E.A.R. DeLuxe record player.

[Station X]

Any chance that there are shorts or disconnections within the cable?

I'm not familiar with this arrangement, although it may have been common with some decks. Decks I've seen use a screened cable from the amp to a tag strip under the deck where the screen terminates on the centre earthed tag of the tag strip. From there two, three or four insulated signal wires run through the arm to the cartridge. Any bridging of channels is done at the tag strip.

Perhaps Edward Huggins our resident cartridge expert can advise? I've run out of ideas.

[Edward Huggins]

Nice one Graham! I would continue the testing using the stereo cartridge (ideally bridged as previously advised as that old mono Garrard one will have surely died by now.
I just need to be sure of what type of stereo cartridge this is, as I've guessed it from your photos as a BSR SCxx type. Is there any designation on it so as to confirm? A photo of the cartridge end of your pick up lead will help. It will have either 2 wires ("conductors") on their own - or the 2 wires within a screened outer braiding.

[parlourtw73vs]

I've removed the P/U lead completely from the deck. It is one unbroken lead which runs from the P/U cartridge directly to the amplifier. I checked it for continuity and any shorting inside its covering but all seemed in order. With the lead connected to the amplifier and the GC8 cartridge attached at the other end I switched on. The bad hum was still there. I then removed the single green earth lead, still the loud hum. I swapped the red and blue P/U leads, still the loud hum. I completely removed the P/U lead, hum dropped back to its previous low level. Baffled, I started to plug everything back in and this time the low level hum remained and I got output from the cartridge. At this time the record deck was still connected electrically to the amp as I presumed it supplied the valve heaters so the motor was still running. As an experiment I draped the P/U lead loosely over the deck, the hum rose slightly but nowhere near as bad as the previous loud hum and upon removing it again from the deck the hum dropped slightly again. Just as an aside, I've had a BSR TC8M cartridge for some time but didn't know its condition so I connected this up and was surprised to get about the same level of volume as the GC8. I guess Edward will be able to tell me what their respective outputs should be. I'm now going to try to reassemble the player and see if it remains in this state, but I still don't know what caused the loud hum to reappear and after fiddling about with the leads it the went back to its much lower level.

[Edward Huggins]

The old Garrard GC8 and the BSR TC8M have roughly the same "high" output (that is high for a medium-output cartridge) at around 300mV. I just wish I had this player in front of me so I could test out all of the available options!

[parlourtw73vs]

Success at last, all seems to be working now.

[parlourtw73vs]

After a very careful reassembly I switched on and got the very low mains hum, can that be eradicated by the way or is it just something indigenous to these old record players? It isn't that intrusive and is not noticeable when it is playing a record. I loaded it up with eight 45 singles and it was away. Plenty of sound and no distortion even on room filling full volume. The auto changer is working perfectly, those Garrard 209's are very pretty decks and as fascinating to watch in operation as a Collaro. They also seem very well made, but you almost never hear anything concerning them. As a plus I now seem to have 2 working crystal cartridges. At the moment I've installed the stereo ceramic I had and that certainly has ample output, maybe the crystals will have a greater output I'll check them in the player later. Many many thanks to all of you who've given such patient advice and encouragement. I've certainly learned quite a lot but it's you who've really fixed this lovely little player.

[parlourtw73vs]

I've just picked up on your post Edward. I got 3 of these stereo cartridges from an electrical retailer who ws closing down in Garstang about 3 or 4 years ago. I did know their make originally but it's slipped my mind at the moment, I do know they are made in Japan and aren't fitted with a turnover stylus, they only have 1 stylus and that has a double sided tag to prevent their turning. The P/U lead is indeed 2core with a braided screen

[Clydeuk]

That stereo cartridge looks similar to some I remember being fitted to some budget midi hi-fi equipment in the 90's. Even though they have a similar look to the BSR types I think they were a bit smaller.

As for the hum, you could try one of the 47uF 450V caps you have in place of the 30uF Dubilier one that has been patched in to see if it makes a difference.

[peter_sol]

The cartridges are possibly made by "Tetrad" who were bought out by BSR before their demise.

[Station X]

To sum up:-

1. Motor had been connected to the wrong sockets resulting in the motor running, but the valves not lighting up.

Cured by plugging the motor into the correct sockets.

