Technics Stock Leads Capacitance Way Too High!!

by **cafe latte** » 31 Jul 2010 23:49

My stock interconnects were 305pf it would be good to find out what others Technics owners leads measure

by **Brisbane56** » 01 Aug 2010 17:06

G'day mate, I believe that cafe latte is after 'actual' capacitance measurements of SL-1200 interconnects. Regards, .

That's what I was talking about. The stock cables measure 90pf + the 10 for the arm wires. How he is coming up with such hi figures is a mystery to me.

by **analogaudio** » 01 Aug 2010 22:45

I have some vintage 1600mk2s and 1700mk2s with stock cables on them these are precursors to the current 1200mkx and use the same captive cable but unfortunately I have no capacitance meter.

I wonder what was the test frequency used by lattes' test meter?

I have the spec for the Ortofon VMS cart I use and it recommends 400pF total load.

Ted

by **cafe latte** » 02 Aug 2010 00:29

Believe me the measurements are correct. My new leads measure exactly what there specs say they should I have also checked the meter be measuring a known value cap and it masures correct. Both on and off the TT the stock leads measure 300pf. When I first got these strange readings apart from talking to I sent a message to Dave Crawley and he thought the readings were normal for a Technics, I then contacted a friend in Sidney who has Technics for DJ use and He tells me his measure the same, so it seems it is normal, but I am trying to determine if it is a batch fault, of they have always been like this, or maybe recent models have higher capacitance leads to help with rf in clubs.
I have emailed the Aus Panasonic Technics distributor with NO response.
If anyone has a sl1200, 1210 and you have a meter, or know someone who has it would be really interesting to know if it is one or two, TT's or all of them like this

by **cafe latte** » 02 Aug 2010 00:33

Also I posted earlier a few posts ago what was written on the interconnects ( all is correct except 60c 300v should be 80c 300v). I am guessing if your interconnects read the same and are by the same company then they will be 300pf's

by **Brisbane56** » 02 Aug 2010 02:33

cafe latte wrote:Believe me the measurements are correct. My new leads measure exactly what there specs say they should I have also checked the meter be measuring a known value cap and it masures correct. Both on and off the TT the stock leads measure 300pf. When I first got these strange readings apart from talking to I sent a message to Dave Crawley and he thought the readings were normal for a Technics, I then contacted a friend in Sidney who has Technics for DJ use and He tells me his measure the same, so it seems it is normal, but I am trying to determine if it is a batch fault, of they have always been like this, or maybe recent models have higher capacitance leads to help with rf in clubs.
I have emailed the Aus Panasonic Technics distributor with NO response.
If anyone has a sl1200, 1210 and you have a meter, or know someone who has it would be really interesting to know if it is one or two, TT's or all of them like this

Send your findings to Kevin @Kab I bet he'd be very interested in your results.

by **cafe latte** » 02 Aug 2010 03:08

If you know him it may be easier to send him a link to this thread?? I am tempted to cut open a plug (not yet as i waiting for Dave to get back to me), as i am wondering if technics are capacitive loading the plugs or something for filtering RF in clubs as the wire itself seems really normal and how they get a wire to be 300pf's for 1m 20cm I do not know. I have a cable catalouge here (electronics is my hobby), and even the poor quality cables are 80pf's a meter and the better ones are 64pf's a meter. Technics must be 280pf a meter!!!!!!! There must be a reason

by **Werner** » 02 Aug 2010 07:12

cafe latte wrote:but I am trying to determine if it is a batch fault, of they have always been like this, or maybe recent models have higher capacitance leads to help with rf in clubs.

Again, the stock European SL-1200MkII I got in for review in 2006 measured about 85pF RCA-to-cartridge-clips.

by **fscl** » 02 Aug 2010 13:19

Werner wrote:
cafe latte wrote:but I am trying to determine if it is a batch fault, of they have always been like this, or maybe recent models have higher capacitance leads to help with rf in clubs.

