Hello everybody,
I posted this on the VPI and Vinyl Engine forums a few days ago but so far no response. I'd appreciate any advice you guys might have.
I've had a V2 Traveler for several years now and I love it. Great turntable, simple, sounds great and looks cool. However just this week, while trying to resolve an issue with subsonics getting to my speaker woofers (flapping), I noticed that my tonearm wires' insulation was cracked on all the wires right above the lemo connector, see photo. I hadn't seen it before because I think it was partially covered by the clear plastic sleeve that's right next to the connector. You can actually see bare wire. Not good. I thought maybe it had something to do with being so close to the lemo, a stress point, but I noticed that the insulation was cracking in other places along the loop on at least tow of the wires. So I emailed VPI and they replied right away that I could send it to them for a rewire for $250 plus shipping. I guess that's not too bad a price but right now I can't afford it. So, since I have a lot of free time right now and since I've been doing quite a bit of DIY electronics over the past few years, mostly with the Nelson Pass projects on diyaudio.com, and as such have the tools etc, and I also did a rewire of an old Dual turntable for my son a few years back, I thought I might try to do the rewire myself, maybe even take advantage of it to use some "high end" wires. Anyway this weekend I looked into it and got stopped almost right away. I pulled out the plugs that hold the wires in the tonearm tube at the cartridge end and behind the gimbal end. On the gimbal end the wires go through what looks like a black heat shrunk elbow, see photo, which doesn't want to come out of the hole easily. The wires seems really loose in there but I don't want to try to force that elbow through the hole; I would like to snake the new wire through the tube by using the old wires. Also, I'm assuming the black ground wire is attached to the tonearm assembly somewhere inside the arm and I'm not quite sure how I could access to that. I could always just run a new ground wire but I'd like to do this right and looks nice. So I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to access that better. It looks like you could try to remove the arm tube from the ferrule but I don't see any screws that hold the two together although they could be just glued together and maybe a little heat would separate them. I 'm being careful to put registration marks on the pieces beforehand so I can put them back together without affecting the azimuth. Speaking of azimuth though, when I was taking the wire plug out on cartridge end I could feel some play between the headshell and the arm tube. I'm hoping I'll just need to tighten the Allen screw that holds them together.
One last question: I have already removed the lemo connector but it doesn't look that great anymore; once those plastic ones are put together it's hard to get them apart without mangling them. It looks like it's a 5 pin mini DIN plug and I've already found a plastic replacement online but I thought I might as well upgrade it a bit and put a nice metal one on instead like the higher end VPI tables. So I'm just wondering if anyone has a link for a metal lemo connector.
Sorry to be so long winded. I would really appreciate any advice.
Thanks
I posted this on the VPI and Vinyl Engine forums a few days ago but so far no response. I'd appreciate any advice you guys might have.
I've had a V2 Traveler for several years now and I love it. Great turntable, simple, sounds great and looks cool. However just this week, while trying to resolve an issue with subsonics getting to my speaker woofers (flapping), I noticed that my tonearm wires' insulation was cracked on all the wires right above the lemo connector, see photo. I hadn't seen it before because I think it was partially covered by the clear plastic sleeve that's right next to the connector. You can actually see bare wire. Not good. I thought maybe it had something to do with being so close to the lemo, a stress point, but I noticed that the insulation was cracking in other places along the loop on at least tow of the wires. So I emailed VPI and they replied right away that I could send it to them for a rewire for $250 plus shipping. I guess that's not too bad a price but right now I can't afford it. So, since I have a lot of free time right now and since I've been doing quite a bit of DIY electronics over the past few years, mostly with the Nelson Pass projects on diyaudio.com, and as such have the tools etc, and I also did a rewire of an old Dual turntable for my son a few years back, I thought I might try to do the rewire myself, maybe even take advantage of it to use some "high end" wires. Anyway this weekend I looked into it and got stopped almost right away. I pulled out the plugs that hold the wires in the tonearm tube at the cartridge end and behind the gimbal end. On the gimbal end the wires go through what looks like a black heat shrunk elbow, see photo, which doesn't want to come out of the hole easily. The wires seems really loose in there but I don't want to try to force that elbow through the hole; I would like to snake the new wire through the tube by using the old wires. Also, I'm assuming the black ground wire is attached to the tonearm assembly somewhere inside the arm and I'm not quite sure how I could access to that. I could always just run a new ground wire but I'd like to do this right and looks nice. So I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to access that better. It looks like you could try to remove the arm tube from the ferrule but I don't see any screws that hold the two together although they could be just glued together and maybe a little heat would separate them. I 'm being careful to put registration marks on the pieces beforehand so I can put them back together without affecting the azimuth. Speaking of azimuth though, when I was taking the wire plug out on cartridge end I could feel some play between the headshell and the arm tube. I'm hoping I'll just need to tighten the Allen screw that holds them together.
One last question: I have already removed the lemo connector but it doesn't look that great anymore; once those plastic ones are put together it's hard to get them apart without mangling them. It looks like it's a 5 pin mini DIN plug and I've already found a plastic replacement online but I thought I might as well upgrade it a bit and put a nice metal one on instead like the higher end VPI tables. So I'm just wondering if anyone has a link for a metal lemo connector.
Sorry to be so long winded. I would really appreciate any advice.
Thanks
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If your woofers are flapping then the only complete cure is an effective subsonic filter. I've done a bit of work on them.
Attempting to alter the cart/arm LF resonance is not likely to help much.
Attempting to alter the cart/arm LF resonance is not likely to help much.
I saw your other post. It looks to me like physical damage to the insulation, not insulation cracking from degradation/failure. The damage could have happened before the arm left the factory or later during dealer/user setup. I would have recommended a surgical repair of the damaged area, but it sounds like your train is already running down the track for a rewire. The nature of the damage may help you decide who to trust for doing the rewire.
Ray K
Ray K
Thanks Douglas, yes, I think I will have to look into a filter. What’s weird is I didn’t have that problem before and in the meantime I changed my rack so that could it. I’ll try to figure that out once repair the tonearm wire. I’m wondering though whether my headshell being just slightly loose might have something to do with it. I didn’t know about it being loose until I removed the tonearm to inspect the wiring. Thanks again.
Thanks Ray K,
I actually was going to try to just touch up the wires somehow but when I looked up close I noticed that that some of the strands of wire were broken as well so I’ve opted for the rewire.
On Friday, I just went ahead and pulled the wire out through the cartridge end. I had a piece of 22 gauge wire attached to it. Just to see if it would work, I pulled some mouse wire through the arm, soldered some clips to it and mounted a cartridge and it actually sounds pretty good. I’ll have to figure out how to attach a ground wire to the ferrule; there was a tiny hum without having the tonearm grounded. So I’ve already ordered some new Cardas tonearm wire and a new mini din connector. I’ll post my whole process here once I get all the parts. I’m taking pics along the way.
Thanks
You'll find what I believe to be the most thorough treatment of subsonic filters ever in Chapter 12 of Electronics for Vinyl. I very much hope that people will try out the more advanced versions based on elliptical filters; these can be -3dB at 20 Hz and -60 dB at 10 Hz. Virtually no mathematics required. Only two dual opamps required per channel. Docile with good component sensitivities.
I would be very glad to hear of anyone's experience with these filters.
Try setting the turntable on a different, solid surface and see if it's gone.
It's better to eliminate the problem at the source, rather than put on a
(filter) band aid.
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