I did this exact same thing to my 1200 a few years ago, and it’s certainly not a job for someone with no soldering experience. Luckily the upgraded sound is quite large and noticeable in a fantastic way. Great vid. It’s about time someone showed how to do this correctly. I wish I’d videoed my experience. Thanks!
fun stuff & good show. I broke one of the 4 tiny wire / plugs that connect to back of cartridge - ( 73 , clumsy hands is my excuse ) and it didn't have the SME /technics replaceable 2 inch wires... had to do something like this - very crude, no way I was going to remove the tonearm / pivot. and electronic repair shops have gone the way of dinosaur. eventually just ran 4 tiny new wires ( eBay ) along outside of tonearm, wound & soldered them to the cable / rca jacks going to amp. crude but it works. > be very sure to color code the wires. I painted them & put color insulating tubing on the ends where I had the right tubing. WHY they don't use sturdier fittings - din't even have insulating tubes ( at minimum thicker or double insulating tubes over the vulnerable connections. ) and standard replaceable sme / or other head shell......ps I found burning the insulation off using small matches worked better than trying to cut / strip the insulation.... far less chance of cutting 1 or 2 of the very tiny fragile wire. just clean the bare wire with alcohol or other.
I bought the same wire, but why did you use that end of the cable? how do you resolder on the collet part of it onto the pcb of the turtable if you use the tin side for the cartridge side?
Awesome, thx for showing us the way! Going to start tinkering with a cheap player I just picked up in hopes of upgrading/improving parts. Q:Would replacing the wires with a thicker gauge, possibly adding some additional shielding through the tone arm improve the signal from stylus to internal electronics?
The voltage is very low from a cartridge. Increasing the wire gauge will decrease the pressure of the voltage signal. Think of electricity in terms of a trickle of water in a tube. A large tube will produce a weak stream. By contrast, reducing the tube size will increase the water pressure. Look for silver coated wires that increase the electrical conductivity.
do these wires need to be shielded by the ground wires or whats the different between doing this and getting one of those shielded wrapped wires, besides the mate3rial?
Hi i bought a project debut second hand there is a shield missing off one wire. I have buzzing coming from one side of speakers. Would the missing sleeve do this? Cheers
Hi… do the wires need to go back in the same order? I’ve taken the wires off my cartridge head and now I need to put them back as I replaced the tone arm.
@Sami Moursy I would say yes. Otherwise, you'll get either no should or sound on one channel and not the other, best way to test is using a multimeter with a continuity test facility so you know which wire goes to which terminal
I replaced my tonearm cables recently with silver ones and I’ve found the sound is really thin. I know silver cables are meant to sound bright but I’ve lost a lot of bass. Not sure if this is because I’ve done a bad job or it’s the wires
This is the reply I gave to someone else and it should apply to you, as well. The voltage is very low from a cartridge. Increasing the wire gauge will decrease the pressure of the voltage signal. Think of electricity in terms of a trickle of water in a tube. A large tube will produce a weak stream. By contrast, reducing the tube size will increase the water pressure.
Thanks for sharing! Are you sure that you really ned to disassemble whole tonearm for this? Is it possible to desolder old wiring, unscrew front part of tonearm near headshell and use old wires as broach for new one. Not sure that is called broach in English thought
It's best to disassemble the tonearm as there might not be enough play on the wires in the tonearm to pull the cartridge connector far enough away to work on, or even if you could get to the 1mm screws underneath.
Hi there, I have technics 1210 Mk2 turntable, where I'm struggle with a mono sound (only left side) coming out. I tried to change the pickup, then clean the pins with alcohol and polish on the arm, but no success. Plus when try to touch the pickup or the platter with my hand, there is an increasing background noise like when I heard if the ground is not properly set on the mixer. Do you have any idea what is the problem? Thanks!
you could have made the job a little easyer by tieing the leads to a piece of string or fishing wire before pulling the wires out of the tube so you can tie the new wires to it and pull them back through the tube with it when you have finished the soldering, but thanks for the upload need to replace 1 of mine ;-)
Hi, I have a Rega RB101 arm that has a very loud, intrusive hum on both channels. All the wiring checks out OK with a meter. I have tried swapping to a known good cartridge, same issue, so no apparent reason for the hum. Is it just the result of poor quality internal factory wiring? Have you come across a similar issue that has no obvious cause? I have removed the factory wiring so a rewire with a separate ground from the arm tube is starting to look inevitable Would be grateful for any advice. Thanks.
