previous comment without insults I would like to post them here too.
@@SoddingaboutSi If I cannot see it after posting, I cannot edit it.
Had to scroll down to find the comment, deleted "idiot" and replaced with "man". But I stand by my comment about the turntable, you'd have an excellent deck for transcribing your vinyl collection to MP3.
these are great decks i have one ,grab one if you can ...
No fine speed adjustment or strobe, unlike the PL-516 and up.
Yea, that's true. But, with a mechanical speed changer a pitch control probably won't work that well.
I call B.S on it being no good. Most of us could only dream of having a table this good when we ere young. Mine is close to 45 years old and still dead quiet and rock steady at 33 1/3 rpm!
IIRC the PL-512 was one of the better-rated entry-level decks of 1979. Nice find!
Yes the PL12D was like the Dual CS505 of later years. A good quality budget deck.
I had a PL 512, bought new in ‘79. Stupidly I let it go for a song to a second hand shop when I bought a Kenwood system in the ‘90’s, what a mug!
What about my old 78s
Yeah Chris! VERY SLOOWLEEYY
Simon Spiers I was relating to the the classic not the nine o’clock news hifi sketch. And what about my old 78s and I want a bag on my head czcams.com/video/DvswW6M7bMo/video.html
@@allthegearnoidea6752 Chris I know your a non believer. You need to hear a comparison.
I've recently come to realize, that the Blackadder Mr. Bean etc. has a MSc in EE. It all makes much more sense now Chris, after watching that sketch.
As they say “diamond is the hardest substance, but not on a stylus”!
You probably knocked it off the stylus when you were bashing it about on the metal platter you have to be very gentle diamond is very brittle easily can damaged cantilever
The record wouldn't play before I cleaned the stylus. Do you mean cantilever?
@@SoddingaboutSi yes but bashing it about on the platter is not going to do the styli any good is it. Plus there's something wrong with the arm shouldn't have that much play
@@johnsweda2999 it's a cheap turntable. Used to sell th back in the 80"s. Just needs tightening up on the bearings. You can't feel any movement.
Yes I suppose so, what do you mean you can't feel any movement? it was knocking when you were moving the arm, you stated that! couple drops of sewing machine Oil wouldn't go amiss either. Even the most crappiest turntable can be made good you better of gutting it and using the parts, and just getting some inch HDF glue to half an inch of beech ply. Isolate the motor on a separate board, put some brass round headed screws in the plinth and in the board the motor is connected to, with the screws diagonally opposed to each other, find a large o-ring that can be wound in between to suspend it, another brass screw opposite the spindle of the platter and on the main plinth might be needed as tension an elastic band to give it tension if you're screwing isn't very accurate, What is the plinth made from on that tt. There's a project for you especially being a AC motor I think you said! it is better but more noisy than a DC motor. Cover the underside of the platter with with underseal check afterwards it is is balanced or check before it probably isn't anyway. A decent arm would help or you could make that arm better. Paint your counter lever on your stylus with underseal leaving about a millimetre from the suspension and about 2 mm from the needle, of course if you're cleaning it with isopropanol you're going to wipe it off!! you don't really need to use isopropanol and never cleaning a record with isopropanol neat only 10% is a bad thing it dissolves the vinyl. Better off using white spirit.
I bought one these along with my Brother back in 1980 - Had a TERRIBLE SOUND/Tonal quality for a Pioneer T~table!!! -turns out the tONEarm mounting base is Too Resonant- HOLLOW PLASTIC ---- Compared to my PL-112D which was great!! . so in order to Correct this terrible sounding t-table - I applied Mortite / Plasticine /"modeling Clay " to the interior of that Hollow Tonearm Base - the Wooden /particle board Plinth was OK--- just a purchasing disappointment - learned ALOT about Turntable design /sound crafting from that experience!!!
That earth wire should ALWAYS be connected to the amplifier's ground terminal..... ALWAYS!!!!! (2:20)
No I shouldn't.
@@SoddingaboutSi By my experience, yes, it should! Otherwise you'll get the hum. The only wires other than the phono left-and-right is the power lead, and even though Britain has a three-pin power plug, more often than not, only the active and neutral wires are used as the lead is just two-core flex with the earth pin in the plug unused. That happens here in Australia too, indeed, it's the general practice with the ground wire running out with the phono leads. It's only on the RARE instance where the phono ground is run out with the turntable motor power on a three-core flex with the earth pin wired up in the plug, in which case the phono cartridge is grounded through the house power point, but again, that's a rare instance. Quite often, you'll see the power plug on turntables is an American two-pin(vertical flat pins) which plugs into a power point on the back of an amplifier. The amp will have three, two of which will be switched(for cassette deck and radio tuner) and one unswitched(for the turntable). The amp my computer feeds its audio to has that type of arrangement, it's a Pioneer SA-720 amplifier. So there you have it.
@@neilforbes416 By your experience.
By my experience and others the ideal place for least circulating currents is indeed the amplifier chassis.We used to set up customers decks in the 80's for Unilet It was often found that you can often get improvements to hum by mounting at different earth points. Sometimes this wire can actually induce an earth loop and had to be left off.
I would just like to know why you decided I was an idiot? Because you think this deck is better than I gave it credit for? It's a budget deck that's fairly well made and sounds OK. That is my opinion. You may think otherwise but that doesn't make YOU an idiot in my eyes, just you have differing opinion.
@@SoddingaboutSi The Pioneer brand is one of the best you could get in the 70s and 80s. Even their entry-level gear is top quality. I'll take back the "idiot" remark, but yes, it is a better deck than you give it credit for, and when you've finished restoring it you'll see how good it is. The only variance would be to replace the rubber turntable mat with an anti-static felt turntable mat(they should still be available).
Actually, with a very small number of turntable to amp connections, I found that using the earth ground could make the problem worse. I never understood why.
Circa 1978.
looks like the phonos and ground aren't original
Oh I will have a look. Looks unmodded to me but you could well be right Benji
@@SoddingaboutSi the originals would have been moulded on and the ground tag would have been uninsulated
could it have had a Din plug originally ?
@@thehappylittlefoxakabenji8154 Thats knowledge Benji! Cheers
@@SoddingaboutSi your welcome
it sounds bad because it's Neil Diamond.....
Ungrateful sod.
Yes I suppose I was a bit!