Turntable help (1 Viewer)

[John_Quincy]

I just got a hand-me-down turntable and am trying to get it to work with my HT system. The turntable is from a company called Dynavox and my receiver is the Kenwood VR-509. The turtable has a plug with two RCA jacks that connect to the receiver. One is red, the other is black.

After plugging the black one into the black jack on the receiver and the red to the red, I tried out the turntable. The records played fine at 45 RPM for a little while and then the turntable just stopped turning. I even tried it without the record and it still did not turn. After looking at the manual for the receiver I noticed that it wanted to have a black and a white plug going to the receiver, but it also wanted a ground wire. I have not seen a ground wire coming from the turntable though.

Anyone have any ideas why this is not working?

Thanks,

John

 

[Tom Weeks]

That turntable's motor might just be shot. Had it been up running shortly to you having acquired it or had it been sitting unused for awhile? Also turntables always (at least with all that I have ever seen) have a green ground wire with a small spade connector coming out of the back of turntable. This could be your problem. I know with my turntable, if the ground has not got a rock hard connection to the ground on the back of the receiver, it will let off an ungodly buzzing through the speakers. You might want to thoroughly investigate the back of the turntable and try to ascertain if there was a remnant of a previous ground wire lurking in there. If so splice in a new ground and connect to receiver. Hope this helps.

 

[John_Quincy]

I got this from my brother in law who had it working prior to me. However, he did not attach it to his receiver and play it stand alone.

I will be checking to make sure there was no ground when I get home later today.

Thanks,

John

 

[John Knowles]

There are some 'Tables that don't have ground wires, like my Thorens that I normally use. Certainly be sure that if there's supposed to be a ground that it's connected, but it sounds like a mechanical problem. Have you lifted up the platter to take a look at the drive belt (if it uses one)? Some of the older Tables use a rubber idler wheel drive which can get dried out and cracked. If all that looks normal or it's a direct drive (the motor drives the platter without any wheel or belt), you may have a bad motor.

Good luck!

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

John,

John Knowles is right, I’d pull the platter and see what you have. Since it worked briefly and then quit, I suspect this is a belt-drive unit. The same thing happened to me when I retired a belt drive ’table for a number of years and then put it back in service: The belt broke almost immediately. When I took it apart I found that not only was the belt broke, it had a crease in it where it had sat wrapped around the drive spindle for all that time. The belt had “formed” around the spindle and hardened.

While I was impressed with the superior acoustic isolation the belt-drive ’table offered compared to a direct drive, I was soured by its inferior durability. By contrast, I also have a budget direct-drive Technics turntable I bought in 1978 that still performs flawlessly.

Regards

Wayne A. Pflughaupt