Technics 1200: KAB re-wire and RCA upgrade how-to guide

27) Okay. You're almost home. Here is the the hole that you need to get your guide wire through to get the tonearm wires back into the bottom of the turntable where you need them.


28) Once you CAREFULLY get the tonearm wires back into the bottom of the turntable, use the two gold screws that let the tonearm down and secure the tonearm back onto the table. Get the new circuit board with the new RCAs pre-soldered to it and screw it down back onto where the old circuit board was. Make sure to use the long gold screw to put the ground wire ring into contact with the circuit board before you screw it down. You'll notice that I don't have a black wire. Since the original owner cut it, I had to use one of the stock tonearm wires as a ground, so in this case, my tonearm ground wire is brown. It should look like this.


29) Now, carefully solder down each of the new tonearm wires onto the circuit board. It should go blue, white, red, green, and then your tonearm ground wire. To solder these on, I put a small amount of solder onto the metal beds before soldering the wires in. After I put some solder onto the board, I heated the solder with the wire ready in my hemostat and once the solder melted again, you stick the wire into it, pull off your solder iron to take the heat off, and wait for the solder to dry before taking your hemostat/fingers off the wire. So, this is how it should look when you're all done with your solder work.

 

30) Next, run your ground wire and RCAs through that metal circular piece that goes over the circuit board area. You will not be able to use that black plastic piece that held the original RCA and ground together, because they won't fit. So, I put a twist tie around it.



31) Put the rubber piece back on putting the cords through the appropriate holes. Screw all the screws back into the correct spots to secure the rubber piece back to the table. Screw the feet back into the table. Then, put the rest of your table back together (platter, etc), re-align your cartridge, get your tracking force correct, put your dust cover back on, etc, basically set up your new and improved turntable.



You're now DONE! Hook everything back up and be prepared to be blown away by the improved sound quality. It truly is astounding. Just wait until you hear it for yourself. You'll be very happy you did this upgrade. Just be careful during it, have the proper tools, have great lighting, and again, be careful and patient. This upgrade puts this table into a new category of performance and sound quality, all for a little over $100 and some effort. Go enjoy the fruits of your labor. Feel free to message me with any questions.

 

Thanks! I really appreciate it. The project was a ton of fun, especially given the end results.

I changed the images to Flickr with my reposts. Please let me know if they aren't working.

 

Works now, thank you! And awesome and helpful guide!

 

Great! You're welcome. I'm very happy to share this with people. Hopefully it's more detail than the other guides out there.

 

I had Kevin (from KAB) do my mods as my table was new. I believed the hype about more expensive tables and bought one that game me problems for a year. I would have been better served just putting a better cartridge on my table. Even then what I had was nice (Goldring 2500).

 

Nice! Yeah, I am continually amazed at how much this upgrade helps with SQ. Kevin is awesome, incredibly helpful.

 

The hype will get you. I upgraded from a BSR to a Technics sl220 - in around 1980 (I bought the Technics from Pacific Stereo) - huge upgrade - got back into vinyl around 2008 - dusted off the old sl220 - cleaned the pots replaced the belt - sounded OK - then bought a brand new M5G from Kevin at KAB in 2009 with a few mods - another huge upgrade - huge difference over the sl220 - what a quality product - just beautiful. I then had to see what the fuss was over with the non-DJ tables - got the VPI - I love it - very beautiful - solid- gorgeous table/arm - pretty much zero difference soundwise. I have no regrets as I love both tables (and would probably do it all over again if I had the chance) and like to enjoy playing with different carts and swapping very quickly.

 

That's very interesting to hear you say that soundwise a VPI is the same as your Technics M5G. Makes me feel that much better about my table! I was thinking that I would want to eventually upgrade to a VPI Classic, but if the sound quality isn't going to be THAT much better, then maybe I won't do it. I'm all about performance and aesthetically, don't care as much. Heck, I use a hockey puck as my record clamp (it works great!).

 

I've been really happy with mine. I guess it's been 8 years now since Kevin did the mods on it. I've been totally satisfied and haven't even thought about upgrading that part of my system.

 

My main point is that both are fu&&@#$$(en great. They are completely different and offer many different things - but from a basic turntable perspective - they are both a 10 out of 10. Now you may find a very nice cart that can only work on one of them - that would be the main reason for the change.

Cheers.

 

I'm interested in replacing the arm with a different arm, probably a Jelco 750 at some point. I just demoted my stock 1200MK5 for a Yamaha direct-drive YP-D71, which sounds better. My hunch is that it has a better tonearm that I'm hearing as an improvement, but hard to know. Some day I want to mod out the 1200 and see if my hunch about tonearm weakness is correct or not.

