ZERO100 interference

[Wids]

I am the recent recipient of a Zero 100SB turntable from my father-in-law and knowing him, it would have been well looked after. I changed the stylus recently but I notice that on most plays there is a distinguishable exaggerated treble interference type sound (crushed hiss if you like) from the right speaker. Now, I have tried swapping the speaker inputs on my Goodmans amp but it makes no difference and still comes from the right speaker, which has flummoxed me somewhat!

There is no such sound when the radio is played so I know it is to do with the player.

Any ideas what it could be?

[paul401]

. Now, I have tried swapping the speaker inputs on my Goodmans amp but it makes no difference and still comes from the right speaker, which has flummoxed me somewhat!
Any ideas what it could be?

Hi,
welcome. A bit baffled by that too? The hiss should swap sides all things being equal?
Try a different tack, try swapping the inputs from the deck over, if the sound 'moves' then it's the deck. Is the new stylus located fully / correctly in the cartridge?
With age the wires/solder connections in the phono plugs on the deck may have broken down, worth checking, also the leads on the cartridge carrier ( or 'slider') and the connectors on top of the carrier itself, these are quite infamous for getting loose/dirty/bent and causing bad contact.

Although the radio plays fine, it doesn't fully rule out the amp as the fault could be in the pre-amp stage of the 'phono' input.

Paul

[Wids]

I checked the cartridge wires and all appeared fine but I did notice that one or two of the hung down spring connectors, that the cartridge slides under, were raised up a bit. I gently eased them back down so they were in line with the others. Then tested a couple of albums and couldn't hear any interference as I had before. Fingers crossed that that was the problem.

thanks for your help there, Paul.

[paul401]

HI,
glad to hear your up and running again. The contacts on the 'sliders' are often the first port of call when problem solving, should be fine now, but a drop of contact cleaner on them will do no harm if the problem reoccurs.

Paul

[chan1]

Hi Wids. Sounds as though you have ruled out the phono preamp and amp on your Goodmans amp as being the culprit. The volume control on the Goodmans amp could be dirty and giving an intermittent loss to one channel that comes and goes. Assuming that the volume control is ok and you have ruled out the RCA cables from your turntable as well then the problem is in the turntable.

I have found that the cartridge carrier, without the cartridge mounted, seems to be fine upon inspection, meaning not bent or wrapped, but as soon as the cartridge is mounted it tends to pull the end with the contacts down and away and then the contacts do not make good contact with the tonearm. I have overcome this problem by, after the cartridge is mounted, heating up slightly the carrier with a heat source and then holding the carrier flat with my fingers until the carrier has cooled. This action makes the carrier flat again and the contact points are in the correct position to make good contact with the tonearm contacts.

This assumes that all is good with the turntable meaning wires, cartridge, stylus and RCA cables. I have 8 cartridge carriers for my Zero 100 and have had to perform the heat procedure on 4 of them so they make good contact. All the other possible problems had to ruled out first however. Hope this helps, chan