Replacing damaged RCA leads and removing earth mods on Technics 1200 and 1210 turntables.
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- čas přidán 12. 01. 2017
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The leads I use are by Pulse Audio - PLS00173
In this video I replace some damaged RCA leads and also remove a internal ground mod on these Technics 1210 mk2 turntables.
I am adding a new rule. No help or questions answered unless it's related to the video and you are subscribed to the channel. It takes up to much time to reply and I am not free tech support.
Thank you for posting this. For years, my dad could never figure out why his 1200MK2 always had a loud hum. After watching this video, I opened it up and discovered the self ground mod was performed and 2 of the tonearm wires were solder bridged which caused the grounds of the phono leads to have a short circuit. The noise is gone and he couldn't have been happier.
People seem to think the Technics RCA Cables are cheap but there actually very good cables especially the Gold Plated ones on later Models. There very low capacitance which is what you need for the tonearm. Thanks for sharing the video.
13:43, before putting the cover back on, always set the arm base height all the way up to 6+ . This will ensure that you leave enough wire slack inside the arm cavity for the arm base to go up and down through it's full range.
Top quality info, editing, and camera work! Well done.
Thank you for this video, just did it and works fine - finally noise is gone and both channels have the same level! Great explanation.
Thanks, for your time and efforts in showing us! Excellent recorded !! THANKS
Thanks for this, I removed the ground mod from a deck with this video. While I was in there I found that the pitch earth was connected to the right screw and not thr left as in this video so I rectified tbdt too. Thankyou
Great video. Never taken my 1210’s apart but I might now get round to changing that rca lead that works fine but is getting a little loose on the plug pin. Cheers
Thank you sir, for the information, and for using camera stands. Brilliant.
Great! This helped me a lot getting rid of a hum in a Lenco L830. Not sure whether it was a mod or just the original wiring setup for DIN connection but it also had that connection between the minus on the right channel (the green wire from the tonearm) and ground. After removing this ground link and adding a separate ground cable to the amp the hum was completely gone.
Very pro - thanks for taking the time to show how it's done - good wishes - thank you.
Hi Lee, Excellent video sir. A soldering iron is being purchased asap. Thank you for the info. :-)
Great video DJ legion. Well presented. Don’t need to look at any others on this subject either 👍🏾
Great vid, very well explained and described, have to replace the RCA and ground wire and feel much more confident after watching this, thanks dude..!
Nice work. Thanks and I've used this video to help me with what to expect when doing a removable RCA mod and by what you've shown my instincts were right to keep the traditional grounding! I personally thought it was a can of worms that made no sense to me personally.
I have installed RCA plates for a local hire company and he tells me he has never had a problem with them so if he is happy, I am happy.
That was great. I enjoy your explanations, they are clear and concise enough for me to believe I can make these repairs myself. Ok, Monkey see, Monkey do. But I can’t gain your knowledge of electronics without some college learning though? So I won’t delude myself, and I’ll just watch and enjoy. Thank you.
Great video you make it seem so simple. Going to tackle my pair of Tech's now, many thanks Lee, wish me luck! 🤞
good luck :)
DJ Ranx R u still lookin4 the parts😂
thank you for this vid. i have a 1200 that i could not figure out why it would not play any sound. i took a chance to replace the leads and in about a 1hr 1/2 SUCCESS! for years my 1200 has been out of commission
now id like to return to the classics.....lol, thank you so much.
Superb! Great skills and workmanship. Cheers.
It's been said already but I have to thank you again. So clear and straight forward I feel confident I can do this myself. Love the camera stand you have made and then you test it with the chic edit. You are my favourite nerd, this video has brought joy to so many people. Thank you.
I had no idea how much this edit was worth until someone told me like £30 at one point. I just needed a single sided record for testing.
@@DJlegionuk What RCA cables would you reccomend Lee?
@@jake5265 The ones I use in the video are by Pulse Audio www.pulse-audio.co.uk/product/pls00173/
I split them in half and use for two decks. They are as good as any others, I recently did a test of types and they show minimal difference.
@@DJlegionuk nice, thank you.
Great video, thanks for sharing. Cleared up my doubts about internally grounding!
I can’t believe my vintage Phillips 312 has only 3 screws holding the whole thing together! I got a kick out of watching you pull what seemed like 15 screws from the bottom lol! Good video, thanks!
