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TECHNICS 1200 MK5 - new model (pg. 3)
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| PaulCorgan |
| no, i think its a different one. other colors |
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| JohnSmith |
| i think it's the same slipmatt, just has the blue light shining on it. |
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| DJ Mikey Mike |
| quote: | Originally posted by Dj Thy
It's pretty easy. Under the platter is a plastic cover. Remove the plastic cover, you'll see a blue pot on the circuit board with PITCH written near it. Clockwise turning : increase pitch range. Counterclockwise : decrease.
Use with moderation. Keep in mind your pitch will be less precise. It has to cover a larger pitch difference on the same fader distance. |
inded good point.. altho.. ive been told by a friend that most technics (especially bought in the UK) are callibrated to "factory settings." In other words.. If i slam the pitch on 8% its more likely gonna be somewhere around 6% So how can i officially callibrate my Turntables. I havnt yet looked under the platter to see if there is nething obvious thats gonna allow me to do this, but i wanna callibrate them so they are dead on, balls accurate of what they shud be. Is this possible?
Mike |
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| Dj Thy |
Well strictly spoken, no. I must admit that if you have a Technics that has the perfect pitch (regular progression to 8% on both sides) you have a collection item. Even when calibrated well, there still will be fluctuations.
Now to calibrate your Techs the best possible way, you'll have to open them up from the bottom also (I do this once a year).
First a little explanation, it might be a problem, it might not, depends from deck to deck. Pure Logic. In fact there are two 0% points on the pitch slider... There is the quartz locked one, that is unmovable unless you tamper with the quartz system itself. That one will almost never cause a problem. But if you think logically, there is a second 0%. Let me explain. Your pitch slider goes from -8% to +8% (let's assume this is right). So if you think a little bit, there is bound to be 0% somewhere in the middle, no?
On a factory deck, and a well calibrated one, both 0% points will be superposed, you will only notice one 0%, at the point it should be.
But, on some occasions (and believe me this problem isn't so rare), there will be a slight difference on the location of both 0% points. That problem usually manifests around the quart lock (duh). I'm sure some of you guys already had the experience of you make a very fine adjustment around the click and it doesn't seem right. Like for example you are pitching up, and when looking to the strobe dots, they move backwards first. You pitch even more up, they come to a stop, and then only start moving forward (the other way around is true also). This problem gets worse if you tweak the pitch range, as you expand the scale, the problem will expand also.
How to calibrate? Well first things first, if you want the real 8% scale, like I said on most TT's it will still fluctuate. So what most repairers do (I had to repair/calibrate Techs when I worked in an electronics/dj shop), is use the +6% dots as reference. Those little dots should seem to stand dead still on +6%. Using those dots to calibrate will ensure you you'll have about the 8% pitch scale, close enough. So first let's try to set the pitch scale so it behaves right at +6%. For that you use that blue pot on the PCB under the platter with pitch written near it, called VR301. If you wanna set it to "factory default" you'll need a frequency counter. The default value is 262.08 kHz. Most of you don't have this, but you don't need it. You just want to adjust it until the +6% dots stand still on +6%. Be as acurate as possible. You may notice that the -3.3% dots and +3.3% dots don't really stand still at their respective speeds then, that's the fluctuations I talked about, nothing to worry about, it's normal on most decks.
Of course some people will already have this setting, but I must admit most new Techs I saw had a slight drift. The better for you if it's good already for you.
After you done that tweak check around the quartz lock. Go from a negative pitch value to a positive pitch value in a slow, smooth motion, while looking at the large strobe dots.
Ideally they should move backwards at first, smoothly go to a full stop, and then smoothly speed up. SMOOTHLY. If they stop two times (the second zero problem) or stop for a long time and then have a pretty jerky speed jump, you'll have to tweak another potentiometer, but this one is at the bottom side of the pitch PCB.
To reach that one, secure or remove all loose parts (tonearm, adaptor, needle). Place your TT upside down on a pillow. Remove all the 21 screws on the bottom (those placed in two concentric circles, so not those around the rca wiring) and the 4 feet. Then gently remove the rubber base.
Once you've done that, search for the underside of the pitch slider. On that circuit board you'll notice a little hole. Through that hole you can adjust that pot, VR302. This is the one that will adjust the center pitch, so basically that second 0%.The factory default is 2.7 kOhms (measure with a multimeter), but I've found a value of 3.25 is usually better. Every TT is different (resistors are rarely perfect), but I find the right settings are usually around that 3.25 .
Anyway, if you don't have a multimeter, it's trial and error time. Tweak, turn around and test (you don't have to put the bottom back each time), if it's not good, tweak again, test... Until you found the best setting.
If you tweaked it, it's always safe to check if the +6% setting you did before is still right, it might have changed when you adjusted the position of the 0%. If it changed, adjust until it's right again, and check back. Once you did this, your pitch is calibrated as good as it can.
While we are at it, you may have noticed that near the pitch scale potentiometer is another pot with BRAKE written next to it. I wonder what that one is for :D
Again optimally, the platter should stop dead in an angle between 90 and 120 degrees. I said dead stop. Not having a fast brake and then slowly running out, or having such brake it stops and starts turning back again. Dead stop. Try this with several records on the platter, with the needle on different spots, 33/45 RPM, different pitch settings. All those settings will have some minor effect on the brake. But you should aim at a setting where 7 times out of 10 (at least) it stops dead on any setting.
Hope this answer was helpful... |
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| JohnSmith |
wow, nice post thy.
I got brand new techs, i think i am gonna leave em like they are.
first thing i did when i got em was check that the 3.3, -3.3, and +6 dots all stayed still at those speeds.
they were all perfect as far as i could tell! |
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| DJ Mikey Mike |
| quote: | Originally posted by JohnSmith
wow, nice post thy.
I got brand new techs, i think i am gonna leave em like they are.
first thing i did when i got em was check that the 3.3, -3.3, and +6 dots all stayed still at those speeds.
they were all perfect as far as i could tell! |
thanks a lot for taking the time to write that Thy.. I appreciate the help..
Now to make an even bigger newbie out of myself. Could someone explain to me how to use the dots pls?
thanks
mike :) |
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| New Wave |
Sorry to bring this one up but i realyrealyrealy want to ship those tables into my room very seriously...
Anybody know some englisch pages where I can see prices and stuff? |
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| Acid John |
although the mk5g's look great....i probably wouldnt pay more than $500 for one.
if they cost more, i'd just pick up some discounted md3s
:happy2: :D :toocool: |
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| New Wave |
I got some information about this deck.
Maybe next month they will be in the States.
Price is maybe 1000 US dollars :eek:
Check information:
www.sl-1200.com |
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| DVS |
| quote: | Originally posted by New Wave
Price is maybe 1000 US dollars :eek:
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each!? that :rolleyes:
expect it should go down in time tho.. |
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| DJ Cubano |
you know you could modify your tech's to be exactly like MK5's and it will cost you less then one of those things :). I'm thinking about it...I'm thinking about it....
Armando :p |
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