I have lost the left channel from my turn table. What would be the most
likely cause? Needle? The turntable was working fine until I cleaned
some LPs. When I tried to use the turntable after cleaning some LPs on
it, I no longer had a left channel. The turntable is a Sony PS-LX500

Thanks in advance for any help.
Bill

Bill:
Faulty phono input on the receiver or amp? Try swapping the L and R phono
input wires to verify?
Intermittent source selector switch on your amp or receiver?
Loose connection from the turntable to the receiver?
Faulty cable from turntable? Wiggle it around.
Loose wire connecting the cartridge to the headshell?
Faulty contacts in headshell/tonearm? Remove and re-install headshell.
Bent stylus? Damaged stylus?
Faulty cartridge? ..... very unlikely.
All of this has absolutely NOTHING to do with you "cleaning some LPs."
--
Best Regards,
Daniel Sofie
Electronics Supply & Repair
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"Bill" wrote in message
I have lost the left channel from my turn table. What would be the most
likely cause? Needle? The turntable was working fine until I cleaned
some LPs. When I tried to use the turntable after cleaning some LPs on
it, I no longer had a left channel. The turntable is a Sony PS-LX500

Thanks in advance for any help.
Bill

In , on 08/11/03
at 08:47 AM, Bill said:

I have lost the left channel from my turn table. What would be the
most likely cause? Needle? The turntable was working fine until I
cleaned some LPs. When I tried to use the turntable after cleaning
some LPs on it, I no longer had a left channel. The turntable is a
Sony PS-LX500

I doubt that you cleaned the left channel off your records.

The usual cause for "one channel out" on a turntable is wiring. A quick
check would be to reverse Left and Right where the turntable plugs into
the receiver. If the problem moves to the Right channel, you do have a
turntable (or its associated wiring) problem.

Many times there is a slight misfit between the RCA plugs at the end of
the turntable wiring and the jacks on the receiver. If so, then the
problem will probably go away after you do the above. *SLIGHTLY*
distorting the RCA plugs will usually cure or prevent such a problem.
(This is a gentle distortion. When I do this only an expert could see
any difference.)

If the actual wire attached to the RCA plugs fails, it will usually do
so within 1/4" from the plug. Less common is a similar failure about
1/4" from where the wire enters the turntable.

Another common point of failure is near the cartridge. I'm not familiar
with your turntable. If there are tiny little wires, they can break or
become disconnected. If there is a connector, it can become dirty.
Connectors can be gently cleaned with a pencil or ink eraser followed
by a gentle solvent wash (such as alcohol).

Finally, while relatively rare, cartridges can and do fail. If you have
access to an Ohm meter, the coils in a moving magnet cartridge (the
usual "magnetic" cartridge type) measure about 1000 Ohms. This is not
an exact figure, 600 or 1200 are not unusual. The important point is
that Left and Right should be similar. I find that, in good cartridges,
the channel match is well within 10%, but 20% would not be out of line.

Stylus damage causing the loss of one channel is unlikely.

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Bill wrote:
I have lost the left channel from my turn table. What would be the most
likely cause? Needle? The turntable was working fine until I cleaned
some LPs. When I tried to use the turntable after cleaning some LPs on
it, I no longer had a left channel. The turntable is a Sony PS-LX500

Thanks in advance for any help.
Bill


FWIW -

Usually when I've had that problem it's been the connection between the
shell that holds the cartridge and the tonearm assembly. I don't know
whether the connector there corrodes or what, but removing the shell
containing the cartridge and reinstalling it has always fixed the
problem.

CJT wrote:

Bill wrote:
I have lost the left channel from my turn table. What would be the most
likely cause? Needle? The turntable was working fine until I cleaned
some LPs. When I tried to use the turntable after cleaning some LPs on
it, I no longer had a left channel. The turntable is a Sony PS-LX500

Thanks in advance for any help.
Bill


FWIW -

Usually when I've had that problem it's been the connection between the
shell that holds the cartridge and the tonearm assembly. I don't know
whether the connector there corrodes or what, but removing the shell
containing the cartridge and reinstalling it has always fixed the
problem.

Thanks to everyone for their help. When I removed the cartridge and also the
stylus and put them back, the problem went away.

I wasn't clear about why I was concerned that cleaning the LPs may have had
some effect. The cleaning kit I use cleans the LP with it turning. So, it
does load the turntable down some and also I didn't wait for the cleaning
solution to dry and I was concerned that the solution getting on the stylus
could have mess it up.

Thanks again to everyone for their help.
Bill

In , on 08/13/03
at 11:14 AM, Bill said:

Thanks to everyone for their help. When I removed the cartridge and
also the stylus and put them back, the problem went away.

A common outcome.

I wasn't clear about why I was concerned that cleaning the LPs may
have had some effect. The cleaning kit I use cleans the LP with it
turning. So, it does load the turntable down some and also I didn't
wait for the cleaning solution to dry and I was concerned that the
solution getting on the stylus could have mess it up.

While there are a few who swear that "wet playing" their records is the
only way to go, I don't think it is a great idea. I've seen some
Scanning Electron Microscope images of records after they have been wet
played -- they show significant damage.

I don't think playing damp records would hurt the cartridge. Playing
through puddles of cleaning fluid may cause some trouble if the solute
load was high (dissolved dirt and/or detergent) because deposits may
have formed on the stylus bar or inside the stylus assembly at the base
of the bar. It's hard to know what the solvent base of your LP cleaner
is, but if the stylus assembly hasn't disintegrated by now, don't worry
about chemical incompatibility.

At one point there was a cheap record cleaning fluid on the market that
would leave a characteristic deposit on the stylus. Eventually, such a
large clump of the stuff would collect on the diamond, the sound would
degrade significantly. I could easily recognize that clump when
inspecting a stylus.

-----------------------------------------------------------
SPAM:
wordgame:123(abc):14 9 20 5 2 9 18 4 at 22 15 9 3 5 14 5 20 dot 3 15
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[sorry about the puzzle, SPAMers are ruining my mailbox]
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