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Technics Tonearm Rewire

Aerobat

Aerobat

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After researching this site and others and exchanging some emails with Scott Thompson, I decided to bite the bullet and try a tonearm rewire. I used Cardas wire and a mini soldering pen.

Here I unsoldered the wires from the board and tied on a nylon fishing line.
 

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Here's the wire pulled through the tonearm base and out of the tonearm. Then the Cardas wire is soldered to the tonearm collar. This was nearly a disaster when the blue wire broke off several times.
 

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Finally, the collar is pushed back in to the tonearm and the wire is pulled back and soldered to the board. Continuity is checked all the way through and also checked where it shouldn't be -- all looks good!

Upon playing a record, the tonearm was pulling hard back to the rest - so hard the auto function didn't work. The Cardas wire is quite a bit stiffer than the stock Technics wire, which is almost like hair. Pulling the wire back out of the base solves this problem for the most part, but it still pulls a bit near the leadout groove.

Lessons learned? First, get more than a foot of wire! Next time, I'll get 2 feet to have some extra to work with. The stock wire is 11 1/2".

Next, get wire with clips crimped to the end so it doesn't have to be soldered to the existing clips inside the tonearm. This was messy and difficult.

How does it sound? Ummm...with my ears and my modest system, I honestly can't tell. But no harm done, and the experience under my belt!
 

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Hi,

I tried this on my old SL-220.

I also wanted to replace the cable so I bought low capacitance cables and cut it to the appropriate length and now getting into the same area the lighter gauge original cable was a pain. Then the traces came off the PCB when soldering the new cables on.

Might as well finish it off.....

When I removed the headshell socket from the tonearm tube, I noticed the pins that make contact with the headshell had springs and the wires were crimped onto clips and the clips kept the springs from pushing the pins out completely.

So I'll pull the clips off the pins and solder the cardas wire (I bought 2 feet, lol) to the crimped part and cut the old wire off. The clips DON'T release. The crimps are so close together I bend it a little so I can work on it and it breaks.

It has been sitting in a pile for some time now! Panasonic doesn't sell just the headshell socket with the clips not wired and crimped.

Maybe someone has an ides? The PCB I can fabricate something as I have plenty of 2 oz copper board.

That headshell socket dilemma shut me DOWN!

Thanks!
 
Bummer :( But his is not a job for the faint of heart - it's finicky stuff, but I guess if it works it's cool :)
 
KP11520 said:
Hi,

I tried this on my old SL-220.

I also wanted to replace the cable so I bought low capacitance cables and cut it to the appropriate length and now getting into the same area the lighter gauge original cable was a pain. Then the traces came off the PCB when soldering the new cables on.

Might as well finish it off.....

When I removed the headshell socket from the tonearm tube, I noticed the pins that make contact with the headshell had springs and the wires were crimped onto clips and the clips kept the springs from pushing the pins out completely.

So I'll pull the clips off the pins and solder the cardas wire (I bought 2 feet, lol) to the crimped part and cut the old wire off. The clips DON'T release. The crimps are so close together I bend it a little so I can work on it and it breaks.

It has been sitting in a pile for some time now! Panasonic doesn't sell just the headshell socket with the clips not wired and crimped.

Maybe someone has an ides? The PCB I can fabricate something as I have plenty of 2 oz copper board.

That headshell socket dilemma shut me DOWN!

Thanks!
Click to expand...

You might try what I did.
I wired mine (direct from rca board mounted on back) through the holes of the head socket. I pulled those pins, pushed the wires through. Switch carts isn't as speedy as it were, but show me very many High-end tables where you swap heads in a couple seconds. I am direct from cart to jacks.
 
Not a bad idea if push comes to shove and a better design actually! Thanks!

I just picked up a Yamaha YP-D6 the other day from CL, so that's where I will direct my attention until it's optimized!

golana said:
You might try what I did.
I wired mine (direct from rca board mounted on back) through the holes of the head socket. I pulled those pins, pushed the wires through. Switch carts isn't as speedy as it were, but show me very many High-end tables where you swap heads in a couple seconds. I am direct from cart to jacks.
Click to expand...
 
im looking at the tone arm on my restoration project right now... im afraid i need a new tone arm, but the cardas seem fine.. all are attached and whatnot.

i think im going to just order a new tone arm first, try that out and if it doesnt work, then get new cardas and do what you did.

question though... i found 2 VERY tiny bearings had fallen out when i started looking at the inside of the tone arm base. are these from the counter weight, maybe? i dont see anything that looks like it would need bearings otherwise.
 
schufflerbot - can you post pictures of what fell out of the tonearm base?

FYI - the stock wire in the arm is not Cardas. "Cardas" is a manufacturer of high end audio accesories and components. Their tonearm wire is widely regarded as being one of the best upgrades you can perform on arms with the stock wire intact.

KAB uses Cardas wire in their upgrade - they replace from the bayonet where the headshell screws in to either a Cardas DIN plate at the bottom of the arm or a plate that mounts on the back of the table with female RCA's. I believe KAB keeps the PCB board at the base of the arm in place when doing the external RCA plate to act as strain relief when mounting it. I'm not sure about that, I've only had tables from them with the Cardas DIN plates - the PCB is removed when using the DIN plate. They charge about $170 for the service.

Applied Fidelity uses Cardas wire in a continuous run from the bayonet to to a set of male Vampire Wire RCA's. I've got a table that was done by them as well and prefer their method. The external wire is nicely shielded and dressed and, to my ears, it's the best sounding of all the SL-1200 wire mods. It's considerably more expensive at $295, but worth it in my opinion.


Cardas Wire

Applied Fidelity
 
slate1 said:
schufflerbot - can you post pictures of what fell out of the tonearm base?

FYI - the stock wire in the arm is not Cardas. "Cardas" is a manufacturer of high end audio accesories and components. Their tonearm wire is widely regarded as being one of the best upgrades you can perform on arms with the stock wire intact.

KAB uses Cardas wire in their upgrade - they replace from the bayonet where the headshell screws in to either a Cardas DIN plate at the bottom of the arm or a plate that mounts on the back of the table with female RCA's. I believe KAB keeps the PCB board at the base of the arm in place when doing the external RCA plate to act as strain relief when mounting it. I'm not sure about that, I've only had tables from them with the Cardas DIN plates - the PCB is removed when using the DIN plate. They charge about $170 for the service.

Applied Fidelity uses Cardas wire in a continuous run from the bayonet to to a set of male Vampire Wire RCA's. I've got a table that was done by them as well and prefer their method. The external wire is nicely shielded and dressed and, to my ears, it's the best sounding of all the SL-1200 wire mods. It's considerably more expensive at $295, but worth it in my opinion.


Cardas Wire

Applied Fidelity
Click to expand...

ahhhh, ok - thanks for the clarification.


here's a pic of what fell out - 3 bearings... VERY small.

DSC_17534.jpg

DSC_17524.jpg
 
Boy, those look just like the tiny balls used in the tonearm gimbal pivots of my Dual 704. I don't know if your arm even uses ball bearing pivots - hopefully those are from somewhere else.
 
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