Unexpected issues with Rega planar TT, a respectful manufacturer product?

I tried this a few times and magically it worked, at least some solution, thanks!

As to changing the direction without nudging, this seems does not happen

@williewonka  

Thanks for your post! I did not think that this model was so old and so many improvements could have been made by an end user. You did an impressive job! Perhaps, Rega will say you thank you someday, and you may thank the God that He gave you the opportunity to learn, but not Rega for their poor job. I would not trust an audio company that does not give technical support, and put that cheap cables, parts inside their products. I bought this model because I liked the design and was not looking for something really good. But I did not expect that it can be so poorly made and with no technical support. What is then their "life-time" warranty? 

I am not really interested in improving this TT, i would be happy if it were just doing its job. The RCA terminal has no visual damage. While powered on, i tried to move it but there was no sonic response in the speaker (there is barely noticeable constant noise in the channel). So now i am in doubt now if it is really the cable or something less easily detectable inside the box. The leads to the cartridge look fine. 

Now i am also doubting more that it is the cable. Yes I checked all four leads by a tweezer, they are tight.  Its a Rega carbon cartridge.

It's a good puzzle...

Thanks guys indeed.

I will try to get a bit more inside of this perhaps the video can be helpful. There are 4 wires leading to the cartridge, white, red, blue and green. How they match with two channels?

Thanks Steve!

I swapped the channels on the cartridge and the signal now comes from the other channel (the earlier silent one). So the problem cannot be the cartridge. I understand that it can again be in RCA terminal or one of the two cartridge leads of the right channel, or somewhere inside the box. The second option is very unlikely because all four wires look fine. 

I may try to change the RCA terminal but then I guess it may lose the warranty if it exists at all. 

I didn't check the video yet. 

Guys, i should be missing something. The signal may be coming out of a single channel/wire. If I swap the channels the signal from the working channel will move to the other channel, while the other channel will remain silent. So if, after swapping the wires/channels on the cartridge  the problem moves to the other channel, then the cartridge is potentially able to reproduce both channels, so the problem should be in the silent wire. In what precisely am I wrong? 

By the way, the problematic right channel is not completely silent. A barely auditionable  signal accompanied with some noise is coming out from that channel. 

Thanks again guys for your posts. 

Nodari

I still think it’s cartridge related. Second guess would be a bad tonearm wire. One other check you can do is try to flip the channels by swapping leads and connecting the cartridge left ch to right and right ch to left. See what happens. If the problem moves to another channel, you most likely have a failed cartridge. If you have another cartridge you can try it would help. 

This was a very good suggestion, thanks!

I agree with @knock1 - it’s the cartridge - because you have observed a signal coming out of both left and right channels - it cannot possibly be the wires

 

 

 

 

Thanks for this note that made me check my logic.

Yes, since I didn't change the channels in the phono input and both channels sounded in the two opposite settings, the wires of both channels should be fine (the same right  channel that did not sound, it  worked when the signal came out from the cartridge to that channel, and this happened because the channels were swapped on the cartridge - the left channel signal now went through the wires of the right channel). 

Perhaps, since likely it is the cartridge, it is not the worst outcome.

But how the cartridge got broken after just 20-30 hours of use?

I have to look for a new cartridge, would you have any suggestions for P2?

Thanks Steve again. 

Each time i play an LP i realize that this is the sound. But i do not have many well-recorded LPs and i think there are less well-recorded LPs than CDs. A few well-recorded LPs sound better for me than the corresponding CDs, but most of the music i like are better recorded on CDs (jazz, classic and even many rock albums). And it is a bit too much care one should take for LPs also changing sides every 20 minutes and hearing noise caused by LP scratches etc.  

The dealer from which I bough the TT has replied. I asked him if the cartridge can be replaced.  I will also try to move the stylus. The $95 cartridge on the page looks like one I have. 

Hi guys!

The problem with my turntable is settled.

@audphile1 your suggestion that it's cartridge was important. The first time I discovered the problem was with my new SET tube integrated amplifier. First I thought it's the amplifier. When I understood that  it was the turntable, my first thought was that it it's the RCA cable because the way how it looks.  I did not think then about the cartridge. 

@williewonka, your note that by removing and reinserting the cartridge something can be changed, pushed me to try this. I watched the video (thanks again),  these operations turn out to be not difficult.  I removed the stylus and it was not difficult to see that among the two ends of the styles which connect the the stylus with the   wires, the one corresponding to the right channel was not in the right position - it was bent further to one of the extremal positions. I just bent it to the middle position symmetrically to the end of the left channel. 

That "simple", which unlikely would have been possible without your help

Before that, just yesterday I ordered AT3600L cartridge after watching the video that compares it with the original Rega carbon cartridge, which costs about three times more and unlikely is better  (thanks @knock1 ​​​​). The delivery takes at least one month but there is no urgency any more!

According to my understanding, Rega just cloned the Audio Technica cartridge and is selling them three times more expensive with an attractive carbon name. The particular Rega carbon cartridge i have is close to defective, although I was able to correct the position of the right end of the needle, this was at the cost of disbalancing the position of the needle itself towards the platter, it is not now strictly horizontal (i was afraid to force it too mach not to break it). 

Goldring can be a better cartridge but I am not sure if there will be a tangible difference for most of my LP s which recording quality is not very good (there are a few really well recorded LP s from more than handed LP s i have currently; even jazz sounds better on CD s in my system - i did a careful comparison of a few of them, just recent comparison i did on the modern jazz quarter blues on Bach). For me,  in digital, DAC/CD player is important but more definitive is the recording quality itself. You spend thousands of dollars on a better DAC/transport and you get less improvement than between two well and not so well recorded CD s. I guess something similar happens with TT cartridges. 

@drbond , no i didn't. The cartridge in fact was defective, the stylus was not in the symmetric position which was the main issue.  The stylus could not been dirty or something since I used it too little. I think that it's better to avoid any cleaners whenever this is possible. Do you use it?

@audphile1 , Time has passed since the last communication. Just a small question. You sad that you replaced the original carbon cartridge on Rega 2 with Goldring E3. I got some new LPs and thought that it may make sense to try a better cartridge. Are these two 100% compatible, i.e., is some adaptation required to replace one by the other?