I picked this tt up cheap at a garage sale. It powers up and looks to be in fine condition except for one thing. It's missing the connector cable between the tonearm and the amp plugs. Any suggestions?

congrats JRSmith, I have KD-650, but the KD-750 looks to be a much nicer looking machine! :thmbsp:

I picked this tt up cheap at a garage sale. It powers up and looks to be in fine condition except for one thing. It's missing the connector cable between the tonearm and the amp plugs. Any suggestions?
Well we've been having a rather long discussion on turntable cables. I'm still testing various ones, but I have found that video component cables work the best for turntables because of decent shielding and low capacitance. These continue to amaze me for the price:

http://www.sjgreatdeals.com/pet10-5012.html

They come in groups of three. Cut them in half and you have enough 6' interconnects for three turntables. If you're like most of us here, you'll be picking up more turntables in the future, and they might need cable replacements. Or, just use one cable and cut it in half to make a single set, and use the remaining whole 12' interconnect for other components if you need one that long.

Thanks for your reply, Howard, but the problem is more than just the cables. The one thats missing has the connector pins to connect to the base of the arm.

Oh, you have a job ahead of you. Go to vinylengine.com and download the users manual from the library section. A service manual would be helpful, but I think this can be done without it. It looks like the connector to the tonearm is a 5-pin female DIN. All Electronics carries it:

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/DIN-5F/search/FEMALE_5-PIN_DIN_CONNECTOR,_IN-LINE,_LOCKING_.html

You'd have to wire it to the loose ends of the RCA cables, and include an additional ground wire for a total of 5 connections.

First some detective work. You need a multimeter set to Ohms, or a continuity tester. Place one lead on a pin inside the tonearm at the headshell end. Place the other lead on each of the DIN pins until you get continuity. Repeat this to determine which DIN pin goes with each tonearm connection. Looking at the tonearm pins at the headshell end, they are arranged as:

Left Signal.......Right Signal
Left Ground .... Right Ground

Then you have to wire each interconnect signal wire and signal ground (shield wire) to the female socket that corresponds to each DIN pin. The remaining pin is for the separate ground wire.

And then you have to make an additional ground wire for the turntable chassis as shown. Good luck!

You can buy them also, but they are not cheap. Not sure why -- they used to be.

I should add -- given the steal you got on a fine table, you shouldn't hesitate about getting an interconnect. Incidentally, is the arm on the table a Kenwood, or something else?

Nicer than the KD-650?

Geeeezus, JRSmith, you must post some pics. That oughtta be something.

You can buy them also, but they are not cheap. Not sure why -- they used to be.

Any idea where to buy? This table is beautiful, very heavy. The arm appears to be the original. I took a couple of pictures but cannot get them to upload.

You will find interconnects that terminate in a 5-pin DIN socket on one end and adapters that convert two RCA plugs to a 5-pin DIN socket, but I highly doubt you will find one that includes the additional ground wire for the 5th pin, because this was a proprietary item made only by Kenwood for this turntable. There is also no guarantee that the other four pins are wired the way Kenwood wired them. If you or Nat do happen to find one that is not specfically designated for this Kenwood, I would make absolutely sure it's wired correctly before simply plugging it in.

I'm surprised by Hakaplan's comment. The tonearm connects that I have seen all have a ground wire -- I assumed that was the point of the 5th pin in the connector. If they don't, I imagine that they are simply grounding the table through one of the cartridge grounds -- Thorens used to do this, so maybe it is ok. But for the prices they go for nowadays, hold out for the seperate ground model.
You can find them on ebay under tonearm, both in the auctions and from stores that advertise at the bottom of auctions. But if you are going to buy one rather than make one up, one of sponsoring companies at the bottom of the scroll might be a good place to get one.

Though a quick look doesn't reveal any tonearm interconnects from sponsors. If any have them, I hope someone will speak up.

I'm surprised by Hakaplan's comment. The tonearm connects that I have seen all have a ground wire -- I assumed that was the point of the 5th pin in the connector. If they don't, I imagine that they are simply grounding the table through one of the cartridge grounds -- Thorens used to do this, so maybe it is ok. But for the prices they go for nowadays, hold out for the seperate ground model.
You can find them on ebay under tonearm, both in the auctions and from stores that advertise at the bottom of auctions. But if you are going to buy one rather than make one up, one of sponsoring companies at the bottom of the scroll might be a good place to get one.
Well, Nat, I hope you're right. It'll sure save him a lot of work.

Him? Assume much?

There are a couple of tonearm interconnects on ebay now, and as I suspected, they aren't cheap. The cheapest is BIN at 85 bucks, 'ultimate silver' and you can pay almost double that for Zu cables. There are also a couple of other possibilities. You need to check whether you need a male or female DIN plug -- almost certainly I think you need the male plug, but shine a flashlight up the bottom of the tonearm and see what is needed. As pointed out, if you can solder, you can make up an interconnect for vastly less, though if you go for silver wire and fancy plugs etc. you could manage to spend a fair portion of that 85 bucks.
I'd go the homemade route, but I'm cheap. You could easily justify buying a madeup set based on how little you spent on the table -- you'd still be way ahead.

Him? Assume much?

Where are you located? If you're local, I'll make you a set for the cost of materials. If you're not local, if I can find the pin assignments I'll do it. And if I can't find them, hopefully they're in the service manual. I've got plenty of Belden 1505F low capacitance, well shielded cable and gold RCA connectors. I'd just need to get that DIN socket. PM me if you're interested and we'll work out details.