Info on a Pioneer PL-10

[kalane]

I am looking for pretty much any info anyone has on a Pioneer PL-10 turtable. I'm 19, know pretty much nothing about it and it was given to me by someone that appears to know less. I figured I plugged it in, turned it on and put the needle on the record. I was wrong, there isn't even an on/off switch as I was stunned to find. I'm pretty knowledgeable when it comes to electronics, but this has me stumped. I plugged the RCA wires that come out of the turntable into a surround receiver. I have to turn the receiver up to about 75% to even be able to hear it, and even then the music sounds low quality, so there's obviously a problem. I can hear the sounds through what is apparently a little speaker inside the cartridge, which is definitely new to me. (Some of this may be common sense to some of you, you'll have to forgive my ignorance.) There's a knob on the arm for the needle where it meets the base of the table. The knob has numbers like {0; 0.5; 1.0; 1.5...up to 3.5.} There's one other knob next to where the needle meets the base and it's labeled "anti-skating". I screwed around with that a little bit, but didn't want to screw with anything near the needle too much. That's about all the info I got on it so far. I'm really interested in figuring out how to use the turntable and using it for the rest of my time. Any help/info would be appreciated. Thanks a lot.

[planet10]

A Pl 10 should be a belt-drive. You're HT receiver is unlikely to have a phono stage which is why you aren't getting any output.

The dial on the back of the arm is called the counterweight, You move it back & forth until the arm "floats", then rotate the numbered dial to 0 (without moving the counterweight). Then rotate the entire counterweight forward to set the tracking weight (which you can now read off the dial). how much depends on your cartridge, In many cases it will be between 1.5 and 2 (units are grams). The anti-skating is then dialed to whatever you set the tracking weight at.

A good place to get a budget phono stage is to buy a thrift store amp or receiver -- plug the TT into it and take the tape out into an AUX input of your HT receiver.

dave

[sreten]

Many HT recievers do have a phono input, especially the older ones.

On some there is an auxillary input that be switched between
line and phono use, usually by a small slider next to the sockets.

The give away is the presence of a small earth binding post,
very near the sockets of the correct input.

You need to find this input, if it doesn't have one follow p10's advice.

The sound you can hear is the record vibrating as it drives the
stylus, perfectly normal.

sreten.

[Swamilama]

Does anyone know where I can find a parts diagram for a Pioneer PL-10 TT? I am trying to get one working that I bought new in 1973. After putting a new belt on, the table does not seem to want to turn. The drive spindle turns fine, but the table does not seem to want to spin freely as it sits on the center spindle (after taking the belt off and just trying to spin the table), so I'm thinking that maybe there was a silicone washer or something that it is supposed to be sitting on, rather than the metal nut? But again, maybe the belt I received is too large and not applying enough pressure to the table? Maybe someone knows the correct belt length? Thanks in advance for any help!