UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Powered By Google Custom Search Vintage Radio and TV Service Data

Go Back   UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum > Specific Vintage Equipment > Vintage Audio (record players, hi-fi etc)

Notices

Vintage Audio (record players, hi-fi etc) Amplifiers, speakers, gramophones and other audio equipment.

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools
Old 13th Jan 2014, 8:20 pm   #141
Station X
Moderator
 
Station X's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4, UK.
Posts: 21,192
Default Re: Pye Black Box

OK. In post #65 you were advised to connect the wires going to the amp PU sockets to pins 5 and 6 at the bottom. No mention of the other tags.

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...4&postcount=65

I still don't understand where the second red wire disappeared to and where the green wire came from. No matter though.

How many wires/screens were originally routed through the tone arm?

Is the cartridge mono or stereo?
__________________
Graham. Forum Moderator

Reach for your meter before you reach for your soldering iron.
Station X is offline  
Old 14th Jan 2014, 10:47 am   #142
kevinski
Retired Dormant Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, UK.
Posts: 330
Default Re: Pye Black Box

As stated clearly in post 66 the red wire was damaged and replaced. The cartridge is mono.
kevinski is offline  
Old 14th Jan 2014, 10:57 am   #143
Station X
Moderator
 
Station X's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4, UK.
Posts: 21,192
Default Re: Pye Black Box

Were the original wires screened? In post #62 there appear to be a couple of sleeved connections to tag 1.

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...3&postcount=62
__________________
Graham. Forum Moderator

Reach for your meter before you reach for your soldering iron.
Station X is offline  
Old 14th Jan 2014, 11:21 am   #144
kevinski
Retired Dormant Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, UK.
Posts: 330
Default Re: Pye Black Box

Yes
kevinski is offline  
Old 14th Jan 2014, 11:41 am   #145
Station X
Moderator
 
Station X's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4, UK.
Posts: 21,192
Default Re: Pye Black Box

I would suggest renewing the wiring between the cartridge and the under chassis tag strip, using screened wire or cable as per original and making a neat job of it.

It may not cure you problem, but at least it will eliminate something from your investigations.

Back in post #127 you said that the amp would not work when fed from an MP3 player. "Dead" was the word used.

In post #133 you said that the deadness was down to a tag coming off one of the tag strips.

Does the amp work from an MP3 player now?
__________________
Graham. Forum Moderator

Reach for your meter before you reach for your soldering iron.
Station X is offline  
Old 14th Jan 2014, 2:08 pm   #146
Radio_Dave
Nonode
 
Radio_Dave's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Norwich, Norfolk, UK.
Posts: 2,543
Default Re: Pye Black Box

I'm not sure if the cartridge should be connected to the turntable chassis? Here's how I'd connect up the tonearm wires.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	Untitled-1.jpg
Views:	110
Size:	123.8 KB
ID:	87834  
Radio_Dave is offline  
Old 14th Jan 2014, 8:13 pm   #147
kevinski
Retired Dormant Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, UK.
Posts: 330
Default Re: Pye Black Box

Thanks Radio, that's more what I was expecting when I asked if I had the wires in the right place.

Kevin
kevinski is offline  
Old 15th Jan 2014, 12:18 pm   #148
kevinski
Retired Dormant Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, UK.
Posts: 330
Default Re: Pye Black Box

Got a lot of volume now but when you turn it up about half way it becomes distorted. Tried with a good cartridge and the same happens.

Kevin
kevinski is offline  
Old 17th Jan 2014, 1:13 pm   #149
behindblueeyes
Retired Dormant Member
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Finchley, London, UK.
Posts: 81
Default Re: Pye Black Box

Glad that it seems to be fixed, or at least headed in the right direction.

Hard to say whether the distortion is abnormal or not. I would say that mine doesn't get much louder past 50% volume, and it definitely distorts when turned up all the way, unless using a really quiet source (e.g. a line level input).

Are you testing with 45s or LPs? 45s are a lot louder on mine, hence more distortion prone.
behindblueeyes is offline  
Old 17th Jan 2014, 3:55 pm   #150
Nickthedentist
Dekatron
 
Nickthedentist's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 17,820
Default Re: Pye Black Box

And, Kevin, are the speakers definitely OK? Try feeding them from something else to make sure. Sometimes the central suspension can come unstuck and cause a lot of distortion at higher volume levels.

