Any advice on tonearm rewiring for an MMF 5.1?

[CasualKiller]

So when I purchased my nice Grado Platinum off John I accidentally broke one of my tonearm wires. I was removing my old cartridge and when pulling on the clip my tweezers slipped and ripped the wire lol.

I managed to solder the end back on and hook everything up but it's just not the same. So I ordered some brand new Cardas tonearm wire and clips (cryo treated) and I'm going to redo everything.

I have plenty of experience soldering but I've never actually removed a tonearm before. Do you have to fully disassemble it or can you just tie everything down to prevent movement and remove the whole tonearm?

Looking for tips/pointers, I'm fairly confident I can do this with minimal fuss, I just want to know what the worst case scenarios may be etc.

[richteer]

Originally Posted by CasualKiller

So when I purchased my nice Grado Platinum off John I accidentally broke one of my tonearm wires. I was removing my old cartridge and when pulling on the clip my tweezers slipped and ripped the wire lol.

Ouch! :-(

I managed to solder the end back on and hook everything up but it's just not the same. So I ordered some brand new Cardas tonearm wire and clips (cryo treated) and I'm going to redo everything.

I have plenty of experience soldering but I've never actually removed a tonearm before. Do you have to fully disassemble it or can you just tie everything down to prevent movement and remove the whole tonearm?

Looking for tips/pointers, I'm fairly confident I can do this with minimal fuss, I just want to know what the worst case scenarios may be etc.

Definitely remove the tonearm (and cartrdige too, obviously!), but I'd think very carefully before disassembling it. In fact, I'd be almost inclined to ask for a repair quotation from your dealer and/or Music Hall before proceding yourself. Post a pic so that we can see what you're talking about: some tonearms have replacable headshell leads, in which case you might be OK repairing it yourself.

Thinking longer term, you need to consider the resale value. A potentially botched DIY repair will devalue your TT considerably.

[CasualKiller]

Yeah I ordered some new lead clips to try that first. Problem was that when it ripped it actually took 1/4 of an inch of wire with it. Considering there's only maybe half an inch to start with my options are trim the rest to the same size and re clip all of them or completely redo the wiring.

Was hoping I could preserve some of the resale value by switching everything out then I could go for the "upgraded with cryo treated Cardas wire" angle lol.

But aside from that I read on a few other forums that the Cardas wire is actually a very good upgrade for Music Hall tables. Unfortunately they don't give any details on actually taking one apart.

Much to consider..

[FreddieFerric]

If the arm is internally dampened then I would think the complexity of the rewire increased considerably. First choice in my mind would be to look for a professional service to do this job. Second choice would be to find some printed illustration of how to rewire your particular arm. If you do decide to go the DIY route, I would advise mapping out the entire process and then double checking it before you do anything to the arm. Good Luck!

[richteer]

Originally Posted by CasualKiller

Was hoping I could preserve some of the resale value by switching everything out then I could go for the "upgraded with cryo treated Cardas wire" angle lol.

But aside from that I read on a few other forums that the Cardas wire is actually a very good upgrade for Music Hall tables. Unfortunately they don't give any details on actually taking one apart.

Much to consider..

Upgrading the whole arm cable with Cardas would probably be a good idea, then, but I'd strongly recommend paying a pro to do it (perhaps even returning it to Music Hall or their Canadian rep via your dealer). Arm bearings aren't easy to disassemble/reassemble, and doing it wrong will more than negate the benefits of an upgraded tonearm cable.

[CasualKiller]

Found a walk through for the 2.1, the tonearms are almost identical. Parts should be in Wednesday, I'll keep you informed.

Worst case scenario keep your eye on the trade forum for a dirt cheap MMF 5.1 lol.

[FreddieFerric]

Originally Posted by CasualKiller

Found a walk through for the 2.1, the tonearms are almost identical. Parts should be in Wednesday, I'll keep you informed.

Worst case scenario keep your eye on the trade forum for a dirt cheap MMF 5.1 lol.

How's it going? Have you started yet, or waiting on the weekend?

[CasualKiller]

Parts are in but I missed delivery so I have to pick them up at the post office. Pretty positive they aren't open tomorrow so I'm hoping for Saturday.

Found an old Yamaha-YP450 belt drive, hooked up a new belt, lubed the platter bearing and rewired the head shell with Ortofon leads. The head shell was faded down to the aluminum so I gave it a gentle sand blasting at work being careful to preserve the small logo on the tip. Gave the head shell as well as the platter a coat of high gloss black rustoleum. The only downside is the cover is yellowed from heavy smoking so I tossed it.

Looong story short I have a back up lined up in case anything goes south on Saturday. I just purchased a PS Audio GCHA headphone amp and Grado GS1000i headphones so I won't be able to buy a replacement table until at least July , IF anything goes wrong.

We'll find out Saturday lol.

