I installed a new tonearm and audio cables and now have poor sound quality!
I recently replaced my tonearm, rca’s and internally grounded…my sound quality is crappy now…and my soldering skills suck but everything is connected.
Do you think I should assume its bad soldering? Its not much of a hum or popping just poor quality while playing the music…any thoughts?
PS: I used new car audio cables, do I need to remove the ends of the new cables and do something at that end too?
Thanks all!
Im working with Technics 1200 m3d
First, crappy sound = ??
distorsion, low output but clean, only one side, …
If you have a multimeter, check the connection from RCA to tone-arm pins
I presume it’s the soldering, did you tin the tonearm wires before soldering ?
Always use fresh solder on the pcb, remove the old one.
Don’t use to much solder, the
Just try again and stay calm, test before you assembling the rubber base.
To connect new RCA cables, you need to cut the male plugs on ONE side.
Then you need to remove the rubber shielding to expose the coper grounding wire/mesh.
This you connect to the side of the PCB connection
The core of the RCA is the signal, that wire you connect to the center of the PCB connection.
(see picture below)
Good luck !
Ps. sorry for my bad English
PSS. the correct connecion is this one:
yeah, got to use new solder and be patient… for some reason I always end up with 20/16 readings L/R for my outputs…fresh solder, new wires, new tonearm, one side is always slightly louder BUT sound is good
Thanks for your responses!
I havnt had the chance to open it back up but Im going to consider my issue being the solder.
I only touched the iron to each point till it liquified enough for my wire to stick, no new solder etc.
I think im going to re-do my work but will clean all the old solder off the pcb then go ahead and resolder with fresh solder…what kind of solder are you using?
Thanks again, really appreciate your advice!!
Nick
ps: Ill upload some photos shortly
Thanks Johnny,
the sound quality is slightly quiet but Id say its more like the mids and lows arent as punchy as they should be…
I also noticed, on my mixer that only one side of the lights only light up unless I crank the gain way up…
I may try to resolder my audio leads first, with prayers I dont have to tamper with the tonearm wires again…Ill get up a photo of whats been done so far
you have to use new solder, I got mine from radio shack…you can get buy on the rcas with a sloppy solder but not with the tiny cards tonearm wires…those are more tricky…I always desolder and rid all the old solder, cut old wire end off and use fresh wire, presolder board and wire, then it’s cake b/c solder joins with heat
[quote=“DjLiquitATL, post:6, topic:49838, username:DjLiquitATL”]
you have to use new solder, I got mine from radio shack…you can get buy on the rcas with a sloppy solder but not with the tiny cards tonearm wires…those are more tricky…I always desolder and rid all the old solder, cut old wire end off and use fresh wire, presolder board and wire, then it’s cake b/c solder joins with heat
[/quote]
So those photos are of my first attempt. I still have to buy the stuff to remove the solder, then I can make my next attempt…see how I did that “internal ground mod” I wonder if that’s incorrect also?
You internal grounding is connected correct, but the soldering is ‘not so good’ to stay polite
Remove the old solder with solder wick and start again with fresh stuff.
You did it right when the solder stays shiney after going solid again, test you solder on quality and try to use the best soldering iron/station you can find/buy/borough.
Stay positive, notting so rewarding when things are finaly working like they should and you DIY
But I still think you first need to messure the current connection, to be shure you not fixing what ain’t broken…and start looking elsewere.
yeah, it takes a little practice…it’s always easier to prep your wires first, again, I always twist the -R and ground cable together when internally grounding the deck… once all the old solder is off the board I put brand new solder on the board without connecting the wires…then, it’s as easy as applying heat for a ms to connect the wires… you don’t want to hold iron for too long b/c you could mess the board up with the solder getting too hot…
you can look up pictures to show you how it should look