N.
Nickthedentist is offline  
Old 17th Jan 2014, 6:28 pm   #151
kevinski
Retired Dormant Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, UK.
Posts: 330
Default Re: Pye Black Box

Don't know how to feed the speakers from something else due to them being attached to amp via three pronged plug.

Thanks

Kevin
kevinski is offline  
Old 17th Jan 2014, 8:05 pm   #152
Nickthedentist
Dekatron
 
Nickthedentist's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 17,820
Default Re: Pye Black Box

Simple, Kevin. Just unplug them, then connect the output of another record player (or similar) to the relevant two pins of the plug, or to one of the two speakers' two terminals (either will do as I think they're wired in parallel).

Just make sure what you're driving them can cope with a low impedance speaker (probably 1.5 Ohms in this case) - another valve record player would be ideal, but do watch out if it's a live chassis design!!

N.
Nickthedentist is offline  
Old 18th Jan 2014, 2:01 pm   #153
behindblueeyes
Retired Dormant Member
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Finchley, London, UK.
Posts: 81
Default Re: Pye Black Box

I found that the prongs on mine fitted nicely into a piece of terminal block, to which I'd attached some speaker wire. An old Technics mini system served fine for testing purposes, but did have to set the volume pretty high thanks to the low impedance and made the amp rather warm so didn't run it for long.
behindblueeyes is offline  
Old 18th Jan 2014, 2:34 pm   #154
'LIVEWIRE?'
Rest in Peace
 
'LIVEWIRE?''s Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: N.W. Oxfordshire(Chipping Norton)
Posts: 7,306
Default Re: Pye Black Box

It might be an idea to separate the speakers, and test each one individually, in case one is faulty.
'LIVEWIRE?' is offline  
Old 18th Jan 2014, 4:01 pm   #155
kevinski
Retired Dormant Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, UK.
Posts: 330
Default Re: Pye Black Box

Right, managed to get my ipod to play through an amp which was then attached via the speaker terminals to the speakers in the black box and hey presto there was sound. The speakers sounded fine, plenty of volume and only a little distortion when played loud so they seem to be ok. The only "original" components left are 4 resistors which seem to measure ok. Think I will change them out anyway. If nothing else it will at least eliminate them.

Thanks

Kevin
kevinski is offline  
Old 18th Jan 2014, 7:42 pm   #156
Nickthedentist
Dekatron
 
Nickthedentist's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 17,820
Default Re: Pye Black Box

Keep at it Kevin, I admire your perseverance.
Nickthedentist is offline  
Old 18th Jan 2014, 9:17 pm   #157
kevinski
Retired Dormant Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, UK.
Posts: 330
Default Re: Pye Black Box

Perseverance? Sheer ****** mindedness more like
kevinski is offline  
Old 19th Jan 2014, 3:38 pm   #158
kevinski
Retired Dormant Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, UK.
Posts: 330
Default Re: Pye Black Box

That's it!! I give up!! . Tried the thing again this morning and no sound!. Voltage has dropped to 110v at primaries on mains transformer! Getting 43vdc at the rectifier. Tried a new rectifier and the same. Time to put it in the bin and try a different machine. Thanks to all for your help, hopefully I have learned a lot from this experience.

Kevin.
kevinski is offline  
Old 19th Jan 2014, 4:54 pm   #159
Station X
Moderator
 
Station X's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4, UK.
Posts: 21,192
Default Re: Pye Black Box

Well unless your mains voltage has dropped to 110V, which I very much doubt, the problem can only be the mains lead connections, player voltage selector or player OFF/ON switch.
__________________
Graham. Forum Moderator

Reach for your meter before you reach for your soldering iron.
Station X is offline  
Old 19th Jan 2014, 5:42 pm   #160
Herald1360
Dekatron
 
Herald1360's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Leominster, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 16,526
Default Re: Pye Black Box

Don't bin it.....

Someone here'll want it, even if only to find out what exactly is faulty!
__________________
....__________
....|____||__|__\_____
.=.| _---\__|__|_---_|.
.........O..Chris....O
Herald1360 is offline  
Closed Thread

Thread Tools



All times are GMT +1. The time now is 1:52 pm.


All information and advice on this forum is subject to the WARNING AND DISCLAIMER located at https://www.vintage-radio.net/rules.html.
Failure to heed this warning may result in death or serious injury to yourself and/or others.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright ©2002 - 2023, Paul Stenning.