A few months ago I 'won' a Technics SL-D303 turntable at that evil-auction-site-which-shall-remain-unnamed. It had a problem with broadcasting motor noise which was picked up by every cartridge I tried on it. As a pattern I am not one to pursue repairs on electronic components. Disappointing results with warranty repairs on a number of VCRs and DVD players over the years drove me to that state of mind. However, this turntable on a subconscious level seemed to beg for another chance at life. Posting for advice on a number of websites proved futile as nothing helpful materialized. After several days of web searching I found a nearby Technics certified repair shop whose proximity saved me from the risk of shipping the piece someplace far away. I took the turntable to the shop and returned home to await the diagnosis. When contacted I was told that several bad capacitors in the motor circuit had been replaced. When I got the turntable home I tried every cartridge I had and found that only my Grado Blue still picked up the motor noise all the time, but at a lower level than before the repair. My 1980s vintage ADC Integra XLM-III picked the noise up faintly at higher volume levels, but everything else I have is dead quiet. I have my Shure M97xE on it now and it is delivering more high frequency presence and imaging detail than it did on my AT-PL120.

I'm probably not allowed to mention the shop whose efforts saved this turntable from a watery existence at the end of a boat anchor chain, but Mr. and Mrs. R., on the long shot that you read this, thanks again!

It's great that you received satisfaction in the end. I'm curious, did you originally post on AK about the problem?

Yes, I did mention it under the title "Troubled SL-D303". You did offer suggestions which I tried but the noise problem persisted. Replacing the capacitors apparently fixed the noise problem for most of my small collection of cartridges.

There was a remaining issue with the tonearm trying to go out and drop onto an empty platter if the turntable was started automatically. That problem has also "gone away", but until I know what I did is safe for public discussion I'm going to keep that to myself. I'll try to send a personal message to explain.