Can’t see an allen key, did they leave it out?
Ah wait, there he is.
One of my hats is opening buildings for the company I work for and everything is IKEA. We’re a Swedish company, and we get everything at cost. All of our facilities guys have drill bits that are the same as the Allen keys and they whizz through the builds.
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Quick review of the SHM / IKEA OBEGRÄNSAD.
£129 so can’t expect too much I guess, not had any Ikea bits for a while and seems to have dropped in quality, there is a ‘lump’ on one edge where a dowel hole has been drilled too far into plinth, had to alter some dowels as wrong amount of long and short versions. Standard I guess.
We have stone floors and a wonky house so can’t use the kit to attach it to the wall. It REALLY needs this as it wobbles like a MF. Even my old Ikea shelving has cross braces to give some rigidity, going to have to fashion some kind of brace/bracket to help with the wobble. I can imagine with wooden flooring and dancing around might give you some real issues. Should be better when it’s full of records hopefully.
6/10 Vinyls
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You could add a square or triangle of plywood or similar, maybe no more than 120mm to the back at each corner. Screw into top and side, bottom and side. I think that’d really improve stability and stop it racking.
Or a sheet of 6mm MDF painted black and cut to size and fix to the back of the unit. That’d really firm things up.
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i just cut the right angle off one and basically turned it into a drill bit. works like a charm!
Sheet of MDF on the back and screw castor wheels onto bottom, save yourself loads of hassle in the future
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I wouldn’t put it past my facilities guys having done the same. They are generally an interesting crew.
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I have a 3x4 ikea shelf unit and even it being full with records it wobbles when knocked in the side, so defo recommended reinforcement!
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Seems one of my turntables has a dodgy (audio) cable.
Thought I’d replace them on both while I’m at it.
I know there are a lot of serious audio folk hereabouts, anyone got a source for some replacements/upgrades?
I’m running Grado carts if that makes a difference.
Don’t use anything else, just replace and carry on playing music. My profession is audio electronics but I’m always up for being shouted down on a forum for not supporting some undeclared seller of ‘upgrades’.
How are the Grado’s? Can you still get these styli or carts?
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I have the same issue with my Technics. Are the audio cables straightforward enough to replace or should I hire someone who knows what they are doing before I start poking around?
i’m going to defer to @Ddiscof as they appear much wiser than me when it comes to this stuff. however, i used to do basic repair/services to 1200’s and i don’t know that i’d recommend dismantling yours without a fair amount of experience. i’d also agree with sticking with the genuine replacement parts - it’s tempting to go with fancy RCAs but there’s a crucial M-shaped piece that holds the RCAs in place and keeps the cord from ripping off the circuit board, and only genuine stuff can fit under that piece.
i forget exactly how many screws have to come out of the bottom before it gives (18? maybe like five or six different sizes/types?) and when we were doing them regularly, we had a nice lil’ jig made so we could flip them over and hold them up and in place so we knew we couldn’t crush or bend anything crucial up top. we’d do RCA cords, pitch adjusters, AC cords and - the worst - the pop up lamps.
if i had issues with mine today, i’d have someone else fix it. i’d drive myself crazy if i left it worse than it was.
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With no previous electronic experience I’ve managed to replaces audio cables and pitch faders on my 1210s with watching YouTube videos. There’s loads of info out there and it is pretty straightforward once you’ve got the hang of soldering (loads of YouTube vids) which is pretty easy and an important skill to have I believe. You’ll feel pretty smug once you’ve done it to! Don’t be afraid! You’ll have a load of cash which can be better spent on records
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Got recommended these also:
Being in the arse end of nowhere I’m pretty used to fixing all kind of stuff, from washing machines to central locking on the car, not saying my decks won’t be a delicate fix though. Did look up how to fix a dud pop up light, and no way am I bothered to fix that!
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I’ve gone both routes on my ‘93 vintage 1210s over the years. Initially I had a go myself and broke at least a couple of the screws holding the rubber bases on.
I once had the engineer from Skint records give them a service, he put some fancier RCA plugs on and didn’t charge a lot. PAT test sticker indicates the year 2000. Prior to that there was a guy called Aki who would mod your decks taking out the pitch 0 detent for smoother pitch adjustment and also putting in a switch which made your record play backwards. This cost a fortune and afforded literally minutes of fun. You live and learn, right?
A couple of years ago I had them both serviced by a guy at AudioPlus a big events and pa hire company and dealer.
He put on better, longer RCA cables and a longer more sturdy earth cable, converted the dim pop up lights to bright white LED. Took away the useless reverse switch and calibrated the pitch etc. From memory it cost about £200 per deck. Which stung at the time.
I’ve just retired them from gigging and will now use the MK3s from home for gigs instead.
For those wanting to have a go themselves, I remember an electrician called James on Youtube years and years ago who made simple but easy to follow vids on how to do everything you need and answered questions. Viper something. I’ll have a look but there’s probably loads more out there too.
I’d probably stick with using technics original parts if i had my time again and my old decks hadn’t already been messed about with. Just to keep them all as original as poss.
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I like them for listening, seem to me with my setup they are warmer and better bass response. Not great for queueing or pull backs though.
Still sell them:
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I have the Grado DJ100s. Used for gigs but now decided to stick with the Shure M4-77 mainly just for the much higher output.
I did find that my Grado have a lot of hum in certain places over the platter. Particularly toward the middle. I’d be interested to know if the 200s do the same?
I had a nightmare back cueing with mine. Finally penny dropped that you have to have your anti skate set to zero for it to work. Which makes sense.
So anti skate matched to counter weight for critical listening, zero for spin backs and cuing up.
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Had my previous Ortofon’s on, will report back about hum when I get it all fixed and set up again with the Grado’s, good tip re the anti skate ta.
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I’m not technical at all so I had my 1210 Mk2s serviced by The Deck Doctor a few years ago when the cable went. He put in new high quality RCAs and internalised the earth as well as giving them an overall service. I think that was about £200 but he’s only active inside the M25. He was very good though and it feels like the decks will last forever.
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