New turntable woes (TT-15S1)

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Vinyl Addict, Jan 2, 2020.

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  1. Davey

    Davey NP: Portishead ~ Portishead (1997)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    Do you have RCA cables from TV to your system? If so, it is probably a ground issue, can you use digital connection instead? May have to experiment with plug polarity, or where the TV is plugged in. Or if nothing is connected to system, is it a proximity problem? How is TV connected into the system?
     
  2. Vinyl Addict

    Vinyl Addict Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    MA

    As I wrote in my previous post. The TV is in no way connected to the stereo. They only share the same circuit breaker.
     
  3. MagCinema

    MagCinema New Member

    Hello all! This may or may not be "on topic" but this thread is the most current and active regarding the Marantz TT15.

    I recently purchased and "used" Marantz TT15 from eBay. I have several theories about how it arrived at this seller but needless to say, they are not a Hi-Fi Shop.

    Has anyone seen this issue with the belt slipping down every few seconds??? - see my private video:

    Any suggested solutions?
     
  4. Davey

    Davey NP: Portishead ~ Portishead (1997)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    What does the motor pulley look like? I'd clean the belt and platter and make sure the pulley is clean, sometimes there can be gunk built up in the groove, use a q-tip and alcohol to get it nice and clean. Sometimes people tighten the pulley unevenly too, or even install it upside down. I prefer to leave the 3 plastic set screws loosened (or removed entirely) and use a drop of epoxy to secure the pulley to motor shaft, it usually spins with less runout or wobble that way for smoother belt movement. Without the belt, make sure the platter spins freely, maybe it needs oil. Or the motor is not level, so pulley is cocked. I like to firmly attcah the motor and turntable feet to the platform below, using blobs of blu-tak in place of the silicone bumpers, makes it much more stable. You can also raise the motor up a bit so the belt is running closer to center of platter, but it shouldn't move around if everything is in good condition.
     
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  5. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    I mentioned earlier in the thread how this happened to me as well but it was just that the pulley was inverted. That's the plastic part the belt goes onto atop of the motor. Flip it around and that'll take care of the problem.
     
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  6. MagCinema

    MagCinema New Member

    Thx to Davey & Strat - I will start with the above suggestions.
     
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  7. izgoblin

    izgoblin Forum Resident

    That's a common problem and a design flaw with that turntable. The workaround is to put the motor on something that will lift it just slightly enough to keep the belt from sliding off. The belt will still ride low after you do that, but it should stay. I put a mouse pad under my motor and that's all it took. Weird that they didn't catch that in testing.
     
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  8. MagCinema

    MagCinema New Member

    Thx izgoblin - that was on my "to do" list next as I browse other discussion forums. What concerns me is the odd "slip down" every few seconds which is audible to me with a "test tone" disc playing. It does seem like an obvious design flaw....
     
  9. Danilo

    Danilo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Milano Italy
    Just lift the pulley so as the flat top is even with the motor spindle and the belt will not slip anymore
     
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  10. ubiknik

    ubiknik Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    The Satisfy arm doesn't have magnetic bearings as stated early on in the thread, it has a magnetic anti skate device which works fine especially if you back it off so it's not as close as recommended.
    My belt wasn't slipping off but I put a platform under it anyway, it seemed silly to have it so far down on the platter.
    If the deck seems to be unusually reactive to footfalls, resonant vibrations and such then check that the platter bearing has enough bearing oil in the well, when it's dry or almost dry the platter is very touchy, when oil is right it's great and very stable.
    I would break in that AT stylus to see how it sounds -if nothing else for curiosity's sake, people do that cheap stylus replacement all the time and they say it works well, if nothing else it will possibly be a nice back up cart.
     
  11. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    Run a ground wire from the chassis of the tv to the grounding post on your preamp.
     
