[averydonovan]

This morning I finally got the turntable I had won from Ebay almost 2 weeks ago, an old Pioneer PL-200. I had only spent $25 on the table itself, but almost $70 more on related accessories (new cartridge and a phono preamp). The turntable was packed very carefully and I unpacked it very carefully, but found the counterweight missing off the back of the tonearm and it was still in the box. The Ebay ad mentioned the thing being in working order and the break on the back of the tonearm looks recent. Can I glue it back on or is the whole table worthless now? FedEx isn't exactly careful with stuff so I have no doubt that it was broken in transit, they aren't any better than UPS when it comes to carefully handling boxes marked "Fragile". I wonder if I should just sell the stuff I got for it and just take it as a lesson learned to stick with what I know. This is very discouraging to say the least and I don't really feel like going on Ebay and getting into a bidding war for another unit.

 

[pank2002]

I'm sorry to hear about your misfortune, Donovan. That really sucks.
What can happen if you try to repair it? It broken anyway, and you might get a working unit out of it.
Haven't shipping been incredibly long? I though I read about your turntable-purchase some week ago.

Hope it works out,
Rasmus

 

[averydonovan]

Thanks for the encouragement. I got the table an hour before I went to work and was dissapointed I couldn't hear it and didn't think I could easily solve the counterweight problem (didn't think glue would hold). I bought some superglue today at work and when I came home I tried it out and surprisingly it worked. I had mounted the Audio Technica cartridge I bought on the headshell, but inside the tonearm where the headshell connects the ground pin for the left channel wasn't connecting to the headshell's left-channel ground pin, so I jury-rigged something to get it to connect and am quite happy with the results. This is the first time I have heard vinyl through a decent turntable in a good audio setup and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I have exactly one record, Steve Perry's Street Talk which I also have on CD, and I think it sounds quite nice so far. I'll have to get use to the pops and crackles but it isn't distracting and I am surprised just how good it sounds, even with the cartridge needing a slight alignment adjustment.

Edit: Shipping didn't take long (about 4 days), but it took a while to recieve a quote from the seller for the total.

 

[bln]

good luck donovansmith, i'm in a similar situation with a newly purchased $27 turntable and $25 phono stage. can't wait till the phono stage arrives and i can really hear the analog part of my system, however humble.