[FreddieFerric]

I've always found it helpful to dry run the steps a few times before actually doing it. Problem is, there's usually some unforseen snag that you just didn't anticipate. Just take your time, be patient and above all GOOD LUCK!

[CasualKiller]

Well I have it all ripped apart and I'm pretty choked at what I found.
Big burnt blobs of solder and a complete mess. As far as the rewiring itself, if you are even remotely mechanically inclined it's fairly easy.

The key is to take it easy and not to rush. I can post pictures on the weekend if anyone's interested in this sort of stuff.

[richteer]

Originally Posted by CasualKiller

Well I have it all ripped apart and I'm pretty choked at what I found.
Big burnt blobs of solder and a complete mess. As far as the rewiring itself, if you are even remotely mechanically inclined it's fairly easy.

The key is to take it easy and not to rush. I can post pictures on the weekend if anyone's interested in this sort of stuff.

Post away--I'm interested!

[FreddieFerric]

Originally Posted by CasualKiller

Well I have it all ripped apart and I'm pretty choked at what I found.
Big burnt blobs of solder and a complete mess...

Wow! Is this one of the newer carbon fibre arms? I'm surprised at your description. Could you clarify? Pics would be greatly appreciated.

BTW, have you thought about trying to dampen the arm while you have it apart?

[CasualKiller]

I'll get some pics up this weekend. On one of the posts in on the RCA jack the wire wasn't even contacting, it's just floating on top of a blob of solder.

Putting it on hold until next week. I have no idea how to remove that much solder so since I have it all opened up I'm going to replace the RCA connectors as well. Just ordered 2 pairs, one Cardas and one Vampire, both cryo treated so I'll use the better of the two. Hard to judge from photos online.

[FreddieFerric]

Well, keep a positive outlook on it. Post up some pics and maybe we can all put our collective noggins together and come up with a fix for the situation.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by CasualKiller

I'll get some pics up this weekend. On one of the posts in on the RCA jack the wire wasn't even contacting, it's just floating on top of a blob of solder.

Putting it on hold until next week. I have no idea how to remove that much solder so since I have it all opened up I'm going to replace the RCA connectors as well. Just ordered 2 pairs, one Cardas and one Vampire, both cryo treated so I'll use the better of the two. Hard to judge from photos online.

Joe! You're a more courageous man than I am. I admire your tenacity in wanting to do this yourself. Good luck and yes, please post pics.....would love to see the process.

John

[CasualKiller]

Unfortunately I never started this with pics in mind so I'll update from where I am.

Here is the tonearm, all freshly wired with Cardas cryo treated 33 awg. I fed it through by cutting the old clips off and stripping the wire back on both the old and new wire. I then soldered the new stuff to the old and as I pulled out the old stuff the new stuff threaded on its own.





Before I fed it through I attached the new clips to the opposite end of new wire, these are Cardas PCC E cryo treated clips. Not too shabby of a job considering my fat fingers.




here's an inside view of the RCA box from underneath the MMF 5.1. As you can see there was more solder than I cared to attempt to remove so I ordered 2 pairs of new ones. They should be here Tuesday-ish.




And finally here's a view of the disaster in progress all over the kitchen table that a certain someone is less than pleased about LOL. To do the heat shrink I picked up a cheap 10 dollar butane torch at Canadian Tire that turned out to be even less of a deal as I had to go buy a lighter to light the piece of crap.... lesson learned.




And off topic, my headphones arrived today !!!!

[CasualKiller]

For anyone else in Canada who may ever need parts etc I found a great site with fast shipping. This is where I've been buying everything from:

http://www.takefiveaudio.com/mall/default.asp

[FreddieFerric]

Looks like you've got it by the tail my friend! I'm sure that you'll notice the Cardas wire to be a big upgrade to the stock wire on that arm. Let us know how it all turns out...especially the sound!

[CasualKiller]

Well that was an adventure. Everything is back together and I just took it for a test run. It definitely changed the overall tone of the table. Everything was a piece of cake, I had one small glitch. The ground to the box underneath wasn't soldered very well (lol after my complaining about theirs). Quick fix, stripped it a bit farther and re soldered, worked like a charm.

As for the RCA's if they hadn't been in labeled bags I never could have told the difference. I ended up using the cryo treated Vampires as they actually cost more so I better put them to use.

Was it worth it ? I think so. Everything has a richer, more involving tone to it. Going to set it all up in a listening area I set aside in the basement with my new Grados and a PS Audio GCHA headphone amp.

[kefrank]

Awesome thread - especially the pics! This made me strongly consider upgrading the tonearm wiring in my MMF-2.2 at some point. I've already broken off one of the clips on the stock wire when changing the cartridge. Thankfully I didn't lose a significant portion of the wire itself, so I was able to solder the clip back on, but I'm definitely tentative about changing the cart again with the stock wiring.