Operation/user manual for Technics SL-1700MK2

In replacement of my 'old' (at most one hour of operation!) Technics SL-QD22 TT from the late 80's I scored a second hand Technics Direct Drive SL-1700 MK2 from 1980 on ebay:



The SL-1700 MK2 (weight 12kg!) is the semiprofessional version of the famous SL-1200 MK2 TT with the same strong motor with quartz PLL-drive and the same arm mechanism.
The complete mechanism (drive platter and arm) is suspension mounted (the SL-1200 has a fixed mounting), and the arm mechanism is semi-automatic (the SL-1200 is completely manual).

The SL-1700 MK2 is esthetically in quite good condition (some scratches on the housing and the plexi cover), most of the buttons need a Deoxit treatment.

The semi-automatic operation originally didn't work anymore, but some googling teached me that the cause is a defectuous cueing belt on the arm/lift mechanism.
This belt is the weak point of the SL-1700, after 27 years it's more than logical that the rubber has worn out.
In the meanwhile I replaced this belt by a little rubber band till I find an original cueing belt.

Finally I will be able to replace the included Stanton 500 cartridge (the SL-QD22 has a fixed Audio Technica cartridge) by a beautiful Ortofon Concorde Pro set that I have laying around for years now:



Nonetheless I have some troubles setting the arm balance and weight (I don't have the owner/operation manual).

My question: Does anyone owns/has a SL-1700 MK2 manual?

Only a torough cleaning, and a cover polishing left, and enjoy my old records...

Happy CD

I had an SL-1800 Mk II, the manual version of that table, 1600 MkII is the full automatic. Very nice table, shoulda kept it.

The tonearm balance is straightforward. Rotate the counterweight until the arm floats at the table level then rotate the scale on the counterweight until the 0 is aligned with the line on the tonearm tube. Check that the arm is still floating at the table level. Then rotate the scale and counterweight to the desired tracking force.

I'm guessing you know all that and are having trouble getting the light weight cartridge to float. I don't know if the 1700 II has an extra weight in the end of the tonearm or not. If it does remove it and try again. If it does not, the cartridge would need more weight to work with this table.

Check the Vinylengine for a manual,

http://www.vinylengine.com/library.php?make=Technics

The vinylengine.com only has the manual for the sl-1700 but balancing the arm and setting tracking force is the same. For the cueing belt, simply go to the hardware store and pick up a rubber "o" ring, 1/16" thick by 1-1/4 or 1-1/8" diameter. That's about 1.5mm thick by 29-31mm diam. That's essentially the same as the original belt and works perfectly.

Regarding your Concorde, be aware that many of these DJ cartridges were designed to be very rugged for DJ use and use very heavy tracking forces. Anything more than 2.5g is really too much for home use.

Congratulations on your new TT. I recently purchased a SL-1700 MKII from my local craigslist. It's in very nice condition and plays beautifully. I'm impressed with the build quality and sound. I don't have a manual but if anybody finds one pass along the info.

BTW, there are bunch of mods for this TT. There is a member here on AK that rebuilds these along with the 1800 MKII. As part of his rebuild he paints the plinths. These TT's look a lot more pedestrian than their capabilities and a nice paint job really dresses them up. :thmbsp:

Thanks for the replies!

I found the SL-1700 (not MK2) user manual at vinylengine.com, it will surely help me with the balancing of the arm.
The arm does not have the extra weight, but it seems to me that the counterweight comes easily loose at certain points when rotating.
I will read the above manual and try again tonight.

Concorde Pro set: Bugger! I didn't realise it's a DJ cartridge.... :bash:
Well, the Concorde cart was a gift, I can probably resell it easily.

Okay then, time to look for a Shure M97xe or another fine cartridge. Any hints?

The paint job (if well done) seems a good idea to get rid of the scratches (mostly due to the missing dustcover rubber dampers).

CD

Does anyone know why on the 1700MKII's there isn't a manual cueing lever but the 1600 and 1800MKII's have one?

