Welcome to the 'Audio Sanity Channel'. As the name of the channel indicates, we aim to bring a bit of sanity to the audiophile world with honest opinions, solid technical background and a dose of irreverence toward the big names and audio gear-worshipping that is too diffused nowadays. Subscribe to the channel, and leave your honest opinion and suggestions in the comment section. Enjoy the music!
Glad that it helped. If you want to use the same harness the link to the shop is this: www.thevinylsource.co.uk/product-page/sme-3009-3012-rewire-kit-extra-low-capacitance-cable-full-litz-wiring Cheers Mark
Thanks for this video. It makes it easy to replace the cable. But the kit is quite expensive for me. I need some time before replacing it. Best regards
I was surprised to find out after ordering an Arc Protractor for my TT15S from you that I’ve watched this video a few weeks ago. The Protractor looks great, thanks.
Very informative video thank you. I have a question about the black ground wire as the model I have seems to have a black wire at the top of the top of the detachable head which is attached to a V shaped bit of metal that is pushed in to the arm. I guessing this has the same effect?
Hi Different manufacturers use different methods to ground their tonearms, a metal clip inside the arm tube is quite a common method. Best regards Mark
Maybe in England still have the "Biliton" soldering wire 60/40 NOT THAT CRAP WITHOUT LEAD . Use it ! Otherwise there is some liquid flux in small bottles with a tiny brush. Cover the end of the wires BEFORE TRY TO TIN IT ! Good luck
I don't use solder with silver instead of lead, that was, and is, designed to be used by plumbers to avoid water contamination and never was meant to be used for wire soldering, but the 'high-end' audio dealers sell it for a premium... That's the audio market today. Cheers Mark
@@TheAudioSanityChannel-ym7ij I'm engineer in electronics. Bilitone and Multicore LMP are THE BEST for Hi-End (after almost 50 years of experience) . With your permission of course
Hi I never recommend anything that I didn't extensively use myself. However, I can give you some advice: 1) Avoid insanely expensive cables, all in all are all made from copper and rubber. 2) If the seller advertise unrealistic features, use words just to hypnotise the buyer or that the cable has a sound, steer clear. 3) Use a section no larger than 14 AWG, that's enough to carry nearly 1000W of musical power 4) Make sure that you are buying OFC and not CCA cables. Enjoy the music and keep you bank account in good standing. Mark Sinclair
Hi, thanks for the tutorial, unfortunately when I removed the old cables, I accidentally removed the ground wires too 🤦🏻♂️ I can see there were two, where do I ground these to inside the arm?
Hi One of the grounds is connected with the internal horizontal bearings with a copper alloy clip, but it has been proven to be irrelevant in ter of humming. The second one is inside the arm tube; you must remove the arm tube releasing the two retaining screws at the end of the armtube close to the pivot. Removed the armtube you will find a alloy steel clip where you need to solder the new ground. Hope it helps. Mark
Great conversation and channel. Just one little thing, your dialog audio is very low. Can you please bring it up a little so the next thing I click on does not blow my spaekers? There is a standardized level for dialog using the LUFS scals. You can get the SPAN plugin from Voxengo (which is free) to set this. If you need any help, I would be happy to advise. Cheers
Thanks. Indeed, the audio isn’t good because Joanna’s microphone failed and I had to manage removing the stereo and trying to make the best of a failed video. Nevertheless, I will follow your suggestion for the future Cheers Mark
Sorry for the late reply. Indeed, the only supplier of these belts confirmed that are discontinued. Thin rubber belt won't work, is needed a rather strong timing belt with 1mm pitch.
I know, SDI has a reorder of 14 weeks from several months. We stocked some belts time ago and when the workshop will end those, as long as SDI continue to be out of stock, then game over.