Before pulling it out turn it a little bit so the threaded holes aren't in view then try pulling again 👍🏻sometimes there's a bit of a burr that stops the fitting coming out . Hope this helps.
@@decktech9684 Just got it out! Turns out there was some adhesive/epoxy holding it in so it just needed some heat before pulling. Any reccomendations on where to get a replacement socket? I figured since im gonna be rewiring that I would also replace that. I am working on a Kenwood KD-550 (granite deck)
Man, I thought I had a hair where the tonearm wires connected inside my table so I gently pinched and pulled and shit it was my right ground. Trying to strip these wires is a bitch but I finally got it and re soldered it. A mag glass is almost required with such thin internal wiring.
ye, very tiny, vulnerable wires. I found burning the insulation off with a small match ( matchbook ) worked very well - much less chance of cutting one or 2 of the tiny wires , then just clean the wire itself with alcohol....
@@decktech9684 Quick Q u might be able to help me with? Were does the little black wire go that is nxt to the blue,white,red,green for the tonearm wires on the green board. Hope that makes sense??? (Not the long black earth that goes out with the audio cables) Thanks for any advice.
Cant believe he's used the wires back to front! the tags are meant for connecting direct on to the cartridge pins. If you're going to rewire an arm then may as well by-pass the locking collar joint.
I see that you took the arm tube of the gimbal bearing, I heard that we should never do that as it is machine calibrated and once we turn these screws, we have no chance to get it back as it was done in the factory, and generally it is cheaper to buy a new tonearm assembly than to pay for recalibration. There are some videos on youtube regarding this.
This is a myth to get you to spend a lot of money on a new arm, they were calibrated in the factory to a tolerance and then fine tweaked if needed by eye and balance. So long as the pivot screws aren't over tightened then they can be calibrated to work as good as when newly built.
the tiny screws on the back of the tone arm,are they righty tighty or lefty loosy? trying to snake through wires from bottom and through front of arm-no success. those tiny screws are not surviving.....
@@decktech9684 is there a way to sneak the wires through without disassembly of the arm? tried heating the screws with a hair drier and oiling them,but those suckers won't turn!
@@raycarr225 the best way is to strip it down trying to get the wires through the triangle hole in the base is almost impossible without having it all in bits, as for the screw spray them with wd40 (or penetrative oil) and leave it to soak in before trying to undo the screws 👍🏻
@@decktech9684 the easy way to thread the new wires through the arm is to attach the wires to the old ones and pull them through. Otherwise,removal of the arm from inside the case allows the threading of the wires from behind and under the area where the tone arm pivots/rests from. not that bad of an experience(a pain),but totally avoidable by attaching new to old and pulling through. there are 2 Allen screws under and towards the back of the arm that can be unscrewed to slip the arm off. Thanks for the motivation. sl 1300.
they should make them thicker and attach the rca wire to the wire and would be faster no solder I would used a Nintendo control wires 3 good one ground and left right and used a rca clip hooked no solder I would invent Blu tooth headshell
I did this exact same thing to my 1200 a few years ago, and it’s certainly not a job for someone with no soldering experience. Luckily the upgraded sound is quite large and noticeable in a fantastic way. Great vid. It’s about time someone showed how to do this correctly. I wish I’d videoed my experience.
Thanks!
I also happened to add latex rubber tubing to the inside of my tonearm before sending the wires back in, and it dampens the arm extremely well.
Thanks for sharing. Good tip attach the head shell to the tone arm. 👍👌
I can do this thanks!!! You Just saved me a couple of bucks
fun stuff & good show. I broke one of the 4 tiny wire / plugs that connect to back of cartridge - ( 73 , clumsy hands is my excuse ) and it didn't have the SME /technics replaceable 2 inch wires... had to do something like this - very crude, no way I was going to remove the tonearm / pivot. and electronic repair shops have gone the way of dinosaur. eventually just ran 4 tiny new wires ( eBay ) along outside of tonearm, wound & soldered them to the cable / rca jacks going to amp. crude but it works. > be very sure to color code the wires. I painted them & put color insulating tubing on the ends where I had the right tubing. WHY they don't use sturdier fittings - din't even have insulating tubes ( at minimum thicker or double insulating tubes over the vulnerable connections. ) and standard replaceable sme / or other head shell......ps I found burning the insulation off using small matches worked better than trying to cut / strip the insulation.... far less chance of cutting 1 or 2 of the very tiny fragile wire. just clean the bare wire with alcohol or other.
thank you for the video. i learned what i needed.
