Changing the RCA cables on a 1200?

[JJack]

My thrift-shop 1200MkII is wonderful, yes, but is probably severly limited by the cheapest pair of RCA interconnects known to man, or at least Hi Fidelius Erectus Man.

I do not have great electrical skills, so I thought I'd ask first: is it difficult to replace these cheap interconnects with something decent? I see that the cables connect somewhere on the bottom of the TT, but I can't see where (is it difficult to uncover the connectors?).

I assume it will be fairly simple once I dissemble the unit, but I'm hoping that the connection is easy to get to without taking the whole TT apart.

Thanks,

[Ammonite Audio]

If you are not confident about taking the arm out and doing some soldering, I recommend that you send your arm to Johnnie at Audio Origami for a rewire and health check/bearing adjustment. I did that with mine and it was a different beast when it came back.

[Gromit]

What ^Hugo^ said.

I thought that the arm on my 1210 was bent so bought a brand new tonearm for it the other day and had already contacted Johnnie re getting my (allegedly) bent one fixed and re-wired.

Johnnie did say they're a little bit of a b*tch to work on - not the easiest of arms to re-wire apparently. So, thinking that my *bent one would be trash I thought I'd have a look at fitting the new one today - if I ended up wrecking the old one it wouldn't matter. Now, I've taken the complete arm off several times, on a previous 1210, and it's a piece of cake to do. Looking at what would be needed to re-wire - or certainly fit new wire - to the std arm though I think I'd much rather put it in the hands of someone who properly knows what they're doing and Johnnie, for me, is yer man where that's concerned.

*Turns out mine was absolutely fine - the armtube was simply not sitting straight. Removed the arm, and gently tweaked the tube so it now sits perfectly straight. One brand new arm now not needed. :rolleyes:

One thing worth doing is fitting some decent RCA plugs to the arm wire - makes a significant improvement over the, frankly, shite std ones.

[The Grand Wazoo]

...send your arm to Johnnie at Audio Origami for a rewire and health check/bearing adjustment.
Depending on whether you're currently in Detroit or Glasgow, that's fantastic advice.....or not! Not sure if there's a Johnnie type person in Michigan

[freefallrob]

When I had a SL1200mk2 I changed the interconnects to Canare LV61S and the headshell wires to Sumiko, I also tried some Audioquest G Snake, that worked really well with a Grado Prestige Black!

It's a fairly tricky process and you may have problems with the cable strain relief due to the bend radius and diameter of your chosen cable.

[Lee Henley]

What ^Hugo^ said.

I thought that the arm on my 1210 was bent so bought a brand new tonearm for it the other day and had already contacted Johnnie re getting my (allegedly) bent one fixed and re-wired.

Johnnie did say they're a little bit of a b*tch to work on - not the easiest of arms to re-wire apparently. So, thinking that my *bent one would be trash I thought I'd have a look at fitting the new one today - if I ended up wrecking the old one it wouldn't matter. Now, I've taken the complete arm off several times, on a previous 1210, and it's a piece of cake to do. Looking at what would be needed to re-wire - or certainly fit new wire - to the std arm though I think I'd much rather put it in the hands of someone who properly knows what they're doing and Johnnie, for me, is yer man where that's concerned.

*Turns out mine was absolutely fine - the armtube was simply not sitting straight. Removed the arm, and gently tweaked the tube so it now sits perfectly straight. One brand new arm now not needed. :rolleyes:

One thing worth doing is fitting some decent RCA plugs to the arm wire - makes a significant improvement over the, frankly, shite std ones.

Hi Richard

Is this an easy task as i feel my arm is slightly out too and have wondered how to remove the arm to give it a little twist.

Any help much appreciated

thanks in advance

Lee

[MWalt]

Depending on whether you're currently in Detroit or Glasgow, that's fantastic advice.....or not! Not sure if there's a Johnnie type person in Michigan

For those that reside in the US, Kevin at KAB does great work on Technics arms.

[Gromit]

Hi Richard

Is this an easy task as i feel my arm is slightly out too and have wondered how to remove the arm to give it a little twist.

Any help much appreciated

thanks in advance

Lee

Hi Lee,

Removing the arm as a complete unit is a piece of cake - it simply a case of not mislaying any of the many small screws holding the plinth/base together. :)

Quick run-down...

1. Remove platter
2. Invert whole turntable (with lid in place of course) - I just lay it on a thick towel.
3. Remove 4 feet and all the small screws holding rubber base to top plate
4. Remove rubber base - I usually remove the mains plug so the whole thing can be put to one side.
5. Undo screws holding resin damping section - there are 2 pairs of screws holding the lid hinge plates in place so undoing these will loosen the lid - be careful here as the lid can slip! :)
6. Unscrew arm earthing point - small screw on corner of pitch fader unit.
7. Lift out the top plate/arm assy, leaving lid behind. I tend to rest the top plate assy on my knee at this point...
8. Loosen 3x arm mounting screws and carefully lift out tonearm unit.

My arm was twisted 'anti-clockwise' (looking from the front) which made the headshell point downwards - the outermost part of the armtube was pointing up, basically.

I could get enough grip with my fingers on the thicker (T) part of the armtube (ie the bit which the chrome tube goes into at the bearing end) and with the other hand gently tweaked the main armtube in the direction it needed to go. Didn't need too much persuasion - the tube is only held in place by the 2 small screws in the (T) and isn't all that tight. The arm now sits perfectly flat and the std non-adjustable shell parallel with the playing surface - it was slightly out before, dipping towards the spindle.

At this point I just rested the top plate inside the turntable's lid and put the arm unit back in situ - re-fitted the platter and checked the arm for perfect azimuth, which was bang on, before putting it all back together.

Sounds a lot but only took me 15 mins or so - saying that I took a previous 1210 apart more times than I care to remember when comparing tonearms. It's a very straightforward job though, should give no trouble, and will let you get to know your Tecchy a bit more intimately which is nice. :)