Re-Cap Turntable?

[TomB]

I was looking at the service manual for my vintage (OK, old!) Denon turntable, and I was surprised by the amount of capacitors, resistors and other electronic stuff that's in a turntable. (I guess I never gave it any thought.)

Is that stuff just related to speed control and other turntable operations, or does it have something to do with the signal?

Again, I hadn't given it much thought, but I always just imagined that the signal pretty much went straight from the cartridge to the turntable output, and didn't go through much in the table.

And, if the electronics in the turntable are signal-related, can/should they be upgraded?

[SCompRacer]

They are most likely for the motor/speed control, unless your table has powered speakers on it. Usually the signal goes direct from the tonearm out or to a small circuit board and out via interconnects. Some turntables had contact points that disconnected the signal wires from the tonearm when the tonearm parked.

Here is an innards shot of my old Yamaha YP-D10. (The YP-D10 is a very high quality table with heavy wood plinth and tonearm with adjustable VTA).



Some folks say leave it alone if it works. Others may attempt to swap the caps out. Just be aware there may be some adjusting that may have to take place if you did swap parts. Your service manual would be helpful if you were to undertake the project.

The reason I say some adjusting may be required is I have swapped boards out of direct drive tables when repairing them. I had to adjust the speed with pots on the circuit board because I was unable to get the correct speed with the fine tune speed adjustments on the top of the turntable. YMMV Depends on design, features, etc.

[TomB]

Thanks, SCompRacer.

I'm not going to mess with it, but the manual has instructions on adjusting the speed, motor torque, arm lift, etc with the pots.

Actually, I can't even find the signal path on the circuit diagram!

[SCompRacer]

What model Denon is it? I have owned Denon gear, including turntables. There are young and vintage folks here that still love the old stuff.

[TomB]

It's a Denon DP-31L.

I bought it new in 1982.