???? what tension? Please explain. I rewired and replaced the bias belt in around 200 Rega R200 tonearms and I cannot figure out what you mean by 'tension'
To remove the plastic base you have to remove the armtube and the yoke. To do so you, first, have to remove the brass but visible inside the main pillar after you removed all the wiring. This nut not only keeps in place the yoke/armtube compound, but it works as an adjustment nut for the tension and the vertical play of the two bearings responsible for the horizontal movement, proceed with care. Hope it helps Mark
Hi If you need a tutorial for rewire your Rega R200 (the only S shaped tonearm from Rega) the video is here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Hr2Zbq1iwDQ.html A range of rewire kits for all Rega tonearms is available here: www.thevinylsource.co.uk/ under the 'Shop' tag. Best regards Mark
I watched your video when you mentioned Cardas doesn't make silver tonearm rewire but i was on Analogue Seduction website about 3 weeks ago & they had i think it was called Cadas incognito silver but not for my Rega 303. When i asked if they were getting some for Rega they said the man who use to source them had passed away. Just now after watching your video i looked on Analogue Seduction site & suprise no silver wire , strange. I wasnt aware of Cardas not making silver tonearm wire kits but because Analogue Seduction never had silver i purchased Cardas copper rewire kit. Good video. Victor O'Gorman.
Hi Victor I must disappoint you, but Cardas does not, and never did, manufacture rewiring kits for tonearms. They have a line of Mdin-terminated cables instead. The 'incognito' rewire is not manufactured by Cardas and there is no guaranty that there are Cardas wires inside visit or contact Cardas if in doubt. In the HiFi market there are too many BS teller that are borderline, or often straight into, scam or fraud. Here what Josh from Cardas wrote to me time ago: 'What often happens is that people buy our connectors, such as our cartridge clips and/or our DIN connectors, and then attach them to wire from another source. Then they very conspicuously (and somewhat misleadingly) use our name in their listing, in an effort to get clicks. Since they are using Cardas connectors, eBay does not consider this to be a trademark violation' Mark
Thanks for this very well done video. I purchased the Cardas copper wire tonearm rewire kit & your video I believe is the best. I'd also like to say people like yourself make it possible for me & others to have a go at these jobs & save some money as well. Thanks for spending time for other people's benefit. Victor O'Gorman.
Definitively The Vinyl Source doesn't sell recapping kits. Recapping is a time consuming process and the set of caps is different for each model of amplifier. On top of that a professional desoldering station is recommended to minimise the risk of damages to the printed boards.
That arm will now track worse in the vertical plain as the cable is too thick at the knife bearing. You can get right-angle RCA connector blocks for the cable connectors at the bottom of the can, these allow you to solder your wires to the back of the RCA connectors so that you can use RCA cables, use silver solder. the wire to use from the RCA connectors is Litz wire that you feed through to the head-shell, because the Litz wires are so thin they do not give any restriction to the arm's vertical movement improving vertical tracking and the detail retrieved from the vinyl. when carrying out this work use PTFE lubrication to lube the knife edge bearing as this also improves vertical tracking by making the initial movement nice and free due to less stiction, you only need a very small amount and I found the spray type to be the better version as its very thin lube. Get a test record use it and then do the mod, you will find vertical tracking is better when playing the test record after. the Litz wire is difficult to work with as it's so thin but this will also give you an improvement, it's a win win win.
What can I say? If you go on eBay for The Vinyl Source you will find at the moment of writing 46 sold rewire services with this wires, and more than 100 kits and this is just a fraction of what we sold because circa 70% of the rewiring jobs come from our website and are not recorded on eBay. I think that our record says that we are right.
At the moment there is a shortage of those belts even my supplier in the US (SPD shop.sdp-si.com/catalog/product/?id=A_6B18M140030) has a lead time of 14 weeks and they don't supply any spacer. Be patient soon or late they will be available again
Hi I had my tech install a new wiring kit on my Rega rb250 but the tone arm sticks. It won’t freely go down on its own even when I put the counterweight all the way in. I have to gently coax it down but even then it’ll go back up and skip. It looks like the wires are bunched up near where the counterweight stub goes in. Could that be causing the issue? Just so I know when I go talk to him. I love your channel! Thanks! And if you want pics of what I mean I’m not sure how to share them here.
Hi If the wires are bouncing against the inside of the armtube is easy to check, remove the counterweight stub and have a visual check. It might depend on the quality of the rewiring kit, there are some nasty products out there made with cheap stiff wires unsuitable for tonearms.
@@TheAudioSanityChannel-ym7ijthanks for the quick reply it was the ISO Kinetik Kit with the litz wiring similar to yours. Do you have an email I can email you a video of what’s happening so you get a better idea of what’s going on?
very useful video & explanation… I have series 3 and although many elements are different, key parts are similar - plastic pin plug and balsa damping - so I have learnt important lessons! many thanks 😊
Beautiful work. I'm keeping my R200 in the exact same spot just to get some more life out of it. It really needs a rewire but I don't have your steady hands. Thank you for making the video.
