Restoration of HMV STEREO 666 (1976)

[anirban420]

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[anirban420]

look out for an EEI CS2000 stereo ceramic cart. These had their own sound signature when wired to these old circuits. Believe me, when listening to vinyl, even the newer bollywood releases will sound good if you use one of these carts with your little amplifier. These were early designs and were conceived keeping in mind focus on a broader mid range with restricted lows and slightly rolled off highs.

reubensm, you will be happy to know that the only available stereo HMV cartridge available to that seller was the EEI CS2000. After you told me for that very cartridge, I thought it was not in my luck. But when I saw that cartridge I can not express how much happy and joyous I was :yahoo:hyeah:. Just grabbed that in a second. Also got the authentic Sealed pack EEI MX 20 Stylus. Here are the pictures of those.....

 

[anirban420]

I want to know that pins of which side of the cartridge is connected to right channel of the amplifier....

 

[anirban420]

BDW, I have finished the restoration job of the electronics of the player. every components of the two boards (except the sweet germaniums) were changed. The original wiring contained 8 Shielded cable to connect the main boards to the tone control network mounted in the pots, and these things created a mess. I replaced them all with two 4+1 shielded cables, one each for the two boards. Cables from the cartridge ends in a 3 post tab. Original design contained two mono shielded cable (1+1 shielded cable actually) to connect amplifier from the tab via source selector rotary switch. Originally, the whole wiring was done in such a way that cables of the two channel can be kept separated. Keeping everything separate (even the transformer also) is an old debatable technique to increase the channel separation in stereo systems. Personally I am against of this theory for the low-fi systems like this. This kind of approach might be applicable to those high end systems where S/N ratio is very low keeping the background noise very suppressed condition, with no Hum or Hiss. Since, in this old system I was not bothered about that issue, I changed every mono shielded cable to stereo cables (2+1 shielded cable). This approach decreased the mess of wire yielding a neat and clean inside wiring, only 4 shielded wire is now connected between amplifier section and tone control panel. The difference of cleanliness can be understood if these pictures are compared with the picture of original wiring posted earlier in this thread. Attaching the picture herewith...

 

[anirban420]

I have told earlier that the platter of the machine was not moving, however, the motor was rotating. The AC motor sits in its position through three rubber grommets. When I opened the platter, I was very sad to see that two of them already have melted and created a horrible situation there. Since the motor was moved from its position due to imbalance in its feet, it can not connect itself to the idler. The result was the stacked platter. Here are the pictures.....

Here is the picture of the remnants of those two molten grommet. Rightmost is the only surviving rubber grommet.

 

[anirban420]

When I detached the feet platform from the motor I saw some metal dust surrounded over the shaft. Don't know how it has came there, probably the origin is the copper pulley that sits right on the shaft....

 

[anirban420]

I cleaned the Feet Platform with petrol to get rid of those molten rubber. And also cleaned the motor shaft with brush. Then I used iso-propyl alcohol to clean the area where motor feet are attached to the turntable base. These are now cleaned, weighting to join their service again....

 

[reubensm]

This is a rare find. The CS2000s I have seen all my life were black or green ones. Your find could probably mean that HMV was sourcing carts from EEI and re-branding them Congrats on your find.

The cart looks pretty old. I hope the rubber cantilever support is in good shape (can't notice this clearly from the pics).

Hope you also received the cartridge mounting clip with it.

reubensm, you will be happy to know that the only available stereo HMV cartridge available to that seller was the EEI CS2000. After you told me for that very cartridge, I thought it was not in my luck. But when I saw that cartridge I can not express how much happy and joyous I was :yahoo:hyeah:. Just grabbed that in a second. Also got the authentic Sealed pack EEI MX 20 Stylus. Here are the pictures of those.....

 

[reubensm]

I want to know that pins of which side of the cartridge is connected to right channel of the amplifier....

here you go, this should help:

 

[reubensm]

The motor itself looks like it would do great with an overhaul. However I must caution you against opening it unless you are very sure about your turntable skills. Some time ago, I opened up my Garrard 301's motor and serviced it. Here is the article: http://www.hifivision.com/phono-turntables/58044-garrard-turntable-owners-club-6.html#post664703

I cleaned the Feet Platform with petrol to get rid of those molten rubber. And also cleaned the motor shaft with brush. Then I used iso-propyl alcohol to clean the area where motor feet are attached to the turntable base. These are now cleaned, weighting to join their service again....