Just seems strange that the 1800MKII would have which makes sense being it's fully manual and of coarse the 1600MKII is automatic, but you would think the 1700MKII would have one as well being it's semi-automatic.:scratch2:

Turbokeu said:

In replacement of my 'old' (at most one hour of operation!) Technics SL-QD22 TT from the late 80's I scored a second hand Technics Direct Drive SL-1700 MK2 from 1980 on ebay:

The SL-1700 MK2 (weight 12kg!) is the semiprofessional version of the famous SL-1200 MK2 TT with the same strong motor with quartz PLL-drive and the same arm mechanism.
The complete mechanism (drive platter and arm) is suspension mounted (the SL-1200 has a fixed mounting), and the arm mechanism is semi-automatic (the SL-1200 is completely manual).

The SL-1700 MK2 is esthetically in quite good condition (some scratches on the housing and the plexi cover), most of the buttons need a Deoxit treatment.

The semi-automatic operation originally didn't work anymore, but some googling teached me that the cause is a defectuous cueing belt on the arm/lift mechanism.
This belt is the weak point of the SL-1700, after 27 years it's more than logical that the rubber has worn out.
In the meanwhile I replaced this belt by a little rubber band till I find an original cueing belt.

Finally I will be able to replace the included Stanton 500 cartridge (the SL-QD22 has a fixed Audio Technica cartridge) by a beautiful Ortofon Concorde Pro set that I have laying around for years now:

Nonetheless I have some troubles setting the arm balance and weight (I don't have the owner/operation manual).

My question: Does anyone owns/has a SL-1700 MK2 manual?

Only a torough cleaning, and a cover polishing left, and enjoy my old records...

Happy CD

Click to expand...

You can get the info you need as others have said @ vinylengine as I got the manual for my 1800MKII as well as the service manual for the 1600MKII

Stanton681EEES said:

You can get the info you need as others have said @ vinylengine as I got the manual for my 1800MKII as well as the service manual for the 1600MKII

Click to expand...

Which manual for the 1800? I don't see any manual for the 1800 MK II.

Since the 1700MK2 uses the automation belt, if it had a cueing lever it would activate an automated, motor driven cueing as it does on the 1600mk2, not oil-damped, manual as on the 1800mk2. On the 1700mk2 the button on the front panel operates the cueing the same as a lever would.

Regarding the Ortofon Concorde Pro cart: The Super OM10-40 styli fits perfectly, as does the OMB5E stylus. I'd recommend getting a KAB FD-1200 fluid damper, too. I've got one, and it really makes a difference. Btw, I found the correct sized belt for my SL-1700Mk2 arm in a $1 bag of mixed rubberbands

hakaplan said:

Since the 1700MK2 uses the automation belt, if it had a cueing lever it would activate an automated, motor driven cueing as it does on the 1600mk2, not oil-damped, manual as on the 1800mk2. On the 1700mk2 the button on the front panel operates the cueing the same as a lever would.

Click to expand...

Thanks Howard I've often wondered as to that.............:yes:

Anyone know the "official" size of the tone arm belt in belt length terms;

I've tried rubber bands, they break quickly, and my local hardware stores don't seem to have O rings big enough.

Thanks

1/16" thick by 1-1/4" or 1-1/8" diameter. Try a different hardware store--they should carry it. There is a place online somewhere that sells them for $7, but I'd rather pay 50 cents. I'll try to find out the brand name of the mfr of the one I bought.

hakaplan said:

1/16" thick by 1-1/4" or 1-1/8" diameter. Try a different hardware store--they should carry it. There is a place online somewhere that sells them for $7, but I'd rather pay 50 cents. I'll try to find out the brand name of the mfr of the one I bought.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the cueing belt dimensions, I will try to find a local HW store that carry O-rings.

CD

Bugger, it seems that I can't source o-rings with the correct dimensions locally...
All I can find are metric o-rings (R22, R23, R24) which are 3.60mm thick.

Is anyone willing to send me some suitable British or American standard o-rings?
I will pay all expenses and I have a Paypal account.
Edit: hakaplan is willing to send me some o-rings. What a great service on this forum!

Also I'd liked to replace the original dustcover of my SL-1700MK2.
I found cheap SL-1200 replacement covers here.
The SL-1200 dust cover is less high (with a bubble for the arm mechanism) than the original SL-1700MK2 cover but is IMHO aesthetically nicer.