 

I thought about the arm upgrade over the years - just because so many people spoke highly of it - but you are talking about a 1000$ investment - Arm, Armboard, Custom Collar, cable - to me that is 1K closer to another table. Enjoy the Technics as is with the basic good idea upgrades - then buy something based on a completely different architecture (ex fishing line and golfballs/belt unipivot arm, 10 inch arm, 12 inch arm etc) - and sit back and enjoy the differences. These are mechanical objects - it is wonderful to see how differently they operate while still providing for wonderful sound.

 

Speakers and cartridges are about the only thing worthwhile upgrading. The base of that technics with a few minor upgrades would hold its own with 30k direct drive tables now. I'd put $$$ down that 99.5% wouldn't tell the difference using the same cart on both .

There's a lot of shifty people involved with forums and their close association and protection of suppliers. Common sense should come into play. I've seen a lot of the shadier side of audio marketing over the years.

 

Great points. One reason why I'm so happy about this mod is that I did it myself and now I can reap the benefits of my own labor.

I've thought about upgrading the arm, too, but I don't know if the arm itself will change THAT much. I think it's about the ability of the arm to maintain the geometry you set with the cartridge alignment and then the interconnecting wires that make the most impact on sound quality. It would be a sweet project though, but it sure is expensive.

I like the way you think, brother

 

I don't really know either, but something makes the difference between the two tables, and I don't think it's the drive system since they're both very similar. My hunch is the arm, things sound great on the 1200, but it's kind of messy-sounding, I'm not sure how to put it, in comparison. Not less detailed, but more like the sound itself creates a cacophonous mess, like you're in a busy cafe and can't quite hear clearly. The Yamaha cleans that up so it's much clearer, with the same detail. To me, it sounds like resonances in the arm/cartridge combination, and my hunch is that the un-damped tube of the 1200 and its various connections is causing this. But without testing (by changing the arm either with mods or replacement) I can't say.

But I really don't know, so I guess I'll find out if I replace the arm and see what happens. I had thought about modding the arm with cables and heatshrink just as you have, but I'm kind of the personality that I didn't want to do things half-way and then be left still wondering if I should have done more, so just decided I would replace the whole arm. But then I stumbled across the Yamaha table and replaced the whole table (for only $300, cheaper than a new arm project), so go figure!

 

Well, by doing the upgrades that I did, you add some serious dampening to the arm with cotton in the arm and the heat shrink outside. If you replaced the arm, couldn't you still use the wires and upgraded RCAs? Just wouldn't do the heat shrink for most arms, right? Or would you still? Either way, this upgrade is cheap and the improvement is significant. The Technics is my #1 table and it will stay that way for awhile. I don't see the table really limiting what cart I put on it either. With my Hifiman 400i's, NAD 3020, and Schiit Vali, I cannot believe how good this sounds. Did not know vinyl could sound this good.

 

I'm not sure how feasible it would be to re-use the tonearm wires in a Jelco arm, but I suppose to. Mostly it's a whole lot of effort, so I'd rather just go with a new arm if I'm going to do that. I've also considered just getting a Jelco arm and putting it on its own base separate from the table and trying it out that way, I could use it on both the Technics and the Yamaha, or whatever other tables I chose.

 

I didn't even know people did that! Sounds interesting. If you do, please send pictures.

 

That's an awesome write up! I'm glad it worked out so well. I know I am really happy with the results!

 

Thanks! and thanks for all your help in answering my questions, too!

 

I forgot to mention in my guide, make sure to turn the anti-skate to zero before beginning. Make sure it is still turned to zero before you put the tonearm back onto the table.

 

I agree on the sound of the Technics. Mine replaced a rather good Yamaha, and I had big problems with the sound. But I didn´t want to buy another TT as the drive system is top class on the Technics. So instead I have done a lot of mechanical modifications, to the plinth, bearing, platter and arm wand, I am now very pleased with it. But in my experience through these modification steps, an arm will change things a bit, but not by much, it is in reality the design of the whole TT that must be looked upon. I haven´t tested a Jelco arm, but it seems reasonable it´s a better design, but don´t expect it to be more than minor improvements on SQ over the stock arm. To me it´s a much heavier platter, a more rigid plinth and a more rigid bearing that made the SQ.

 

Might be a good idea to edit that into one of the posts as sometimes threads can get pd long and people can miss important points...

 

Unfortunately, it won't let me edit those posts anymore. I am going to write up an entirely new guide soon to clear everything up. Plus, I sent the wires through the wrong hole at the base of the tonearm. I need to re-do that part. I will post pictures once I do that, but it probably won't be until the end of the month, since I'm away from my turntable at the moment.