 

[anirban420]

Hope you also received the cartridge mounting clip with it.

No mounting clip, no mounting screw, no stylus protecting cover also. Thanks to my luck that I have all these original ones...

 

[anirban420]

This is a rare find. The CS2000s I have seen all my life were black or green ones. Your find could probably mean that HMV was sourcing carts from EEI and re-branding them Congrats on your find.

:signthankspin: reubensm....

I am also too much happy by finding this...:yahoo::yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:

 

[anirban420]

The cart looks pretty old. I hope the rubber cantilever support is in good shape (can't notice this clearly from the pics).

Here are some close up pictures of the cartridge for your eyes. Tell you something that taking these pictures demands some serious macro photographic skill

 

[anirban420]

here you go, this should help:

404 - Page Not Found

Sorry bro, your link did not work, even the link was not visible in the post itself. I found it only in the editing mode. BDW, I have found this link and connected the cartridge in the "Original Tetrad Wiring" method as shown in the photo....

http://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/multimedia/webgraph/CartSubs-TetradWiringModern.jpg

 

[anirban420]

The motor itself looks like it would do great with an overhaul. However I must caution you against opening it unless you are very sure about your turntable skills.

The motor is working fine. So, I did not opened the motor. I just detached the feet platform of the motor to clean them both. Feet Platform is not the part of motor, it is just a housing by which the motor is attached to the turntable.

 

[anirban420]

Hi folks,

Sorry for the late. I was so busy in the past couple of days I did not get time for logging in. Anyway, Back to the restoration topic.

After cleaning the motor and its "Feet", its now time to arrange some rubber grommet for two of its foot. I previously have mentioned that two grommets were molten and gone away. I knew that these original grommets are not available anymore. So, I searched total Chandni Chawk area to find a substitution of it. And I have got bad luck here. No substitution were found.

I came back home in a broken heart. When I was thinking of how to make a proper "jugad" of this thing, suddenly I saw a non-working rubber gasket of toilet cistern was lying around in my home. And i got my substitution of those feet. I just cut that gasket in desired size and used some metal washer and the Grommets were ready in a minute :yahoo: :yahoo: :clapping: :clapping: hyeah: hyeah:

Here are the pictures of my "Jugad" grommet with the original one. See that height of all these are made same.

 

[anirban420]

The player used some obsolete type speaker terminals. However, these type of terminals were very common in cheap players made by HMV and PHILIPS in those days. My next quest was to change those terminals with a modern one. Thanks to the design engineers of HMV because I did not have to drill any extra hole to fit the modern type speaker terminal. I used existing two terminal mounting holes for this purpose ..... Here are the picture...

 

[anirban420]

Now its the time for a trial run of the player.... Hope the player run well.... I will post further update after testing..

In the mean time...

 

[reubensm]

Those original speaker jacks were Philips jacks, quite common for those days. The speaker plugs for these are still available.

The player used some obsolete type speaker terminals. However, these type of terminals were very common in cheap players made by HMV and PHILIPS in those days. My next quest was to change those terminals with a modern one. Thanks to the design engineers of HMV because I did not have to drill any extra hole to fit the modern type speaker terminal. I used existing two terminal mounting holes for this purpose ..... Here are the picture...

 

[reubensm]

In the past, I have used cork washers (used in old brass water taps) as a great substitute while restoring an old Garrard.

Hi folks,

Sorry for the late. I was so busy in the past couple of days I did not get time for logging in. Anyway, Back to the restoration topic.

After cleaning the motor and its "Feet", its now time to arrange some rubber grommet for two of its foot. I previously have mentioned that two grommets were molten and gone away. I knew that these original grommets are not available anymore. So, I searched total Chandni Chawk area to find a substitution of it. And I have got bad luck here. No substitution were found.

I came back home in a broken heart. When I was thinking of how to make a proper "jugad" of this thing, suddenly I saw a non-working rubber gasket of toilet cistern was lying around in my home. And i got my substitution of those feet. I just cut that gasket in desired size and used some metal washer and the Grommets were ready in a minute :yahoo: :yahoo: :clapping: :clapping: hyeah: hyeah:

Here are the pictures of my "Jugad" grommet with the original one. See that height of all these are made same.