Magnepan Unitrac I Tonearm

[BURGH]

Does anyone have any experience rewiring one of these?

I have read it is impossible and it is a throw away. Although I have read it can be done also.

I believe I have a short in the tonearm wiring. I am losing a channel as the tonearm moves across the album.

I have used my meter and I believe the RED wire is short to the arm.

Any input appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[BURGH]

Here is a picture of the tonearm.

 

[rayma]

I am losing a channel as the tonearm moves across the album. I have used my meter
and I believe the RED wire is short to the arm.

If you think the right channel hot (red) lead is shorting to the arm tube, disconnect both RCA cables
and the tone arm ground wire. Move the arm while watching an ohm meter connected between
the red lead (right hot) and the ground wire. If you don't see a short, try instead to the right green,
and then to left blue. It could also be an open connection as well.

 

[Hearinspace]

Does anyone have any experience rewiring one of these?

I have read it is impossible and it is a throw away. Although I have read it can be done also.

I believe I have a short in the tonearm wiring. I am losing a channel as the tonearm moves across the album.

I have used my meter and I believe the RED wire is short to the arm.

Any input appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Any input? OK, here's mine. I have a Unitrac I like a lot but haven't had to rewire it (yet).

Assuming you're sure it's a short and not a loose connection at the bottom connector, it can't be impossible to rewire. (They did have to wire it at the factory after all.) It's more a question of whether you want to do the work yourself or not.

If you do it yourself and "the burr" was the cause of the problem, Ralph's answer to your A-gon post is worth following.

Just make sure you spend time figuring out how you are going to wire it before you remove the old wire. (You might be able to use the old wire to draw in the new or something else that can be used that way). You also don't really need to do it exactly as original, instead going straight from cartridge tags to RCAs (for eg.) without using the connectors at either end of the original.

I read somewhere that Audio Origami does them and does a good job. Worth a call.

I've read that some have used heavier wire, notably the Cardas AWG33 but as is often the case on forums, the guys who did the work seemed to lose interest in posting once they got the confidence to carry it out, so we don't know how successful they were.

If you go for a rewire please post. To date, there is precious little info on these arms from people who do more than speculate and it would be good to have more real experience posted online.

Thanks

 

[BURGH]

Thanks for the reply. I have heard of this Burr mentioned. Where is it located.

I was thinking the same thing you mentioned. Why do you need to wire it back exactly like it was?

The wires come out at the end of the tonearm and goes to a connector to the cartridge. Why not wire to connectors that that attaches directly to the cartridge? This would eliminate one point of failure.

Also mine goes to some small connector at the base of the tonearm. It then goes to a shrink wrapped bundle where tha RCA cables are. Why not wire directly to the bundle and RCA cables. This would eliminate another connection point and possible source of failure.

Or install a terminal strip and solder everything together there.

How is this tonearm grounded? I am out of town and cannot look at it presently.

I was looking at the KAB Wire - KAB Electro Acoustics http://www.kabusa.com

or the Litz wire - Tonearm Wire