That should have read take out the platter and set it on a flat surface. Then push down on the sides going around in a circle. It should not rock at all. If it does definitely bring it back for a new one. The one I played with had a perfectly flat platter and the arm berrings weren't loose either. I wonder if their quality is slipping because of increased demand due to all the good press.
Indeed and I did know that...It was just my, perhaps, poor choice of words. On a separate topic, I tried out a low output MC cartridge (Dynavector XX2 Mk2). Overall another step-up is obvious to hear even on this Pioneer compared to the 2M Black. BUT, there is some hum that is incurable induced by the transformer in the turntable itself. In other words, if the turntable is powered on but the motor is not spinning there is hum. But if the turntable power is off (just the power switch, no need to remove power cable), there is no hum (on this turntable, the arm is permanently connected to the phono outputs regardless of the power switch). Trying various ground combinations, and testing the cartridge by shorting blue/white, or red/green makes no difference. This proves that it is simply unavoidable interference due to the placement of the transformer within the turntable itself. Therefore if anyone is considering an MC cartridge they may want to ensure they can return it if the hum is too intrusive. In my case, although hum was there, you would have to strain your ears to hear it at normal listening volumes with no record playing, and you cannot hear it at all if there is the slightest sound being output. But nevertheless other cartridges may be worse.
Hi Jonstatt I have used the Dynavector XV-1s ( XX2 big brother) , Denon 103r and Denon DL-S1 which has an output of 0.18mv on the PLX-1000. No hum issues. I do not believe this has anything to do with the Pioneer turntable nor the transformer. It is a grounding issue somewhere in your system, probably between the table and the phono stage. The hum is there even with you mm cartridge, however due to the fact the phono gain is at least 20db higher in MC mode, it will amplify any issues as well as the music. Have you tried no ground wire between the table and the phono stage. Not sure if you have a pretty and power amp, as running a ground wire from pre amp to amp, phono stage and or table. Make sure your phono stage is as far from the turntable as possible. Not sure if any of these will help, as hum is a pita. Even try a cheater plug on each piece in your system one by one. I have a Nagaoka MP 50 mm cartridge and it hums, no idea why??. Good luck.
Just wondering how did the xv1 sound? Does the plx1000 do justice to the cart? Very close to getting the plx as a second turntable Thanks.
It was too heavy for the arm or more specifically the counterweight. I added some blu tack to the counterweight just so I could actually play a couple of songs - after all I had set the XV-1s up onto the headshell. It played fine, but took it off after one song as it was not ideal. Pioneer or someone will have to come up with a heavier counterweight to be able to use heavy carts like the XV1s. Ortofon and Jelco have heavier counterweights for their arms to use with heavy carts like the SPU's. I will at some stage put a Lyra Delos on the Pioneer as its a lot lighter - but at the moment its sounds great in my main DD table - Pioneer Exclusive P3 As a 2nd table, the Pioneer PLX-1000 is ideal. It is my 5th table and for the price an absolute bargin What is your first table? Cheers
Interesting, thank you. I have tried everything I can think of! 1) I have tried no turntable ground wire. Or connecting the ground wire to the pre-amplifier (ifi phono), or connecting a ground wire directly to Earth, or connecting a ground to both pre-amp and Earth. Nothing makes any difference at all 2) If the turntable is powered off, I can turn the amplifier to maximum and there is no hum at all....not even the slightest bit...just some hiss. As I mentioned earlier, I have noted that with cartridge, tonearm and phono outputs are always permanently connected and never affected by the power switch on the turntable. 3) If the cartridge is removed and the turntable is powered on, there is no hum (i.e. open circuit) 4) I was told that if the cartridge is faulty internally, then shorting out the left channel pins, or right channel pins while it is connected will reveal if the cartridge is at fault. If the hum disappears from the shorted side, it is the cartridge. But it doesn't disappear, it remains constant 5) If the turntable is powered on but the motor is not spinning, there is hum. If the motor is spinning the hum remains unchanged. However I did notice that while the motor is spinning up for about .5 a second as you press the start button, the hum gets worse. Similarly changing from 33 to 45 makes it worse for a split second. This points to greater current consumption and the turntable transformer 6) I have today tried another PLX-1000 of a friend (in my house), with the PLX-1000 further away from everything else and it is exactly the same too. Same hum, same amount of hum. So I understand I may well still have missed something here....but any other ideas would be great to hear. You talked about cheater plugs, but this is a US concept...I haven't seen such a thing in the UK. It may also be that the EMF from the transformer is lower/better at 110-120V, than 220-240V (I am in the UK) I can live with the hum as I only noticed it because I had my ear next to the speaker, but it wasn't there with the 2M Black (due to the lower gain as you pointed out). But I would really like to be 100% sure it isn't the cartridge. Do you agree with the test philosophy I found on the net, that if you short the left or right channel pins, that if the hum doesn't change (in the shorted side), it isn't the cartridge at fault?