Indeed, the R200 is a brilliant tonearm even for today's standards. If you aren't confident to go for a rewire by yourself you can use this service www.thevinylsource.co.uk/product-page/rega-r200-rewire-service or this if you need to have the Bias belt replaced as well www.thevinylsource.co.uk/product-page/in-site-rega-r200-rewire-and-bias-belt-replacement-service Cheers Mark
If it ain't broke don't fix it. Worked on electronic equipment for 40 years and had to replace 6 electrolytic caps. Some of these failures of electrolytic caps in newer equipment is from using cheap caps and under rated voltage . Most electrolytic caps I replaced were in power supplies and not in any signal path.
Great video and 2 questions if I may please . The first is , I have the SME 3009 with detachable head-shell and how do you know which pin to put the correct colour wire to ? The second is , as this is now an old tonearm with such a small signal going through it would the wire deteriorate and would it benefit from having new /better quality cabling ? Many thanks Steve
The SME wiring of the headshell connector is a standard for most of tonearms with detachable headshell, you can find some info here www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?t=59309 The quality of original wires of vintage SME tonearms is not great, and with time non-OFC copper oxide and the conductors begin to brittle, rewiring with modern OFC copper wires greatly improve the sound quality. Hope it helps Mark
Thank you for the prompt reply Mark, I think this will be my first step in upgrading my system. Although the soldering pest is what’s worrying me plus how to remove the detachable head shell socket from the tone arm .
This video could be easily presented in 5 minutes nonetheless its content is very informative for us and I appreciate it for sharing your knowledge.. Thank you.. you have a new subscriber
Thanks for your comment. The old wires are extremely thin, and after 50+ years, the copper is brittle because of oxidation. Sometimes, the copper is so compromised that it melts under the soldering iron A new solid draw wire is a safer option. Cheers
Yes! a painstakingly put together resume of domestic music reproduction; where we've come from and where we are now enjoyably presented! during the period when vinyl was being driven out by the marketing behind CD and some other digital formats it was both sad and frustrating to see listeners deprived of such an excellent source of home entertainment and it was many years before CD players reached a stage of development that enabled them to offer a serious alternative and bizarrely, CD has now been usurped by streaming, an even more inferior format! so many listeners apparently drawn in by convenience! Having said all of that, is exceedingly satisfying to see that we were right all along (!) and that vinyl has returned, sales are recovering and with it, hopefully, a return to all of the beneficial aspects that you have described!
With exotic stylus, using ortofon test record to set anti skate for cartridges is very weird. For example, AT540ml cartridge tracking at 2 grams passes all test setting antiskate anywhere between 1-2 mark, but sound cleanest at 2. But when I play records it sounds dull, lifeless and occasionally distort. Using my ears, I settle at 1.25 and I can feel the music flow naturally and the sound stage just lock in. With Vm95c tracking at 2 grams, the ortofon disc distort if I increase anti skate beyond 1 mark on the scale, which sound alright playing real records. Have you encountered similar situation, any insight or suggestions is most welcome. By the ways my turntable is Yamaha GT-2000.
Sorry to hear that you have problems setting your anti-skating. All I can guess is that you have some nasty resonance triggered in your tonearm. Anti-skating test are made with the help of over-modulated tones, usually around 300 Hz, that seldom can be found in musical information in a vinyl record. I'm generally against overly complicated tonearms (I can be wrong though) because internal resonances cannot be predicted and tamed. I suppose that the over modulated tone is triggering internal resonances, maybe in the same anti-skating mechanism, and distorting the sound during the test, since those over-modulated tones are unlikely to be present in the music, in real life condition the system is working fine. My educated guess only. Cheers Mark
I totally agree with your comments on us old guys and vinyl from the 50's and 60's. I don't play any of my RGM Sound collection on the hi-fi because it sounds terrible unless you mimic a juke box by having a pair of speakers close together. However, when it comes to the likes of Zeppelin, Floyd, Rory Gallagher, jefferson Airplane etc etc etc I have heard backgound stuff I never heard before and overall in a much richer way than I ever did as a skint teenager.
Indeed, the same is for me. Back in the days we hadn't the experience, the gear and, maybe, the will to get deep into it; but now we can fully appreciate the dedication and attention of details that those great bands had back then. Enjoy the music. Mark