Excellent video. Thanks so much.
I bought the same wire, but why did you use that end of the cable? how do you resolder on the collet part of it onto the pcb of the turtable if you use the tin side for the cartridge side?
Awesome, thx for showing us the way! Going to start tinkering with a cheap player I just picked up in hopes of upgrading/improving parts. Q:Would replacing the wires with a thicker gauge, possibly adding some additional shielding through the tone arm improve the signal from stylus to internal electronics?
Yes upgrading the wires would help 👍🏻
The voltage is very low from a cartridge. Increasing the wire gauge will decrease the pressure of the voltage signal. Think of electricity in terms of a trickle of water in a tube. A large tube will produce a weak stream. By contrast, reducing the tube size will increase the water pressure.
Look for silver coated wires that increase the electrical conductivity.
do these wires need to be shielded by the ground wires or whats the different between doing this and getting one of those shielded wrapped wires, besides the mate3rial?
Thank you for sharing this tip. Love your videos. Do you have a link we’re I can order these wires? Cheers from San Jose, California
There's 3 places in the US you could try, Dj Henray Customs, Tonkin's lab and Kab might be best googling them to see which is best for you👍🏻🎚
How long is each wire. There are various options for buying a length of litz cable.
Hi i bought a project debut second hand there is a shield missing off one wire. I have buzzing coming from one side of speakers. Would the missing sleeve do this? Cheers
It could do if it's earthing out on the tonearm tube? Without seeing it it could be a number of things causing it
@@decktech9684 thanks for the quick response great channel
Where to get the replacement wires?
Hi… do the wires need to go back in the same order? I’ve taken the wires off my cartridge head and now I need to put them back as I replaced the tone arm.
Yes, they have to go back in the right order +&- for left and right channels ie red= right ch+ green= right ch- white= left ch+ & blue= left ch-
Would that be the same on all turntables? I am repairing a Stanton str8-150.
@Sami Moursy I would say yes. Otherwise, you'll get either no should or sound on one channel and not the other, best way to test is using a multimeter with a continuity test facility so you know which wire goes to which terminal
I replaced my tonearm cables recently with silver ones and I’ve found the sound is really thin. I know silver cables are meant to sound bright but I’ve lost a lot of bass. Not sure if this is because I’ve done a bad job or it’s the wires
I've not had that problem maybe it's the quality of cables?
This is the reply I gave to someone else and it should apply to you, as well. The voltage is very low from a cartridge. Increasing the wire gauge will decrease the pressure of the voltage signal. Think of electricity in terms of a trickle of water in a tube. A large tube will produce a weak stream. By contrast, reducing the tube size will increase the water pressure.
Hi! The wire needs to be of a specific type or any thin enough one will do? Thanks :)
33awg litz wire is best
Thanks for sharing! Are you sure that you really ned to disassemble whole tonearm for this? Is it possible to desolder old wiring, unscrew front part of tonearm near headshell and use old wires as broach for new one. Not sure that is called broach in English thought
It's best to disassemble the tonearm as there might not be enough play on the wires in the tonearm to pull the cartridge connector far enough away to work on, or even if you could get to the 1mm screws underneath.
Hi there,
I have technics 1210 Mk2 turntable, where I'm struggle with a mono sound (only left side) coming out. I tried to change the pickup, then clean the pins with alcohol and polish on the arm, but no success. Plus when try to touch the pickup or the platter with my hand, there is an increasing background noise like when I heard if the ground is not properly set on the mixer.
Do you have any idea what is the problem?
Thanks!
Sounds like the rca cables need changing and the ground cable checking from inside the tonearm to the tonearm base 👍🏻
@@decktech9684 Thank You! Will do accordingly
In your opinion what is the best brand of cables, and are they shielded?
Tonearm rewire cable kit Pure Silver Litz wires 3 Metres 30AWG 1.2/1.3mm are very good loads on ebay 👍🏻
you could have made the job a little easyer by tieing the leads to a piece of string or fishing wire before pulling the wires out of the tube so you can tie the new wires to it and pull them back through the tube with it when you have finished the soldering, but thanks for the upload need to replace 1 of mine ;-)
though now i watched to the end it didnt look too dificult anyway lol
Hi, I have a Rega RB101 arm that has a very loud, intrusive hum on both channels. All the wiring checks out OK with a meter. I have tried swapping to a known good cartridge, same issue, so no apparent reason for the hum. Is it just the result of poor quality internal factory wiring? Have you come across a similar issue that has no obvious cause?