2. An attempt had been made to replace the reservoir capacitor within the can by disconnecting the wires and components from the reservoir tag then reconnecting them to an externall capacitor. The negative side of the replacement capacitor had not connected to the chassis resulting in excessive mains hum.

Cured by conecting the negative side of the replacement capacitor to the chassis.

3. Plessey 25uF 25V electrolytic bypass capacitor had blown.

Temporarily replaced with a 47uF electrolytic capacitor.

4. Mains pick up by leads connecting amplifier to cartridge.

Not sure how this was cured. It may or may not have been down to the cable's screen being connected to one of the signal wires at the amplifier end.

------------

Suggested way forward:-

1. Replace the two Plessey electrolytic capacitors with components of the correct value.

2. Increase the value of the replacement reservoir cap to see whether there's a decrease in mains hum.

3. Consider replacing all three sections of the smoothing can by restuffing or connecting new capacitors to a tag strip.

4. Test all resistors and replace any which are out of spec.

[parlourtw73vs]

That's a very good summing up Graham. I'll be going into Bolton later next week so I'll go to Modern Radio where I should be able to purchase the replacement Plessey capacitors. Before any one local tells me they've moved to Farnworth now I do know that. I'll also replace that big yellow cap with that other 47uf cap. I have as suggested by clydeuk to see if that affects the hum, you did say to try an uprated cap there Graham. Peter_sol that name, Tetrad, doesn't ring any bells with me, I seem to remember it being a Japanese name which was quite familiar although one not as popular these days, possibly Toshiba or Sanyo. Now I've typed it out Sanyo seems to faintly resonate in my memory. I've uploaded some closeups in case anyone can recognise it. The images don't show up the printing unfortunately but on the bottom, the stylus side, appear R. & L. on their respective side of the metal clip and underneath each is a +ve & -ve symbol. On the top side, which is all black, there is only the word "JAPAN" moulded above the small rivet. Maybe Edward can identify it from that. The only problem remaining now is that the tone control appears to have little or no effect on the sound quality. I would say that at the moment the sound is toward the treble side and I can't seem to wind in any bass. With that large speaker I would have thought it would be possible to achieve a pretty good bass response. OK, thanks to all again and I'll keep reading the forum and update if I manage to make any improvements. Malc.

[parlourtw73vs]

Some more images of the E.A.R. in action.

[crackle]

Its nice to know it is all going, and well done Malc in getting it to this stage, and also to every one else who helped.

Mike

[Edward Huggins]

A great result based on your persistence thus far! Yes, that Garrard autochanger is extremely well built.
Now, re. your Post #191, I have to own up and say with these new photos, I just do not recognise the cartridge - it's not a BSR as I had first thought.
As to the range on the tone control, it's associated capacitor might need replacing if it has lost value. This tone control does not "wind in" the Bass at all - all it does is to cut the Treble.
There should be an excellent bass with that large speaker.
After all these Postings, I regret I've lost track of whether you have replaced "that capacitor" - the AF coupling one - which helps in determining the Bass response.

[Techman]

Lack of bass can be caused by incorrect bridging of the two stereo channels from the cartridge causing them to cancel out, particularly the bass. Try one of your old mono cartridges and see if it's the same, but remember that those cartridges will spoil stereo pressings, so mono records only and definitely nothing pressed later than around 1970.

Lack of bass can also be caused by low HT voltage. I think you tested it at 244 volts, but is it still 244 volts? Check it!

The hum you have shouldn't be there. There will always be a very low level of hum with a player like the one you have there. You may need to replace all the smoothing elecrolytic capacitors (the silver can). This main electrolytic can capacitor is made by Hunts who made some of the best smoothing capacitors out there (unlike the infamous paper coupling capacitors that we all know and love, that are renowned for their leakage). However, as you observed on your meter, it gets hit with nearly 400 volts for a brief period on first switch on before the valves start conducting and thus bring the voltage back down - it's only rated at 275 volts, so has had a hard life. Any replacement smoothing capacitors you buy as replacements need to be at least 400 - 500 volts working. That yellow replacement 'may' still be OK, but it's been there a long time unused and I doubt it's got any particular 'ripple' rating, which any replacement in this position should really have, although it's surprising what can sometimes be got away with.