Again, the stock European SL-1200MkII I got in for review in 2006 measured about 85pF RCA-to-cartridge-clips.

clatte,

What year is your 1210? and what is the country of manufacture? Japan? Is there a possibility that you've got a knock off? :shock:

Fred

by **cafe latte** » 02 Aug 2010 14:47

My TT is brand new from the Aus distributor is is not knock off. The TT is well made as it should be and I have said before that a friend in Sidney had a sl1200, which he uses for DJ with similar value leads so it is not just mine. Also some of the cheapest free leads I have that came free with stuff of similar length measure half the capacitance, so what is strange is they seems high capacitance is on purpose. The stock leads are well made and very neatly fitted and the conductors are reasonably thick. The thick conductors do not point towards high capacitance, and yet on three meters it is 300pf's both on red and white. Both leads have a very low resistance, there are no shorts I have tested them in every way I can think and it is only a high capacitance issue, but so high it is like there is a capacitor in the plug or something. Now with new wires on it sounds great, but how wide spread is the problem is it all sl1210's that are new, a small batch, or after a certain date?? This is why I am asking people to check the capacitance of the leads. I have written an email to Panasonic asking this simple question with all my details of sale ect and they replied offering me to BUY a service manual!!!!!!! I have written back in simple English explaining this is a spec issue and they should supply this info. I am not holding my breath..
If my TT has this capacitance leads and my friend in Sidney , then my feeling is either most are like this or VERY VERY many. His is 12 months old mine is only 3 or 4 months.

by **todd95008** » 02 Aug 2010 19:52

I too had the same issue as cafe latte (mine measured 320pf w/an accurate L-C meter) !!
My old leads had the same markings as cafe latte.
I replaced them with the MG5 cable that now measures 75pf including tonearm wires.

I sent Kevin at KAB a message last week about this and he is looking into it....

Todd

by **cafe latte** » 03 Aug 2010 00:29

Interesting that is 3 people now with this issue and not all in Aus, How old is your TT Todd?? Also can you keep me informed what Kab say?

by **fscl** » 03 Aug 2010 00:51

todd95008 wrote:I too had the same issue as cafe latte (mine measured 320pf w/an accurate L-C meter) !!
My old leads had the same markings as cafe latte.
I replaced them with the MG5 cable that now measures 75pf including tonearm wires.

I sent Kevin at KAB a message last week about this and he is looking into it....

Todd

Welcome to VE.....

This is an interesting / intriguing thread. :-k

So far, somewhere btw 2006 / Werner's unit and clatte's / t5008's unit the leads were changed...... :shock:

which changes the "sound?" of the tt.

Which makes me wonder if all the postings ie bnut vs clatte are all / partially due to this? :idea:

.

How aggravating...... :shock:

This also makes recommending cartridges that would work well on the 1200 difficult, we're talking 2 different 1200s. Is this why I've read that the DL-160s do well on the SL?....

Sheesh.....what's a consumer to do? :twisted:

Fred and this is why we LOVE VE......

to compare notes.....

by **todd95008** » 03 Aug 2010 01:17

cafe latte wrote:Interesting that is 3 people now with this issue and not all in Aus, How old is your TT Todd?? Also can you keep me informed what Kab say?

Mine was shipped from KAB late in June 2010 !!
Kevin says it it the most recent production.
He has read this thread and has the cable markings numbers that are bad (AWM 2562 E81015 VW1 80C 300V HSD LF).

He tells me that good cables he has looked at have a center insulator (red/white) diameter of about .10" and are marked "Mighty Wire" (E220774 AWM STYLE 2555)

I sent him a message today (after reading this thread) that the insulator diameter of my bad (300pf +) cable was only .048"

It's funny, that he thought I was the one who started this thread..

I had an Ortofon 2M red installed and had what I thought (and now know) was a peak in the lower to mid trebble with a fast drop of above that. My preamp has 200pf input C and with the cable I was over 500pf !!
This caused a huge peak about 5-7khz.

I changed to the MG5 cable and also to a new AT440MLA cartridge that work well !!!

Todd