They really are built like tanks and it's all to cut back on vibration working through the deck in a loud environment.
Thanks. I just needed to see how the rca cable plastic piece went back together. Took it apart last week and forgot how it went.
Thank god theres people like you who fix these
Great videos. Very helpful. Also loved the one with the different RCA leads. We'll done. Thanks mate.
Thanks for making this, I fitted a new cable this morning and it's all good. Ngl, was nervous, but followed to the letter, and did it. Really appreciated
excellent information and technique.. thanks for sharing.
I don't know how they made that mistake when there is an available earth pad that was clearly visible and marked right next to the other wiring. It looks like these units are set up to make this mod easy.
Thank you for showing this, this gets a sub from me.
No, they didn't connect the ground/earth wire to the wrong pad, they connected the lead from the rca TO the earth ground. "Internal ground", lol
Tops it off with some KDJ. Nice one, thanks from Vancouver
Great video and explanations, thanks for your time and effort!
Great this way looks really simple thank you for your time 🙏
That was great to watch. Very informative too. Thank you.
great vid, thanks for your time ! was able to do it myself, it works perfectly. thanks
Thank you for this video, from beginning to end (about anti skip, to ground and good wires) I haven't tried it yet. Will soon though. Thanks
Great multiple finger work when tinning!
Extremely informative & excellent presentation. 👍👍
Thanks for this fine and verye informative video. I´ve been having this problem for a while now and haven´t used my beloved 1210 cause i thought it might cost a fortune to fix it. But with this video i think and hope that i can have it up an playing again soon, even though i´m not electrician.
Good video there Lee - As an engineer too I have often been telling people its a bad idea to internally ground turntables. Chassis ground must be kept separate from the audio even if the screen is connected to mixer chassis (which creates the ideal earthed star point).
I did a quick test on my scope. with the internal ground mod and no cartridge connected you can see the noise on the RCA, A quick dab of the normal external ground and the noise goes away !.
Yep that makes perfect sense. The topology of a Technics turntable has a capacitance between the actual chassis ground and the audio which acts as a high pass filter thus eliminating the noise when the ground is separate. Connecting them together induces that noise on the audio irrespective of the fact that the audio shield may be connected to mixer chassis.
Even worse when people try to 'mod' their turntables with external expensive switch mode power supplies, better known to us engineers as 'snake oil' :D. (the SMPS harmonics actually induce noise because the switching frequency is high enough to get through said capacitance)
A lot of people only use the technics 1200/1210 for DJing with Serato or other DVS software, so for the convenience the mod works well... where a little noise is not an issue with high level sync tone. But - wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.
Nice lesson sir ! Thank you !
I am not deep into electrical stuff but I did the opposite operation and it solves my noise problem. So, yeah, thanks a lot! :-)
Great vid...topped off with a Terje's edit of Chic.
this video just saved my life!!! thanks so much!!!
Great video. Learnt a lot, thank you. 👍
great video. straight to the point and simple. thanks
Thanks :)
What a wonderful and helpful video. So it looks like you highly recommend not doing a mod that integrates the ground into the RCA cables.
Brilliant video mate!
great video thank you i will be doing this tomorrow
Great Video..Thanks for the help!
Dude I could watch videos of you working on turntables all day :D This video has been coming up in my feed for years ( I think I searched for exactly this topic a while back ) I havent soldered for donkeys years, and tips on building up some skills with it? Seems like fucking it up could be catastrophic lol thanks for the vid bud! Hope you’re well
Fair play... I've only been dealing with a dodgy lead for about 16 years. Replaced today
Great video. I have a tone arm issue, and an earth issue on both. Will be ripping these bad boys open and try this out.
have you seen my tone arm video ?
Now im ready to do it to my ones, thank you
Great video, easy to follow, Thanks :)
This video was excellent!!!!
Thanks wayne.
Hi there!
First of all i wanted to say that i absolutely love your videos! Detailed and easy to undestand.
I am texting you with a problem i have encountered and i cannot understand from where it comes.
