What is the stylus illuminator for?

[keiron99]

I'm a bit confused as to the purpose of the pop up stylus illuminator.

I was hopeful that, in low light, it would shed enough light to enable accurate cueing of the stylus.

But, and this may be just me, it really isn't bright enough to enable that and i find I still have to turn the lights up.

Interestingly, even the instructions only refer to it as "illuminating the stylus tip during play".

[YNWaN]

It's so that you can see where you are cuing up your record when DJing in a dark night club.

[keiron99]

It's so that you can see where you are cuing up your record when DJing in a dark night club.

Do other owners find it is sufficiently bright to enable cueing on the run in groove though? I don't find it helps in this regard.

[sparrow]

Do other owners find it is sufficiently bright to enable cueing on the run in groove though? I don't find it helps in this regard.

Mine is bright enough...I never use it though.

[CableMaker1]

I was hopeful that, in low light, it would shed enough light to enable accurate cueing of the stylus.
But, and this may be just me, it really isn't bright enough to enable that and i find I still have to turn the lights up.


The pop-up light is an incandescent light. These type of lights have diminishing brightness over time. It is replaceable. If you have the schematic diagram of the beloved SL-1200MK2, and you are armed with a screwdriver and solder, you can replace it. Others have replaced theirs with a bight white or another colour LED. I have not tried this myself as my 25+ year-old incandescent bulbs are still kicking ass.

If you do go with an LED replacement route, you will need to add a resistor going to the LED so that the current charging the LED does not burn out the bulb.

[Macca]

I use mine for cuing in dim light and find it very useful. As above yours must be on its way out or your room is really dark.

[keiron99]

I think I have established why the light is not so effective on mine.

It's as though the light is pointing too far to the left and not aligned quite right. I wonder whether it's because I'm using an SME arm rather than the stock arm and therefore the cartridge is in a slightly different position than would be on the Technics arm?

[costerdock]

Two things with my M5G light:
1) Queueing - I always listen to albums in the dark
2) Dust - it is great at showing how dusty the record is - and how clean it is once you swipe the album a few times with the carbon fiber brush

It is extremely useful and cracks me up when anti-Technics folks act like it is useless/non-audiophile.

Thanks,

Chris