Zenith Stereophonic Turntable

[todd.brust 29]

Well at work some lady brought in an old Zenith Solid State turntable. I wasn't sure about the model number. All I found was this number(Z565W-157309) and a google search got me nothing. It works and everything but the lady said it sound "horrid". My first guess was that the electrolytic coupling caps are bad and probably those in the PS supply. Should I go ahead with replacing the larger electrolytics or does anyone have any other suggestions where to start?

[JimJ 11]

Kind of an obvious thing, but is the cartridge/stylus good? Is it one of those where the phono stage is built into the turntable?

[todd.brust 29]

Kind of an obvious thing, but is the cartridge/stylus good? Is it one of those where the phono stage is built into the turntable?

No idea about the cartridge, but it has an internal amp. The speaker outs are on the back.

[JimJ 11]

Ugh, it's one of those

Well, in that case I'd recap anything that looks suspicious, but I'd keep in mind what it's worth in the first place. Definitely no film & foil caps

[todd.brust 29]

Yeah this isn't foir myself. Some older lady brought it into the store. I was planning on doing the coupling caps and PS supply but I don't have a schematic for this and I am new to identifying circuits by just lookin at them. It's all point to point wiring but I found the coupling caps right before the output terminals and the PS cap was easy to find then there are a few other large electrolytics.

Edited September 26, 2008 by todd.brust

[MikeS 0]

Yeah this isn't foir myself. Some older lady brought it into the store. I was planning on doing the coupling caps and PS supply but I don't have a schematic for this and I am new to identifying circuits by just lookin at them. It's all point to point wiring but I found the coupling caps right before the output terminals and the PS cap was easy to find then there are a few other large electrolytics.

Is that just a record player with a amplifier, or does it have AM/FM radio as well?

Unless you have parts on hand to try to troubleshoot and replace the parts needing replacement, I wouldn't spend money on it.

Could be any number of reasons why it sounds bad. Anything from a toasted cartridge, (like Jim mentioned) to bad resistors, dried out electrolytic capacitors, or maybe bad pre-driver or driver transistors. The circuit could need to be re-biased, which would be either through a trimpot, or a resistor......I'm betting the latter.

The little low voltage 'lytic capacitors can and will dry out over time, especially if the unit is over 30 years old.

Which makes me ask.......How old do you think that Zenith record player is?

You say it's all point to point wired........It doesn't have any printed circuit boards at all?

A schematic is a real nice option when tracing and troubleshooting a unit such as this.

For what's worth, I'd just see if that older lady would rather just scrounge up a cheap vintage turntable and a vintage integrated amp or receiver with a phono input.

It isn't worth pouring time and money into that Zenith record player, unless she holds some sort of sentimental value towards it.

[todd.brust 29]

It's being taken care of. She wanted to get it fixed. Turns out the drive unit is bad too so it is making tons of vibrations that the needle is picking up and I am sure the caps are bad also.

Majority of the unit is P to P but there is one small board with the output transistors. I don't know if she will want to get the unit fioxed seeing that there is no where that I know to get parts for the drive unit. I talked to someone today and they said it's most likely some kind of rubber that is dried out on the drive unit that is causing the vibrations. He compared it to running a metal wheel on concrete.