Recently i bought Technics sl1210 km2 with changed RCA, and later on i realized that one of the channels is louder than the other. Probably around 3,4 db. I noticed that while i was recording a set at home and saw that one of the channels was hitting lower that the other. I cross checked it with the master output from the mixer where it could also be seen that one of the led goes higher than the other. Just to make sure i opened ableton and run a plugin from Ozone, Imager and the signal tend to go to the left rather than stay in the middle.
So until now i tried cleaning the tonearm tips as well as the catridge (nothing changed) i switched needles , mixer channels evetything basically and always one of the channels is louder. Then i ran a conductivity test with a multi meter and everything went fine there.
So now i am lost and i dont know what to anymore. It appears like there is some resistence than fucks up one of the signals.
Have you ever encountered something similar or have any idea of what can be the cause?
Every small answer will be appreciated!
Regards
Grigor
HI, If you have checked all parts of the signal connection, cleaned the 4 brass dots and you see no difference in resistance the other option is the arm could be twisted in some way so the stylus is not sitting in the groove correctly.
@@DJlegionuk Thank you for the quick reply. Do you know how i can know that for sure, without having to buy an replecment for a 100 bucks?
@@undone7107 I only have your word that all the things you tested are actually correct so I can only guess at what is left.
if you ever replace a CDJ 100s Lens please make a video there is none on the internet! Love your technics repair videos man!
If this is really your first video I'd have to say Very Nice Job.
It was the first one I made any effort over how I filmed it.
Hi from Australia. Why people do this is just ridiculous. Yes a ground cable is a pain if it breaks but these decks were made for audiophiles and DJs like myself......I'm 63 but I lie about my age because I can. I use a stock 1200 as my play only turntable and it is fitted with an Ortofon Black cartridge with a nude Shibata stylus. It sounds spectacular. The solution for this problem is in the new releases. You get RCA sockets and a ground spade lug and an IEE power socket so if they wear out, you buy new ones. Cheers Andrew Collins Melbourne Victoria Australia.
Greetings from France Dj Legion, your videos are the most professional and helpful tutorials ever !
I'm going to replace my RCA cables, just ordered Pulse audio cables as you recommended but I can't find the earth cable reference, do you recommend any particulary one ?
HI, Thank you :) at the moment i use 7/0.2mm black wire and none insulated spade terminals, but not sure of the part no.
excellent video many thanks
Excellent presentation! Thank you. I did change my RCA cable because I used to get monophonic signal but unfortunately now it doesn't work at all. Instead I get an annoying noise in my speakers and no music at all. Could it be that I haven't done the tinning of the wires correctly? I mean the part 10.34 of your presentation, I left the two side parts half without tinning and I only tinned the edges to make the connection. Could the naked part of the wires make that noise? Finally, what would be the result if I do not place an earthing wire? Thank you very much in advance!
Great video!! Thank you.
Great video!
Excellent vid mate
Thank you man, this was a godsend.
WE DONT USED THAT GROUND CABLE ANYMORE. WE DO INGROUND INSTEAD. NICE VISUAL EFFECT ON THE PROCEDURE.
Thankyou so much for this video very detail .
Whether a ground mod causes issues really depends on what you're plugging it into. A lot of gear ties the RCA negative to ground right at the input anyway, so when you do the ground mod you're not really changing much--you're just moving the point where the two things are connected. I'm pretty sure basically all DJ mixers are this way.
However, I'm certain that there are pocket preamps, or computer audio interfaces, or stereo receivers out there that run off of an isolated power supply or uses capacitive coupling, and that means that when you do this "ground mod" you are now connecting the tonearm body to something that isn't actually ground and thus you are no longer shielding the sensitive signal wires from the interference generated by the motor.
You're absolutely right that it can cause issues and I personally would never do it because the convenience isn't worth it, but I don't think it can cause ground *loops*, as there isn't actually a loop created. I might be missing something though.
One thing that I am curious about is whether you could replace that ground connection with a connection to mains earth via a grounded plug (I think there are turntables out there that do this from the factory). I don't know if anyone has tried it and I haven't thought it through but it seems like it might work. I suspect the turntable ground wire is an artifact of a time when companies were hesitant to make their product require a grounded outlet.
I recently started working with a local hire company and they have all 1210 models fitted with RCA mods and internally grounded. I talked at length with him about this and he says he never has ground loop problems and was happy to continue to use the internal ground mod of the RCA plate. I just wonder if they could use some new ISO transformer or something to earth via the mains and not introduce any hum, but why bother when a simple wire will do the trick. I have wondered if I can setup some test, but I also never had a ground loop at my workshop when I have so much stuff plugged in.