I said that those selenium rectifiers seem to be OK and doing a good job. Just thinking about that hum - there's a very slim and outside chance that one or both of them could have developed some reverse leakage, and as they're in parallel, if both have a slight leakage then it'll double it up passing some AC. You haven't got the means to test them for this, so it's something to just keep in the back of your mind. you could just replace them with a silicon diode, but you'll have to considerably increase the value of that series resistor to get the HT back down to the correct level. You wouldn't have to remove the old ones, they could be left in place as a historical artifact, but the electrical connections to them would obviously have to be removed and connected to the new rectifier diode.

A lot of the problems you're having are to do with the fact that this unit uses that wretched, penny pinching live chassis design, meaning you can't make any proper DC grounding to the actual chassis. Every time you make a change to particularly any of the pickup wiring and particularly that screening, you MUST do a continuity check with your meter from the earth pin of the unplugged mains plug to the small chassis with the earth connection to the pot lug and to the record deck metalwork to ensure you still have a good earth connection. Then you MUST also do the same continuity check with your meter on the continuity or low resistance range to the actual amplifier chassis to make sure that there is ABSOLUTELY NO EARTH CONNECTION from the earth pin of the mains plug to this chassis. You MUST do this each time you experiment with that pickup wiring! Safety DC blocking looks to be achieved in the signal connections by two disc ceramic capacitors and on the 'screen' side by one of those tubular ceramics - make sure you never bypass any of them.

I think you've now got all the information you need to make this player work as it should and you've done well getting it to the stage that you have.

[ms660]

The OP has supplied us with enough photo's by his own initiative and also on request to enable a reverse engineered schematic to be produced, a handy resource for both himself and future folk who might encounter one of these players but have no service information of their own.

Plenty of waste of space threads on this forum but I don't consider this thread to be one of them.

Lawrence.

[Techman]

Originally Posted by Edward Huggins

After all these Postings, I regret I've lost track of whether you have replaced "that capacitor" - the AF coupling one - which helps in determining the Bass response.

There's two of them and they're reliable ceramic types so unlikely to be faulty.

[Station X]

Originally Posted by Edward Huggins

After all these Postings, I regret I've lost track of whether you have replaced "that capacitor" - the AF coupling one - which helps in determining the Bass response.

This player uses a push-pull amplifier with two audio coupling capacitors. "Those" capacitors as opposed to "that" capacitor if you like.

They have not been replaced because there was negligible voltage on the control grids of the pentode sections of the valves and they were not of the waxed paper type.

[parlourtw73vs]

Wow, I didn't expect such a torrent of posts after my last one but I'll try and address them in order. Sorry to have stumped you with my cartridge Edward but I must admit that the possibility of it being used by Sanyo seems to be growing in my mind. As I said , I obtained these in about 2014 from a small independent radio & electrical dealer who ceased trading shortly after. I assume these were probably what he could obtain at the time to repair the very few record players he got in. Could you please identify "that capacitor" in one of my photographs for me and I'll obtain one and replace it. Thanks for you input and advice.

I've read many posts on this forum where the OP asks for advice, receives some very helpful assistance but then seems to disappear, presumably overwhelmed by the apparent intricacy of the undertaking before him. I was determined not to be like that even at the risk of appearing a"numpty" which I'm sure I did on many postings, As I said at the beginning, I was hoping to go some way to learning the technicalities involved in resuscitating the electronics of these old record players which I feel I have done. Should I get my hands on another one I'd have no hesitation in contacting this forum again but this time I feel I'd have a much greater understanding of the various requests for information and would take a lot less time to achieve a result. I remember a quote from an old Isaac Asimov novel wherein one of the protagonists remarks " Youth is a crime of which we are all guilty at some time" and I suppose the same could be said of inexperience.

Techman, you provided help but equally important a lot of encouragement, many thanks for that. I'm going to re-read your last post and digest it until I make some of the tests you suggest. I do intend to try the 2 crystal cartridges in this player to see if they make any appreciable difference one way or the other. It's made a little more difficult as I've had to slightly modify both the mounting and the plug in leads but I'm sure I'll find a way round that and when I do I'll post my findings for anyone who's interested. By the way, I bridged the stereo cartridge L+ to R+ & L- to R-. I presume that was correct.

Lawrence, thanks for your supportive post, as one of the prime assisters in this endeavour I'm glad you could see it in a positive light. Malc.

[parlourtw73vs]

Just picked up the posts on "those capacitors" by Graham and Techman so I guess I don't need to worry about them at the moment.