I have removed the factory wiring so a rewire with a separate ground from the arm tube is starting to look inevitable Would be grateful for any advice. Thanks.
From the sounds of it the internal wires could need replacing and like you mentioned add an additional earth wire to the tonearm tube 👍🏻
Hi champ can you let me know where about's in the UK you are I want mine doing I'm in Essex cheers
Hi Steve, I'm based in Cleckheaton West Yorkshire BD19 3SJ 👍🏻
Hello friend, I have the broken toner arm indoor cables. What is this type of cable called and what diameter can I buy it? Thank you, greetings
30 AWG 5N 999.9 silver they sell them on Ebay👍🏻
DeckTech so these are an improvement from the stock cables ? Better spec.
The socket on my tone arm will not come out no matter how hard I pull, any suggestions?
Before pulling it out turn it a little bit so the threaded holes aren't in view then try pulling again 👍🏻sometimes there's a bit of a burr that stops the fitting coming out . Hope this helps.
@@decktech9684 Just got it out! Turns out there was some adhesive/epoxy holding it in so it just needed some heat before pulling. Any reccomendations on where to get a replacement socket? I figured since im gonna be rewiring that I would also replace that. I am working on a Kenwood KD-550 (granite deck)
Man, I thought I had a hair where the tonearm wires connected inside my table so I gently pinched and pulled and shit it was my right ground. Trying to strip these wires is a bitch but I finally got it and re soldered it. A mag glass is almost required with such thin internal wiring.
ye, very tiny, vulnerable wires. I found burning the insulation off with a small match ( matchbook ) worked very well - much less chance of cutting one or 2 of the tiny wires , then just clean the wire itself with alcohol....
need to do this
I need this doing to my 1200. May I ask were u got the wires from?
The wires were supplied by the customer but there plenty available on the Internet and ebay
@@decktech9684
Quick Q u might be able to help me with?
Were does the little black wire go that is nxt to the blue,white,red,green for the tonearm wires on the green board.
Hope that makes sense???
(Not the long black earth that goes out with the audio cables)
Thanks for any advice.
@@djclish the black wire is the earth wire for the tonearm S tube 👍🏻
Cant believe he's used the wires back to front! the tags are meant for connecting direct on to the cartridge pins. If you're going to rewire an arm then may as well by-pass the locking collar joint.
@mikebradbury7003 you'll find that these collars don't fit the technics connectors, so they were soldered on, then cut down to the right length.
🙏❤️🙏
What gauge are the wires used as replacement?
Pure Silver 99.999% Pure Litz 30 AWG 5N
I see that you took the arm tube of the gimbal bearing, I heard that we should never do that as it is machine calibrated and once we turn these screws, we have no chance to get it back as it was done in the factory, and generally it is cheaper to buy a new tonearm assembly than to pay for recalibration. There are some videos on youtube regarding this.
This is a myth to get you to spend a lot of money on a new arm, they were calibrated in the factory to a tolerance and then fine tweaked if needed by eye and balance.
So long as the pivot screws aren't over tightened then they can be calibrated to work as good as when newly built.
the tiny screws on the back of the tone arm,are they righty tighty or lefty loosy? trying to snake through wires from bottom and through front of arm-no success. those tiny screws are not surviving.....
The screws are all standard right to tighten and left to loosen there's no left hand threaded screws on the decks 👍🏻
@@decktech9684 is there a way to sneak the wires through without disassembly of the arm? tried heating the screws with a hair drier and oiling them,but those suckers won't turn!
@@raycarr225 the best way is to strip it down trying to get the wires through the triangle hole in the base is almost impossible without having it all in bits, as for the screw spray them with wd40 (or penetrative oil) and leave it to soak in before trying to undo the screws 👍🏻
Was going to attach the new wires to old and pull them through(like I rewired home electric)but forgot...oops! Thank you.
@@decktech9684 the easy way to thread the new wires through the arm is to attach the wires to the old ones and pull them through. Otherwise,removal of the arm from inside the case allows the threading of the wires from behind and under the area where the tone arm pivots/rests from. not that bad of an experience(a pain),but totally avoidable by attaching new to old and pulling through. there are 2 Allen screws under and towards the back of the arm that can be unscrewed to slip the arm off. Thanks for the motivation. sl 1300.
Where is the black wire?
they should make them thicker and attach the rca wire to the wire and would be faster no solder I would used a Nintendo control wires 3 good one ground and left right and used a rca clip hooked no solder I would invent Blu tooth headshell