I don't think hum would be an issue. If you were "grounding" it to the neutral wire, then yes it could be as the neutral sits slightly above ground potential and its voltage is going to vary at 50/60 Hz.
If you grounded the tonearm to mains earth, but still had the cartridge and such separate from that, there wouldn't be a ground loop either because the two aren't connected.
@@DJlegionuk I recently had a friend send a number of wav files for comparison didn't tell me what or why, i found that although slight there was dynamic difference in HF i fed this bak to him he told me on the two files i was comparing one was grounded the other was mod both same mixer / cart . I have used ground mod technics as my hire stock for years and unless it is specified from an operational perspective and with the difference be so slight i think mod is a good way to go for clubs with change overs and hire stock for ease. If ground wire goes then the deck needs service down time . Ive seen many ground wires snapped just from not being put in flight case correctly, so i think payoff unless rider specific is acceptable- at home / studio or fixed decks in nightclubs i advise the ground wire.
I went ahead and did an internal grounding of one of my 1200's that I do strictly Archival work with. I based it off a Hitachi Direct Drive turntable I own that does an internal grounding right from the factory (early 80s) . It solidifed the notion of it being possible and without any added noise at all.. and on paper and with ears there is nothing introduced. I do have it plugged into a Mackie phono firewire mixer - but I do agree some older equipment or certain pre-amps built into some receivers could cause problems. I have never experimented with that as I have my own solution. Great comment!
@@danbizaro869 Before I went ahead and did a ground mod, I did an extensive A/B test through the mixer I was plugging it into (mackie firewire u420d) to my computer making detailed analysis of the frequency and when that was pretty much a success it was confirmation I could use the internal ground mod in my situation.
Nice job! Thank you very much.
Unless they have changed this in recent years, I actually know of a well respected turntable and tone arm manufacturer catering to the audiophile market whose tonearm wiring still uses one negative-signal lead to make an "earth ground" to the tonearm: Rega. I have modified a couple of Rega arms for lower hum by adding a 5th wire to ground the arm, making sure that the arm wand and base get their own ground, completely separate from the audio signal. It's not an easy thing to do and not something you want to do if you've had too much coffee or beer because one careless tug can do a lot of damage to those fragile wires!
Awesome video! Thx.
Thank you Sir!
Good Rule: Just saw the RCA comparison video and appreciate your videos and attention to detail. I trust your opinion and can't wait to see the pitch calibration video. QQ: what guage cable did you use for the ground replacement? Soldering the ground, as seen in other videos, seemed like a good idea; until you made that comment of adding more noise to the line. So glad I saw this video mate, cheers. Also, what are your thoughts on those Mod Boxes where you can connect RCAs and ground to; any compromise to the sound using these boxes? Recently took out the twintables and want to mod a few things while DJing holiday parties for family..
I have fitted many of those rca mod plates for a local company and they are happy to use them for rental decks that go to all sorts of locations so if he is happy I am happy.
It has always eluded me why anyone would want to remove earth; its there for a reason.
Dont know why you were so worried, you did good. Clear speech, good camera work, made it seem simple(well it is really lol)
Nice Job!...
Very nice!!! Thank you!!!
So... the two outer lines, next to the left and right channels, are the cable's shielding? Are there cables with seperated shielding and and extra ground wire inside? Thanks for the video. Cheers!
Beautiful! I love to watch someone who knows what he's doing!
I put a small alligator clip on my ground. It works perfectly and just clamps onto ground spindles or right onto the equipment chassis'.
great video!
Thanks for watching.