  12. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    So... update? ;)
     
  13. Musictravelfun

    Musictravelfun Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I set up a new TT-15s1 last week and love it. I did notice that when I was trying to balance the plinth/platter I used the adjustable legs which ultimately lifted the plinth up making the belt ride lower on the platter and potentially fall off. You can either try balancing whatever is underneath or as others have suggested, just slightly raise up the motor or pulley. Mine has been running perfectly now for over 20hrs and sounds wonderful with no belt screech or fall-off. [​IMG]
     
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  14. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    Well, here is an interesting development. In setting up my Marantz TT-15S1 turntable, I did not "carefully" adjust the vertical tracing angle, which has to be done manually by trial and error, and it is time consuming. Anyway, I got it set up perfectly now, where the arm is now perfectly parallel with the record with the cork mat I am using.

    Before the adjustment, the queuing mechanism picked the stylus up off of the record with a substantial gap (lift), however, when I proceeded to lower the back of the arm to achieve a perfect parallel arm position, the queuing mechanism barely picks the arm up at all, clearing the record so slightly it could actually bounce on the record, if I accidentally dropped the arm, the clearance between the stylus and the record in the UP position is just too darn close for comfort!

    So, if you own a Marantz TT-15S1 or the Clear Audio twin, with the Virtuoso wood standard cartridge, and you have a wide lift when using your queuing arm, you probably do NOT have your arm set for the correct VTA which I found out today!

    I called Marantz to ask if the queuing lift is adjustable to increase the amount of lift and they are worthless, no one answers at all, I held until my phone went dead, over ONE HOUR! So I placed a call to my dealer, who was going to call the Marantz rep, but I have not heard back on that yet. So, if anyone on here knows if the Marantz queuing arm on their TT-15S1 turntable is adjustable to increase the lift, please jump on here and let me know how that adjustment is made, it would be appreciated. There is a small allen screw on the front of the queuing mechanism, but it does not look like an adjustment point, but rather just a screw to hold the front of the Mechanism on!

    So, hopefully someone knows the answer! thanks so much! :agree:
     
  15. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    Yep, the belt WILL chatter a bit on start up, and I think it is because straight out of the box, that belt is pretty loose, which I suppose it should be, where it won't wear the turntable parts with excessive pressure. So, in light of the belt being rather loose, what you need to do, is ALWAYS give your platter a small turn, before you hit the power switch on the motor. With the platter moving slightly, you will have absolutely NO belt chatter, and by doing this, it reduces any strain on the motor and will reduce belt stretching and belt wear. It's very easy to just give the platter a little starting spin before hitting the power button on the turntable, I do it now automatically, without even thinking about it!

    I would think since you bought a used table, the included belt probably had a bit of stretching and wear, possibly because the previous owner did not give the platter a gentle spin start, so it would chatter even more than a new one. Marantz really rips the customer off on those darn belts, I think they charge $50.00 for a .50 cent belt, which is beyond a rip off! :righton:
     
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2020
  16. Davey

    Davey NP: Portishead ~ Portishead (1997)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    There's a set screw on the back of the tonearm pillar that can be used to adjust the height of the lateral bearing, so will change the relationship between the arm and the rest. Normally the arm rest/cueing mechanism moves together with the tonearm assembly as you change arm height, and there is no separate adjustment for the cueing mechanism, so the relationship shouldn't change. My guess is that you now have the back of the arm too low, how are you checking for parallel to record? How much gap do you see between the support pillar and the bottom of tonearm bearing assembly, does it look about like below ...

    [​IMG]



    Previous discussion:
    Tone arm height question Marantz TT-15S Turntable
     
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2020
    Danilo likes this.
  17. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    I found that post just minutes AFTER I posted my question, thanks so much for your response. Let me get a bit more into the detail here with you. I see not one, but two allen wrench screws. In the picture you see one at the bottom of the round part where the tube of the arm is, and then there is one on the lower part below the arm. Which one are you turning and which way do you turn the one that needs turning in order to achieve a wider gap between the stylus and record, when the cue is in the UP position? In other words, which of the screws do I fool with, and when I make the turn of that particular screw with my allen wrench, do I turn it clockwise or counter clock wise in order to increase the lift gap???

    Thanks so much!
     
  18. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    I am using some really great levels that actually couple to the tone arm, and by couple, I mean they both do a semi wrap around on the arm, they just don't sit on top of it, they actually wrap around the carbon arm, so cool! So I was able to get that arm totally and completely parallel to the record, very exacting. The blue level is used to start the process, and the white level is a fine tune, and these two levels really do the job, perfect parallel position set!