I am in Australia, so voltage is 240 volts, same as the UK. Our power goes up to 250volts, so if the Pioneer transformer was the issue I would have probably heard it. Cheater plugs can be used in any voltage. You may need to search around for UK plugs or in an adaptor remove the earth pin for the purpose of identifying the potential piece with an issue. If it is low level hum only heard with your ear to the speaker, I would probably leave it alone as it is not uncommon to have low level noise with LOMC's Or you could take the cartridge back to your dealer so he can get it tested.
This is very nice. Ill probably get the plx tomorrow. My first table is a funk firm little superdeck with a dyna xx2 mkii cart. The plx will be for the bedroom.
The XX2 Mk2 is at the absolute limit for me in terms of price/risk ratio! All it takes is one accidental knock and that is already a really expensive mistake for me. But to do that to the XV-1S, I think I would have a heart attack! I would be scared every time just cueing the thing! And fortunately the XX2 is only 8.9g . Interestingly the manual says you don't need the extra counterweight with that weight. But you most certainly do! Without the extra weight added, you will find yourself unscrewing the counterweight off its thread to find the balance point. So the manual seems to be a bit in error with the ranges. BTW, I have done a thorough check on the cartridge, and I ensured there was no continuity between the two ground pins of the cartridge, and no continuity between either of those ground pins and the cartridge headshell bolts. So there isn't any silly faulty wiring there and I would be highly surprised to ever find a faulty XX2 somehow... As for comparison against the 2M Black. The biggest and most obvious change is the "attack". The XX2 is much more punchy and it sounds more dynamic. I was actually quite stunned at the difference. Both the 2M Black and the XX2 are considered "neutral" in character. In other words, they aim to have a flat response "in theory". Somehow the 2M Black always seemed to lack slightly in the mid range....crisp treble, good bass weight, but some texture was missing, particularly in the mid range. The XX2 brings this texture in that was missing with the 2M Black. That's not to say the 2M Black isn't good...it is in fact very good indeed, and in my numerous Vinyl vs CD comparisons, often showed a superior sound (where the vinyl was known to have better dynamic range than the CD due to the loudness wars). As I said, it's the "immediacy" of the attack with the XX2 that is most pronounced, and I think in general the "speed" or "attack" is where MC is considered better than MM. I did also consider the Lyra Delos, but ruled against it for a few reasons, 1) I like neutral and the suggestions were that this cart isn't, 2) There are reports of collapsing suspension and the paper underside starts rubbing against the record (paper strips on the bottom of an expensive cart?), 3) The cantilever is less protected than the XX2 (if you accidentally lowered the arm to the right of the platter, even if it hits the carved dots, the only thing that can touch is the cartridge metalwork...physically impossible for the XX2 cantilever to hit anything, but not the case with the Delos). The XX2 is meant to be 90% of the sound of the XV-1 ...no idea if that is true or not. What I don't hear, wont tempt me
I wonder if the heavy counterweight available for the AT-120 would fit the PLX-1000? http://www.lpgear.com/product/ATCW1.html
As I was reading this forum page, I was thinking of the same thing, because I already own the heavy counterweight for the AT-120. If I get the PLX-1000 in the near future, I'll let everybody know
Great to hear the XX2 is sounding great. It is a step up from the Ortofon Black and excellent that the PLX-1000 can enable you to hear the differences. I have used Dynavector carts for 15 years and they are great sounding carts. Re the Lyra cartridges. Don't believe the stories. I own the Atlas and Delos and have owned the Kleos and zero issues. You need to look after it and have it set up correctly and it will perform very well. Lyra carts are a little more neutral than the Dynavector carts and do place a few more demands on tonearms - can sound lean in a lean system. Enjoy the XX2 Cheers
You own the Atlas?! Please tell me you feel at least slightly nervous handling that thing How many cartridges do you have?!
Yea, the Atlas is superb - silly money but a true reference performer. The old age of practice makes perfect is true. I don't really get nervous handling cartridges anymore. The nude ones like the Atlas, Delos, Dyna XV-1s or Ortofon A90 are actually the easiest to set up - as the cantilever is so easy to align as there is no body hiding it . When setting up a cartridge, one needs to be alone and thinking clearly - so not after a long day at work I have around 14 or 15 cartridges and swap them around a bit, so I maintain the practice. Having 5 tables helps in spreading the load around as each table / cartridge combo sounds slightly different and all are enjoyable - even the cheap ones. Just enjoying Richard Hawley, Lady's Bridge while I type this on the PLX-1000 with early 80's Audio Technica AT25 MM. Sounds cheers
I've just acquired an Ortofon 2m Blue (second hand, 50 hrs on it) and I've got 2 spare headshells (Ortofon SH-4 and Jelco HS-25)....The Ortofon would be the natural choice but the Jelco has the luxury of azimuth adjustment (will this latter combo be too heavy?). Which shell should I opt for on my PLX-1000?