Nice vid. I'm searching for an imbalance issue with my 1200's. Just tried the antiskate test and it's barely doing anything. Don't know if that's likely to be the cause though.
very elegant work , how about adding an rca adaptor (as newer models have) instead of cables, therefore users can use new rca cables anytime they want.
thank you 🙏 perfect tutorial
Had one interesting case last year - one SL-1200mk2 had a ground loop even after adding a ground wire back. As it came and was gone every now and then, could not find a reason. Best guess would have probably been faulty wires within the tonearm .
wonderful video! thank you. what would you recommend for the ground wire? didn't see it in the comments and in the description. thank you :)
I like that you remove the internal ground mod. You did explain it very nicely. I say to the customers, that the Technics engineers who thought out this deck were much smarter then we, and i don't think that there is not that much we could do better :). What i don't like that much is, that you didn't remove the old solder blobs on the pcb,i see that you have a desoldering gun, so an easy job, the tip of the solder iron, i really would suggest a chisel tip for this kind of work. The heat transfer is much faster and better and the audio cables. These chineese cheap cables are more designed for a line signal, not phono signal... due to their capacitance. The original ones are still able to get. But.. was it really in 2:22 when you flipped the turntable the whole weight on the tonearm ? :). I don't want to criticize you, just some thoughts from a colleague :).
Hi, so yes I know I put a bit too much weight on the deck when I flipped it over, Not much I can do about that. I was more concerned with the filming aspect at the time and I do regret it. I have taken on a lot of the comments and feedback especially the cleaning of the PCB and I do this on every deck I look at. I also have way better equipment and use a ts100 with a chisel tip for most of my work. I clean with flux and solder braid then clean ipa before applying new solder. I could even clean and use my ultrasonic bath if it was worth the time it takes to heat up. I have a question for you, with regards to the capacitance of the leads is this something I can test with my LCR meter ?
I cringed a bit on that 'flip'..he could have flipped it with the other side going down first.. but it appears he really didn't express that much weight on that side. Hard to tell on camera. Good points about the soldering - and the cables. He mentions the problem with beefier cables (larger diameter , gold ends which I went with) but at expense of the clip but I used ties to keep the larger cables in place so voila, no shifting problems. I only did the cable upgrade to my modified 1200 that I do archival work with so I'm not gigging it or carrying it around anywhere. Stays in one spot. The capacitance of these new cables are optimum and compliment the AT150MLX stylus I use.
Cool video. Thanks.
Mad professor,fascinating to watch. Don’t think I would try this though? Can you mend ours please? ❤️
yes if you can get them to me in Nottingham.
Very well done video. Good advice. Where did you get those cool all metal small wire strippers with the nipper in the handle??
I am sure i commented about those before. I have to say they are the worst wire strippers ever and would not recommend them to anyone.
Excellent video. What size ground wire you use?
I am French: translated text:
A thousand thanks for your expérience. Thanks to you, I would never have dared to take my 1200mk2 apart to do this job. I was also able to dismantle the variable speed drives. Well done !
Patrick Malbos 😂I wouldn't touch my decks if I had a gun2 my head after watching this😂
Great Vid and respect for all micro electro geeks. Just one question. Perfect explanation about the earth mod about off balance the signal and earth loop but why turntables manufactured without ground on the power plug and others come with a 3 pin instead of the 2 pin. Does this change anything regarding the earth mod? Funny thing also that many Dj mixer dont have grounding too.
Remember how old these decks are, Not all countries had Earth on the mains plugs so they would make them to be as compatible as possible. This is the same reason why they do not do ground mods at the factory it removes the very small chance the mod could cause a problem. So design it to work without the need for a Earth on the power and sell the same model to more places.
What size cable ties do you use to secure the cables?
I happened to have a Pio DJM800 mixer schematics on my desktop. Approx 15y ago i modded my SL1200MK2 (actually i just connected the ground into the plug at the end). Now on the Pio schematics i see exactly that the minuses coming from the phono input are connected together and directly to the ground. So for a DJ mixer setup the real difference is what happens to the cable along that 1-1,5 m, might not be any kind of dealbreaker unless lot of interference and current in cables is around (but that would be an issue anyway).
Chic - I Want Your Love [Todd Terje Edit], what an amazing track
Super helpful. Any info on how to test that faulty RCAs are the problem using a multimeter? I am getting no audio signal from my (correction) *right* channel and I'd like to figure out if the issue is the headshell connection, tonearm or the RCA. Cheers
yes just measure the reistance from the end of the RCA to either the brass dot in the end of the tonearm or to the small connecting wires of the headshell (if you have them) it should be close to 0 ohm as possible.
Well done, thanks for th recording! FR
It helped me a lot to change the RCAcable successfully (today) with almost no fear to do something wrong. and I made it, thanks again Phil! FR
kenny dixon jr was nice surprise in the end