Thanks for the knowledge and the laughters. I'm going into changing my RCA cables for the first time and needed confirmation that I could just internally ground it.
This definitely works and I've done it for people but personally I've never had a problem with leaving the ground wire as is on my personal turntables. A professional that spends good money on their also professional gear should take their time connecting and disconnecting leads as it takes less than 30 seconds! My 1200's were purchased in 1999 and are still nearly factory fresh and another buddy got his in 1994 and are also in great condition!
I agree that there is no “need” to internally ground a 12. Most that do it travel with their gear to gigs and would be the o my advantage to it as the ground wire does not handle that type of industry use very well. I agree that if your set it and forget it there is simply no reason.
Been debating internally grounding my technics, I'm just gonna go ahead and do it I use them for gigs and it would totally help with the carrying them from venue to venue and not have to worry about that frail wire
@@MrTechnics1200s update, I internally grounded my tables it took me no more than 30 minutes to do both, and no problems at all in sound quality, (not that I doubted you) just sharing in case anyone was on the fence.
@@JuanChavez-pc5rw Thanks for coming back and following up to let other know. Glad you noticed the sound quality was great and there is no issues with Internal grounding. Enjoy the freedom.
I have 2 technics 1210s that have been internally grounded and I’m using a new xone 96 mixer and I am still hearing buzzing and humming noise. Any thoughts to what could be the culprit?
Would need a lot more info. Did you buy them internally grounded? Did you do it yourself? I would first replace / check your cables from your mixer to your other peripherals such as amp or powered speakers. Then I would separate your mixer and turntables in regards to where the power cable is plugged into the wall. If you are using a power bar separate the turntable to another outlet. Another thing is to remove the headshell and clean the pins and inner outside ring of the headshell connector on the tone arm. Use Dexoit or cleaning lubricant and a q-tip. Hope that helps and let us know the results.
I think alot of people asking this question are serato users , in serato setup there's a calibration screen, I would like to see a side by side of self ground verse mixer ground with the calibration screens .
I've got an old Technics turntable on which I want to replace the old original RCA cable whose leads are directly soldered to the terminals inside the unit just like yours. To this end, I bought high-end brand new QED RCA cables ; so far so good, but problem when I cut both cables I noticed that are not two (as 'traditionally') but three separate wires in each cable sheath, and I have no idea how to solder these 6 wires tho the four-terminal circuit board of the tonearm. Question : Is it a good idea to wrap the 3rd group of wires (i.e. those without insulation) around one of the two others before soldering it together to the negative terminal ? Many thanks, Cheers from France sorry for bad English
Yes take the 3rd wire and wrap it with the negative and solder it to the negative pad of the pcb. Soon you will have nice sound and enjoying your baby as it should.
Wondering why this theory doesn't work on high end vintage preamps like Audio Research, Krell, Revox, McIntosh, etc ? Logically it should work, but there's a hum on those high end preamps. Maybe there's GND loop back circuitry on H/O preamps ?
This is a good point and would only happen in vintage gear that does not have a common ground (connected) inside the unit your plugging into. In this case a ground wire would be required. I rarely suggest internal grounding to Audiophiles that use older gear. (example: Vintage Gear like Tube Amplifiers etc).
What happens if you do this mod but you end up getting a hum as soon as you turn on the table? I grounded it to the right side Rca cable ground instead of the left because it was closer.
Are you sure the component (example Amplifier) you are hooking your turntable up to has continuity internally from the ground post to the Negative of the Female RCA?
@@MrTechnics1200s Thank you for the response. I believe my speakers and my mixer both have the internal continuity for the ground. I come up with the conclusion that my voltage transformer is going out. It's the original one from 1983 so I'm guessing it's old. I still have to troubleshoot to make sure but this is what I'm lead to believe. Thank you again.
So instead of soldering GND wire onto channel negative on 1200 pcb, why not just put the tip of GND wire on neg of RCA plug ? There's continuity anyway, right ?
The point is to remove the wire from exiting the turntable. To hook up the ground wire to the negative rca plug would be just as easy to hook it up to the ground post and would defeat the purpose. Having said that yes it would work if done carefully. Cheers.
