I recently purchased a used Akai Direct Drive turntable (AP-D210) and a used Soundesign AM-FM Stereo Receiver/Cassette Recorder (5601). The turntable works fine; it spins great and I can hear the faint hum of the music from the needle over a record. I also tested all of my reciever's components: AM/FM radio, tape, and phono-in work (I tested the phono in with an aux to phono cable connected to my laptop). However, when I plug the RCA cables from the turntable into the phono-in on my receiver, I get no sound - just a hum. I can hear an electric signal whenI touch the four little wires on my turntable's cartridge (don't know anything about these wires, just thought that I'd do that little test). I'm assuming something is wrong with my turntable - any ideas of how I could fix this?
Thanks!
Fortunately turntables are easy to trouble shoot. The first thing to do is remove the wires from the back if the cartridge. There should be colored rings on the base of the pins, corresponding to the colored wires.
Colour Channel Phase
Green Right Ground
-
Red Right Signal
+
Blue Left Ground
-
White Left Signal
+
Now get out your multimeter. Make sure the red wire connects to the tip of your right RCA connector. Now check the white wire. Now make sure each respective ground connects to the correct outside of each RCA connector.
Now make sure there is no short between any of the hot pins and a ground. Under no circumstances do this with the cartridge connected. There is easily enough power in a multimeter to burn out the delicate coils in a cartridge instantly.
Now usually a turntable has a ground wire that should be connected to the ground terminal on the back of the receiver.
If everything is in order reconnect the cartridge.
If there is no wiring problem then check the phono input of the receiver. You need a device that has a volume control with RCA outs. Turn it down very low and see if you get sound when connected to the phono input.
If all these checks are successful then the cartridge is no good and you need to purchase a new one.
If any of the wiring checks fail you will have to open up the turntable and find the fault. Some turntables have muting switches which can be a problem.
You should be able to trouble shoot this quite easily.
