Technics SP-10 mkII speed adjustment question


Hi,

I'm on my way to complete my Technics SP-10 mkII project. Actually, a friend of mine, a professionnal audio technician, is working to upgrade the PSU, which is done but a small adjustment on the speed must be done and he need some cue on this issue.

We already asked Bill Thalmann, Artisan Fidelity and Oswald Mill audio. Plus, I'll post on DIY Audio today. We'd like to get the answer as quickly as possible to finalized this for the week-end. Hope someone on Audiogon can help.

Here's the message from my technician:

"Hello,

I'm an electronic technician and I do repair for audio equipments, vintage, hifi pro and more. I have a client here that brought me his turntable Technics Sp-10 MKII to fixed. I have a little question about it and he gave me your email because he pretended that you have some experience with this kind of materiel. So, hope that you can response my technical question.

I replaced all capacitors in the power supply and a big solder job. I checked for defect solders or capacitors on the circuit boards inside the turntable and I tied to do the adjustments . Everything seem good right now, the turntable work fine. I tried do do the period adjustment with the VR101 and VR102 potentiometers like in the service manual ( see attachment, Period adjustment method). When I looked the stroboscope at the front of the turntable, It's pretty stable but I can see a tiny rumble at 33 1/2 and 78 speed. 45 is the more stable speed for the stroboscope. So, I fixed the phase reference with T1 at 18us of period and I try to do the period adjustment at the point test T and S on the board with the O point for reference. When I put my scope probe on the T point, I can observe the stroboscope running. It is not stable at all. If I pull off my probe, the stroboscope is stable again. So When I have the 2 probes at point S an T at the same time to do the adjustment, it's impossible to fixed the wave T because it going right to the left on my scope. When I turned the VR101, the T wave going faster or slower but never stable. I tried to ground lift my scope, plug it into the same power bar and try to pull off the reference at the O point. I can't have a setup that I can see a stable T wave in my scope with the one that I can do the right adjustment. Why? Is there a problem with the turntable or maybe it's a incorrect probe or ground setup? Please let me know what you think.

Best regards"

Thanks for help,

Sébastien
128x128sebastienl

Showing 7 responses by sarcher30

IMO the cu-180 is way better than the Boston Audio mat1 in my system. The Boston mat is good but the cu-180 blocks EMI coming from the motor. Also IMO it is not too heavy for the SP-10 mk2. In fact the extra weight may be a benefit. I think it smooths out the speed a little. The cu-180 definitely lowers the noise floor compared to the Boston mat.

Sonofjim, Have you tried the cu-180 in your system? If you had I would be surprised if you did not like it.
Lewm, The cu-180 is 4 lbs. I had the same concerns about too much weight affecting the servo in a negative way. In practice this is simply not the case. If anything it's affecting it in a positive way.

I had some TI Sheild that I put under my Boston mat. TI Sheild is very springy stuff. If it's not perfectly flat it will not lie flat unless you have a heavy enough weight on top. The Boston mat is not heavy enough. A heavier mat negates any weight saving advantage. It is conceivable someone could get it flat enough to work but it's very difficult. I ruined the TI Sheild I had messing with it. I could get some more and try it under my cu-180 and see if there is any improvement.

Will your stainless steel mat from your Kenwood fit on your SP-10 mk3? That would be an interesting experiment. I believe Albert Porter is using a SS mat on his mk3.
From what I found online it looks like Micro Seiki went out of biz in 2001.

It must be a copy.
Lewm, Fair enough. I like what I'm hearing and will stick with it ;).

I don't see any harm in experimenting with it if you care to.
Sonofjim, Thanks for your input. I have changed back and forth a couple of times between the cu-180 and BA-1 and still prefer the cu-180. Maybe I should try the BA-2 one of these days.

Lewm and Sonofjim, Do either of you guys plan on having Bill Thalmann do the latest mods on your MK3 like Albert Porter has recently done? I wonder if Albert has changed his prefence of mats after the mods were completed.

Sean
Lewm, Cool. Thanks for the additional info on the mod. I understand Bill is working on introducing a similar mod for the mk2 according to Albert.
Sebastien, Glad to hear you like what you are hearing. I was just as surprised as you when I got mine. Enjoy.

Sean