Hi Everyone, New member here and new owner of a PLX-1000. I've been following this thread for the past couple of months and used the information presented here to help me decide to purchase the PLX-1000. It replaces a Pro-ject 1.2 (yeah, it's pretty old) with a Grado Z2+ (ditto on old) cartridge. I didn't play my LP's much until I bought a VPI 16.5 record cleaning machine (great investment), so clean records made me think that I should upgrade the turntable. Using a Meridian 101 preamp as my phono stage (circa 1979) going into a Marantz AV-8003 preamp/processor. The hardest part of the decision to get the Pioneer was actually deciding on what cartridge to get for it. I almost suffered a sort of paralysis when trying to decide, since there is such a bewildering number of choices. I was trying to keep under $500 for the cartridge, and had sort of developed a short list of 3 cartridges. The Ortofon Bronze, AT 150MLX and Nagaoka MP-200. I listened to the Youtube videos of all these cartridges (well, not so much for the MP-200) and honestly felt I would be OK with any fo them, but I couldn't get myself to pull the trigger on one. That was until I heard a few clips of an Ortofon MC-3, and there was something about what I heard that was differnent from the other cartridges. It just sounded right. My old time favorite cartridge was a Sumo II moving coil that I had for a long time, and the MC-3 sort of reminded me of that. So..I picked up the MC-3 Turbo from LPgear, and one of their HD headshells. The turntable arrived before the cartridge so I installed the Shure M44-7 that came with the turntable. I have to say that my initial impressions of the turnable with that cartridge was very dissapointing. The one work that came to mind on first listen was nasty. Ice pick through the temple kind of bad. I suspect part of my problems may have that the M44-7 might have been overloading my phono stage, or the input on the AV-8003. When I played something classical with a low level of intensity there were hints of something good, but overall in my system, the stock M44-7 seems to be a non starter. Then came the MC-3 Turbo. Mounted it into the LP gear headshell, put it on the turntable and the real fun began. Initially, I was less than smitten with it, but figured it was a new cartridge that needed to loosen up a littlw. Checked the angle of the tonearm visually, and it seemed to be a bit higher at the back than in the front. Problem is, the tonearm was as low as it could go... So I put a relatively thin cork mat on top of the thick rubber one that came with the turntable and that seemed to do the trick. The base of the cartridge apprears to be paralell with the surface of the record now. Tracking set at 2.0 grams. Bottom line...Now that I've got about 4 hours on the system, it sounds really good to me. The MC-3 Turbo is better than I expected. It's not perfect, as the response seems slightly U shapped on my system with the midrange seeming slightly recessed, but it really is a minor critisism at this point. Yesterday I played side 2 of Heart Little Queen and the acoustic guitar on Treat Me Well sounded as real as I have ever hard it. Strings attached to a wooden body real. Old LP's that I never cared for because the seems dark, or closed in (Vox Turnabout recordings of Cincinnati Symphony with Thomas Schippers) were actually enjoyable. A direct to disk recording of Les Brown's big band had blatty brass, smooth trombones and reedy saxophones. Really good stuff. So now, I'm tempted to use a vacation day so I can spend all day cleaning and listening to my LP's. The combination of PLX-1000 and Ortofon MC-3 Turbo has revitilized my desire to listen to my LP's. As they say in the magazines. Highly recommended. Chuck
I don't know who you bought your PLX from, but it doesn't come with a cartridge. If they threw the Shure in for free, great, but if you paid more than $699 + tax, they ripped you off. That's the RRP of the turntable - mine cost me about $741 from a local store. Regardless, enjoy the deck! I love mine and will be thinking about a mono cart to go alongside my Ortifon Red, since I seem to have acquired quite a few mono LP's...
I'd say Jelco. I found the azimuth was off with the factory headshell. Use a bubble level on top of the headshell to check or adjust, just make sure the arm is locked in the armrest.
I bought mine from Guitar Center, and they do include a Shure cartridge. It was supposed to be the M44-7, but they were out of stock so they substituted a M44G.
I was hoping someone would say that (!) - I was a little worried about the total weight, if that isn't an issue then the Jelco looks the better of the two because of the range of adjustments....Superb head shells.
