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HELP with my Acoustic Research XA! [message #12433]

Mon, 08 August 2005 10:16

kevin
Messages: 12
Registered: May 2009

Chancellor

I need help with my XA Turntable!!!! I recently replaced the cartridge with a Shure 97XE and it sounded better than ever (I set the force to 1.25g) but this morning when I went to play a record the left channel was gone. Upon further inspection, I realized that there was sound coming out of the tweeter, and vibration from the speaker woofer, but barely audible sound. I swapped speakers, tested a few records, tested the amp, and everything else checked out fine, so the problem lies in the turntable. Has this happened to anyone before? Could it be a stylus or cartridge problem? I checked the stylus and the diamond tip seems to be sharp and I cleaned off any dust there was on the cartridge. I did buy the cartridge on ebay, but it was brand new when I bought it. If someone could get back to me ASAP that would be great! This is my first time using this forum so I don't exactly know if it will forward your responses to my email or not. If not, could you just email them to my address: absolutkj@yahoo.com

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Re: HELP with my Acoustic Research XA! [message #12434 is a reply to message #12433]

Mon, 08 August 2005 11:27

Manualblock
Messages: 4973
Registered: May 2009

Illuminati (13th Degree)

The cartridge is bad. How did you check your cartridge set-up; with what sort of alignment gauge?

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Re: HELP with my Acoustic Research XA! [message #12435 is a reply to message #12434]

Mon, 08 August 2005 11:47

kevin
Messages: 12
Registered: May 2009

Chancellor

the only gauge I used was the Shure stylus force gauge 2. The cartridge was working for a few weeks, with moderate to heavy play.

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Re: HELP with my Acoustic Research XA! [message #12436 is a reply to message #12435]

Mon, 08 August 2005 12:50

Manualblock
Messages: 4973
Registered: May 2009

Illuminati (13th Degree)

I would check the cartridge mounting pins and be sure they are securely fastened to the leads. Then the wiring to the RCA jacks or if it is straight wired check beneath the bottom cover and be sure the wires are connected properly. If you have an ohmeter you can check continuity through the leads to the male jacks with that. If all the wiring is tight and clean I would suspect the cartridge and possibly try a cheap model to see if that is the situation. Or replace the stylus in your Shure. The body of the cartridge should be o'kay. The stylus could be mis-mounted in the cart.

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Re: HELP with my Acoustic Research XA! [message #12437 is a reply to message #12436]

Mon, 08 August 2005 16:06

BillEpstein
Messages: 886
Registered: May 2009

Illuminati (2nd Degree)

If you remove the bottom cover you will find there is a solder terminal where the spider thin strands of wire from the cartridge/arm connect to the output cable. They are very fragile!
There is neutral and hot just like at the cartridge pins for each channel plus a separate ground. I recall then being color-coded like the cartridge but I'm not certain.You may have a partial short to ground on the bad channel so resoldering those leads might help.
In any case, further help is available fron DDarch at Vinyl Nirvana or The Analog Dept

The Analog Dept

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Re: HELP with my Acoustic Research XA! [message #12440 is a reply to message #12436]

Tue, 09 August 2005 07:58

kevin
Messages: 12
Registered: May 2009

Chancellor

I replaced the cartridge and there was no improvement so I borrowed my friends multimeter, and sure enough, there was no coninuity through the left RCA output. There must be either a short in the wire or something got disconnected. I'm going to open everything up today and go to work on it. Thanks for your advice.

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Re: HELP with my Acoustic Research XA! [message #12446 is a reply to message #12433]

Wed, 10 August 2005 16:40

hurdy_gurdyman
Messages: 416
Registered: May 2009

Illuminati (1st Degree)

Another place to check for wiring problems on the AR is where the wire runs between the top plate and the sprung subchassis. If the table was transported with the outer platter in place, the floating chassis will bounce around and chew through the wire. A complete tonearm rewiring is in order. Not hard, but requires patience. The AR-XA is worth the effort, IMHO.

Dave

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Re: HELP with my Acoustic Research XA! [message #12453 is a reply to message #12446]

Thu, 11 August 2005 15:19

Dominic
Messages: 29
Registered: May 2009

Chancellor

before doing anything serious like rewiring the toanarm or resoldering the spider wires, check the contacts between the headpiece and the toanarm. It's the first place I would ever look for trouble and very often where the problem is. good luck.

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