    You will see in this pic that the bubble is not centered, and that is because the arm is not on the record, when on the record, it is perfectly centered in the gauge. Once the VTA was perfectly set, I reset the VTF to 2.20g The only thing not perfect is the ability to pick the arm up a bit higher using the cue arm. It does pick the tone arm off the record, but the clearance is not enough for my comfort. :cop:

    [​IMG]



    [​IMG]
     
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  19. Davey

    Davey NP: Portishead ~ Portishead (1997)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    The lower screw in the picture above is the one that holds the bearing. It's not an adjustment, it locks the bearing in place, but you can loosen it enough to be able to lift the tonearm assembly up or move it down, then retighten. It will just change the relative distance bewteen the tonearm pivot and the arm rest. It is the same as adjusting the VTA, except only the pivot is moved, not the whole assembly, and only over a small range.
     
  20. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    Ok Davey, I think we are cooking on the front burner now! Just to BE SURE, I loosen the screw on the lower assembly, as shown in this picture and it will move up and down. When you made this adjustment on your table, did you find that once this allen screw was loosened, the arm was capable of moving down less than it was capable of moving up? I would assume to gain more space on the cue lift, the arm would have to be lowered and in that picture, it does not look like there is much room to lower it at all, but I don't know if the picture reflects the original factory setting on arm height, that pic might have been taken AFTER the height adjustment was made, what can you add ?

    Below is a pic of the screw I will loosen!

    Silly question here, will a change in this level not affect the already corrected perfectly set VTA that I have already made???

    [​IMG]
     
  21. Wattie66

    Wattie66 Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Yorkshire
    Those look really useful, do you mind telling us where you got them from?
     
  22. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    Sure, and YES, they are fantastic. The part at the bottom that does a semi wrap around the arm does not show, but they are there. They come in a package, which has two levels, the blue one centers the correct level, and the white one puts the edge of the bubble in the perfect position, a fine tune, so to speak, they are GREAT!!

    The set comes in one package for about $4.00 at Home Depot and I was lucky to find levels that were so perfect for what I was using them for! :agree: Just remember to get some coins and wrap in painters tape and attach to the back of your tone arm weight to offset the weight of the level, when you place it on the tonearm, and BE CAREFUL when you set this up, the potential is great to damage your stylus, so careful when you do this procedure!!!!!!!
     
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  23. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    You are very correct on the anti-skate, it you set it as the instructions say, it's far too much anti-skate applied, mine was backed way off, WAY OFF. I have the Shure tracking record for testing anti-skate, and the difference in the factory recommended setting and the optimum setting is HUGE. I got this setting spot on using several back to back listening sessions. On the Shure record, there are degrees or levels where it is easy to physically hear the mistracking, it's much easier than I though it would be to get the anti-skate set perfectly, and I could not have done it without the Shure record, no way. If anyone wants to see where the anti-skate needs to be set, I can post a picture of where mine is set, where you will know, of course depending on the magnetic force being equal on all these turntables, which is probably is not, as my factory setting for anti-skate was totally wrong and complete overkill. As the folks at VPI told me, it's much better to not have enough anti-skate rather than too much! :righton:
     
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  24. Davey

    Davey NP: Portishead ~ Portishead (1997)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    Yes, adjusting the bearing height will of course change the VTA, but I think it's the only way to adjust the cueing lift. You only need to change it by a small amount, just keep an eye on the clearance between bottom of arm and the top of cueing surface.

    Below are some pics of my Satisfy arm, it's a different table, but same basic arm. You can see that I have less of the bearing showing compared to the picture in your post, mine is actually a little low right now and so I have too much lift clearance above the record, I'll adjust it up a little at some point, it's leftover from when I had the arm out a while back to make some bearing checks ...


    Bearing clearance:
    [​IMG]

    Cueing up:
    [​IMG]

    Cueing down:
    [​IMG]
     
  25. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital

    Just want to thank you so much for your assistance, no one at Marantz knew anything! I got everything adjusted perfectly, the lift is perfect now, thanks to you! Happy listening! :righton:
     
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