@hakaplan: Do you know if the locations/dimensions of the hinges are identical between the two covers?

Edit: Stanton681EEES indicated me an even cheaper source for the dustcover here.

CD

The 'American standard' O-rings (5 pieces) in replacement of the original 'cueing belt' are on their way (thanks to hakaplan).

Since the SL-1700MK2 was again dimantled (I had a little problem with the right channel audio output) I used my time to execute some 'mods'.
1st mod: Replace the seven original 5mm red LEDs of the strobo by 5mm blue LEDs. After testing I noticed that the luminosity of the strobo with the new blue LEDs was quite lower than before.
A couple of measurings indicated that the power supply for the strobo LEDs was about +20V, too less for 7x blue LEDs (7x 3.4V=23.8V).
I removed two of the seven LEDs and replaced their location by a wire bridge (5 blue LEDs = 5x 3.4V=17V). Together with the 120R original series resistor the luminosity is now perfect.

2nd mod: Replace the middle 5x2mm green LED of the pitch display by a 5x2mm blue LED.
This was a much more difficult operation as the 13 LEDs (6x red-1x green-6x red) are glued together in a 'holder' and soldered to the control board.
Therefore I desoldered the 13 LEDs, removed the glue, and replaced the green LED by a blue one (+ a hole in my thumb ).
The luminosity of the new 5x2mm LED, together with the original 100R series resistor, was eyeblinding.
First I tried a 470R resistor, and then a 1K2 resistor.
Much better but I 'feel' that 2K2 would be perfect.

I'm not keen to dismantle everything again for that little 2K2 resistor, I will wait the repainting of the aluminum upper chassis (hint to the color: http://www.motip.com/index.php?page=30&id=51&lid=709).

Enough talking, let's see some pictures!











CD

PS: Afterwards I searched for about a hour why my auto return/auto stop feature didn't work anymore.
The 'auto return on/off' push button was simply turned off...

PS2: On the second and fourth picture you can see some scratches in the silver painting. This is why I intend to repaint the TT.

:thmbsp: I've done the same with an SL-1200Mk2, and have been wondering if it would look good on a SL-1700Mk2. Sure did!
Btw, I just scored the same type Concorde as you've got really cheap on eBay (without stylus). I'll put a NOS OM40 stylus on it

Is the Concorde a DJ cart/stylus? if so, you probably should opt for something else, since they usually have a high tracking force and are probably spherical.

The five spare o-rings from hakaplan arrived well this morning (thanks hakaplan!).

I ordered a new SL-1200 dustcover from www.1200s.com.
I hope that the little anti-scratch rubber dampers in both the front corners of the cover are included (I'm missing one on the original cover, cause of some scratches onto the silver paint of the chassis).

I also ordered a real SL-1700MK2 Service Manual ($16.99) from www.manuals-in-pdf.com.
The link to the download page should be sent to me shortly (delivery in about 10 days).
The SL-1600MK2 Service manual was a great help but there are too many differences with the SL-1700MK2, especially in the PCB layouts/component locations, mainly because of the full automatic functions on the SL-1600MK2.

This weekend I will start the sanding/painting job on the aluminum upper chassis.
Therefore I have to dismantle the SL-1700MK2 completely as all electronic boards (except for the motor drive board) and the frontpanel are located on the upper chassis.
I will take a lot of pictures to help me in the correct rebuild (especially for the cabling and type/location of screws) after the paint job.

The colour that I bought for the repaint job is a pale metallic purple from the 'Special trends' series from Motip.
I hope it wil turn out very nice.

CD

lplover said:

Is the Concorde a DJ cart/stylus? if so, you probably should opt for something else, since they usually have a high tracking force and are probably spherical.

Click to expand...

It is a DJ-cart, but I'll be using an OM40 stylus on it. I also have the KAB fluid damper
Check this link for a review of a similar combo: http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/technics_sl1200_2_e.html

I use Shure M44- and M35-series cartridges for DJ applications, the DJ-Ortofons are infamous for ruining records!