Agree 100%! Ground in an "electrical system" is infinite! This is one of the reason one can "ground" a negative line in an automobile to any part of the vehicle's metal chassis,...or any metal piece connected to the vehicle's metal chassis!
7 лет назад
Great video, thank you very much!. There's no many videos with enough quality to see details. Will be possible a video showing how to re assemble a complete tone arm (antiskating, PCB, calibration...)? It'll be interesting! Thank you again!
Mr. T!! I have been pulling my hair out with a ground buzz. Inspired by this video and took the ground wire off the grounding plug on my preamp (Yaqin MS-23B RIAA) and wrapped it around one of the negative RCA inputs on the preamp and WALLA! Complete Silence! THANKS a million... how much is one's sanity worth anyway!?!
I hear many audio pros saying that the signal strength will suffer from an internal ground ( amongst other things). Care to elaborate on this? I myself would assume te manufacturer would not include a part that increases their production costts if it were not necessary.
Thanks for the question. Its a great question. Well let me start by saying that the Technics 1200 mk2 was in fact Internally grounded when first manufactured and was that way for many years. I can post a link of the picture showing this fact. Only later did they change that and no longer internally ground the mk2 and models that followed. This was not due to signal strength as signal strength does not suffer nor does quality. The reason they changed it was due to some older peripherals / amplifiers not having a common ground within them. Remember we are talking about 1980s units. In other words the negative of the RCA and the ground post (on the amplifier for example) was not connected within the amplifier thus requiring a separate ground wire. Now remember the 1200 / 1210 was originally produced for the audiophile / home use and not for DJ's so rather then exclude their main intended audience they changed it so that everyone would be trouble free. Since then technology has changed and almost every singe unit produced in the last 30 years has a common ground thus making the Internal ground modification a solid option if inclined. Having said that I still do no promote audiophiles to Internal Ground as they typically have a diverse and endless need to change gear and upgrade sometimes going back in technology to generate better sound. For example some have reverted back to tube amplifiers giving a much richer bottom end. A lot of tube amplifiers from that era do not have a common ground thus it would crate an issue and force them to go back to ground wires and removing the internal ground. As for DJ's regardless if playing vinyl or (obviously) using a sound card internally grounding has zero signal loss. I hope that helps clarify reality & facts against hearsay and so called "pros". I have seen particular "pros" stating what you have suggested and sadly they are either uneducated or simply a "purist" or a inexorable. IF what you have suggested would have an ounce of truth I would not be in business as I have sold Thousands of Internal Ground kits and installed countless to raving reviews. Have a look online and you will see. Cheers and thanks for the question. Remember to check out our site. www.technics1200s.com
Here is that link to the Stock 1200 MK2 the way Technics Engineers Designed it with Internally Grounded RCA's. Cheers!~ www.technics1200s.com/images/original.jpg
@@MrTechnics1200s this looks exactly like my 1200ii when I open it up to investigate a hum issue but there is also a ground wire which is connected to the black wire tab and it runs with rca to the amp I thought it may cause a ground loop if i connected it but does not seem to make a difference whether I connected it to phono pre’s ground post or not, so I just got rid of it instead. However there is still a faint hum in the right channel if I crank up the volume to insanely high but not much noticeable at normal listening volume, same as before.the other 1210ii of mine, a newer version with ground wire separated from rca negative doesn’t have this issue.
Only one side is grounded. As for unplugging the rca… you should always have your levels down when plugging or unplugging rca cables to protect your speakers.
@@technicsmelancholic6289 you are not protecting anything by doing that. In fact by doing both you will cause what is called “phasing”. Look that up and take one ground side away. Trust me only do one.
@@JohnDoe-uq3mx Sounds like someone at some point has internally grounded your turntable and did not remove the ground wire. People think doing this will help with grounding as if the internal ground will fail. This is not true. You should not be getting a reading unless it is internally grounded. Are both negative giving you this reading? (Red & White).
