Sony PS 5520 Turntable
I decided to have a look, again, at this turntable after putting it on the back burner some time ago, 2 years? maybe. All was "working" once I had put a new belt on, it turned and played records, but the motor made a lot of noise and the turntable just could not be used. I suspected the rubber motor mounts had perished and after lifting the table from the plinth that was confirmed. At that time I jury rigged mounts to check that that was all that was wrong but it turned out that the the motor itself was noisy as well. The bearings are worn and the spindle "rattles" when a belt is in place! I put in the too hard basket for a while... well now I have dismantled the motor and found the bearings (bronze sleeve) are too worn and need replacing, they are no longer available as a replacement part, as far as I can ascertain. I'll either need to find similar replacements from a modern motor (a motor re-winder may have something?) or I'll have to make them (using a lathe, that I don't have) or get them made ... expensive I expect!
Oh well I'm pondering the next stage now. A replacement motor is a possibility... but I'm not likely to find an identical Sony one.
More to come on this one... And decided to look and see if I could find a ball bearing race to replace the bronze bushes... an upgrade as such, and finally yes I found a perfect fit (outside diameter 12mm, inside diameter 4mm, and 4mm thick - 604 ZZ from Farrell Bearings in Hamilton, NZ)
All installed the and reassembled and the motor runs beautifully. The turntable is now playing under test with just a few minor adjustments, getting the automatic to pick-up and return correctly etc.
It sound great (I'm just using a cartridge on another head-shell for testing, I have the original Sony black head-shell). I'm rather surprised at the quality of playback it is very good.
Final adjustments done. The signal wires originally just came out through a hole in the back of the plinth, it looks a little messy and not very safe; I have replaced with RCA connectors so now I can choose to use any quality interconnects that I want to.
I have installed an Audio Technica AT3600L cartridge and currently playing Chuck Mangione's Feels So Good; the sound is really good ...amazing from such a humble and inexpensive cartridge. Typical of AT, they have always made extraordinary good quality cartridges for the price and they also make some high end cartridges.
Oh well I'm pondering the next stage now. A replacement motor is a possibility... but I'm not likely to find an identical Sony one.
More to come on this one... And decided to look and see if I could find a ball bearing race to replace the bronze bushes... an upgrade as such, and finally yes I found a perfect fit (outside diameter 12mm, inside diameter 4mm, and 4mm thick - 604 ZZ from Farrell Bearings in Hamilton, NZ)
All installed the and reassembled and the motor runs beautifully. The turntable is now playing under test with just a few minor adjustments, getting the automatic to pick-up and return correctly etc.
It sound great (I'm just using a cartridge on another head-shell for testing, I have the original Sony black head-shell). I'm rather surprised at the quality of playback it is very good.
Final adjustments done. The signal wires originally just came out through a hole in the back of the plinth, it looks a little messy and not very safe; I have replaced with RCA connectors so now I can choose to use any quality interconnects that I want to.
I have installed an Audio Technica AT3600L cartridge and currently playing Chuck Mangione's Feels So Good; the sound is really good ...amazing from such a humble and inexpensive cartridge. Typical of AT, they have always made extraordinary good quality cartridges for the price and they also make some high end cartridges.