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Marantz update -- for Kevin B. in particular


Larry Kart

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though others can weigh in:

Kevin, you solved the problem by suggesting that it might be caused by a build up of gunk (10 year's worth in my case) inside the amp's volume control ,and that I should try working the control vigorously to see if friction could get rid of some of that dirt/gunk and thus relieve the problem. Voila!

You also mentioned that if the problem recurs, they may have to remove the volume control and clean behind it or even replace the control. Further, you  said that fit the between the volume control knob and the unit itself probably was too tight to make the application of spray contact cleaner worthwhile. Nonetheless, I got a can of CRC spray contact cleaner, figuring that using it could do no harm, and that if it does, the whole volume control assembly might need to be cleaned or replaced anyway,  as mentioned above.

So I sprayed, then dug inside and around volume control with thin stiff pieces of cardboard, and they came away coated with sticky black gunk. Of course, I thought that this seeming gunk might be a liquification of something on the other side of the knob that serves a vital function, but thinking that if it does I might again need to take it in and have the whole shmear cleaned/replaced, I persisted. And what do you think happened after a while? -- the stereo spread/imaging of what I was hearing changed noticeably and for the better -- i.e. the spread was much wider than before, and the location of any particular sound was more precise. I'm not complaining, of course, but how the heck could removing accumulated gunk from inside and around the volume control knob account for that?

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That's great news! While my investigations seemed to indicate that the volume pot was sealed, I wasn't 100% certain. I'm glad to hear that it was able to be cleared out. Don't worry if that black gunk has some lubricant in it. Deoxit is also supposed to lubricate as well as clean so (hopefully) you should be fine.

Now if only I could de-bug my own phono playback problem... distortion in the left channel on every LP I play. Nothing seems to fix it. Antiskate seems OK, VTF is dead on, azimuth looks OK. My tonearm height is fixed so it's not that.

Now I remember why I loved CDs so much when they came out. :)

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2 hours ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

Now if only I could de-bug my own phono playback problem... distortion in the left channel on every LP I play. Nothing seems to fix it. Antiskate seems OK, VTF is dead on, azimuth looks OK. My tonearm height is fixed so it's not that.

 

I had a similar issue a long time ago, and it turned out to be a bad wire on the the cartridge hookup, the wire that goes from the connect up through the tonearm. I'm sure it's got a proper name.

To confirm it's something in that chain, hookup another turntable and see if you get the same problem. If not you know where to look further.

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4 hours ago, JSngry said:

I had a similar issue a long time ago, and it turned out to be a bad wire on the the cartridge hookup, the wire that goes from the connect up through the tonearm. I'm sure it's got a proper name.

To confirm it's something in that chain, hookup another turntable and see if you get the same problem. If not you know where to look further.

I checked the tonearm wires. I reduced the anti-skate to 0 and the problem is significantly better. I still think I may have an azimuth problem. Weird thing is everything was fine until I moved. I unplugged the headshell for the move and just plugged it back in and dropped the needle. But everything seems out of whack. I had to readjust the VTF and now the antiskate.

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