The ground wire in the standard setup is responsible for grounding the chassis of the deck, with a wire connected to a post by the pitch fader. The separate thinner black wire that is connected by the RCAs grounds the tonearm assembly as the contact points on the pivot of the gimbal are very small and could conceivably pose an issue. The RCA negatives are tied to ground inside the mixer, but without modification, the RCAs do not ground the rest of the chassis. The idea of the internal ground is therefore not to ground the signal, but to ground the entire device, since it is the difference in potential energy between them than creates a buzz. Same reason that a potential buzz could be introduced if the deck is modified to take 3 prong AC with ground and the ground wire is used into the mixer, or an internal ground is used.
They were originally Internally grounded by Technics to start with. After some time they realized that some peripherals (I.E. tube amplifiers) did not have a common ground within the units. For this reason and not to exclude potential customers they produced the external ground wire only units from then forward. That being said there have not been any peripherals made in the last couple of decades without a common ground. Why Technics has not switched back to internal grounding is a good question but to be honest leaving it with an external ground wire works with all so it is a safer way on the grand scale for sales and less trouble shooting. Remember they are trying to sell to the masses and not just DJ's. Hope that explains it.
Hello Georgie. This video was showing how internally grounding works. We sell products (rca pcbs and rca kits with internal ground pcbs) and have install instructions for those products. Check out our website at 1200s.com.
Why does Technics put the ground wire on if it's not necessary? Not questioning your conclusion, I'm just trying to understand the reasoning for the cable.
Hello Marcus. Great question and no offence taken to it. It is actually a logical question which I am sure many have had in the past. Back when Technics engineers designed the 1200 (1970's) they had to look at the market they were targeting. Home Audio was their market and given the components they would be hooking the 1200 up to (for example a tube amplifier) not all had a common ground within that unit. So internally grounding the turntable was not an option considered due to the variety of equipment the 1200 would be connected with. In other words for the internal ground to work the unit / sound card / pre amp / mixer / amplifier must have a common ground. (Ground that connects the Ground wire pin & the negative of the female RCA jacks in the unit). As I am sure you know the 1200 was never intended for DJ use which is another reason Technics engineers even over the last few years never gave this any consideration. Technology has changed whereas the 1200's have always stayed the same. Most if not all units that one would hook their 1200 up to being sold today have this common ground so the Internal Ground is of little concern. Where you may run into an issue and it is a slight chance is if you are hooking your Internally Grounded 1200 to a older tube amplifier which does not have the common ground inside it. In this case I would not recommend it to a client however this is less then 1% so it is very rare. Most if not all of the issues that arise from Internally Grounding a 1200 is workmanship or parts. If you have someone that is not experienced in soldering or purchases a PCB board from someone other then technics1200s.com they may run into problems due to inferior design. Also several upgrade Tone Arms many of which audiophiles install onto 1200's (example: Rega) come set up for internal grounding. I hope that helps.
Wow, thanks for the detailed explanation. I came across your video as I searched for a solution to a problem I've had since I bought my 1210 in 2009, which is that I'd get a buzzing sound unless I fiddled around with the ground wire connection to my pre-amp. Any slight movement and it'd come back. I use this for home playback, I'm not a DJ, so I don't move it around or anything, but you couldn't even dust around it without having to readjust and hope you could get rid of the buzz. I was never sure if the pre-amp grounding was faulty or the ground cable on the 1210 was the issue, and I wasn't very keen on taking my (then) brand new 1210 apart. 8 years late I guess finally got fed up enough to do something about it. After watching your video I tried just holding the turntable's ground connection against the outside of the RCA cable connections and it wouldn't buzz, so that helped me determine the issue was in the pre-amp somewhere. I finally took the pre-amp apart this weekend and discovered the connection for ground is through the chassis, but the chassis is painted. They did scrape some paint away, but not enough to guarantee a good connection. I scratched more paint off with a flathead screwdriver and it's good to go.
Glad you solved the issue. Ground issues are common and sometimes a pain to figure out for most. Although we solve a lot of them via our Internal Ground kits keeping your ground wire and making sure it works right as well as making sure what your plugging it into is also important as you pointed out.
