Servicing my old Denon system

JonSick

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Hi

I'll admit I'm a newbie and I won't make any pretensions as to knowing what I'm talking about nor saying I have the best gear in the world. But here goes

I got my old hifi system back from my folks as I now have my new place and I want to basically get it back up and running. It's not been used in about 12 years and as it all mainly works bar a few issues, call me a sentimentalist but I'd like to service it. I have checked around for some professionals to do it for me (I'm in Hertfordshire) as I don't mind paying to do it, but the few places I've tried aren't interested and told me to buy a new one (they only service interesting old valve gear which this is not).

So what I have is the following and a quick rundown of what's up with it and what I intend to do.:


Sony PS-J20 turntable.
It's not been used in a long time and as I have a decent vinyl collection, I'm worried the needle is not the best so worried about putting my awesome vinyl on it. I am envisioning a new cartridge and belt kit, but as this was a little cheap when I bought it I don't mind just replacing this component. So open to suggestions.

Denon DRR-M31 cassette deck
The drawer mechanism doesn't open. I am confident that this is just a broken belt so going to order a new one from eBay and fit it up. Is there anything else I should do while I'm in there?

Denon CD Receiver UD-M30
It seems to play but skips a lot. I found online that it has an internal calibration function which I intend to do. The other thing is likely the lens will need cleaning. Should I just use some standard CD-based cleaner kit, or is something more specific the recommended course of action? I haven't had it open so I have no idea if I should be worrying about leaky caps. Or any other advice for general "keeping all things well" is welcome.

Thanks for your time. I know this gear isn't the most valuable ever but it was my first real system so would like to keep it if at all possible.
 
I can understand them not wanting to service it because by the time they get the box open it has cost more than they are worth (sorry).

The are about £25, the cassette about £45 and the receiver £45 second hand, so I think you planned maintenance is probably the best option and if it does not fix it then you are no worse off.

For the turntable you need to look for one with a line out capability as the denon m30 does not have a phono input. Something like this may be a decent budget option, from there the sky’s the limit. Note this is the Bluetooth version, non Bluetooth versions are cheaper.

 
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However, this is a bargain imo and worth the petrol money to collect.

 
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I figured that given the age and the fact it's not considered high-rated vintage audio is why they weren't interested. I understand and don't take offence :)

I figure this will be a self-journey into getting things going again but I don't mind. If all fails, I'm not losing anything major if I have to replace it all. As I've never serviced any hifi gear, figure I should go in armed with all the info I need.

Thanks for the suggestion, if I need to replace the turntable then that's definitely useful information!
 
OK I just retried and the turntable doesn't seem to spin at all. I may crack it open and see if I can poke around a little (I've repaired valve guitar amps before so I'm confident-ish) but I think I'm going to bite the bullet on replacing it entirely. My vinyl is a bit too important to me to risk it.
 
Just to ask, what do you mean when I need a turntable with a line output? Does this mean that if I look at a turntable with a phono output that it won't work?

For example, looking at one of the newer Denon turntables, there is an equaliser switch; I take it that needs to be turned off?
 
To get the music off the lp the stylus picks up the small grooves, moves very slightly causing a very small voltage to be produced in the cartridge (magnet and coil). Now, the lp is recorded in a way that would not sound good and has to be equalised.

So, the very small voltages need equalising and amplifying before the amplifier can further increase the signal until it can drive the speakers. This first stage of amplifying the cartridge signal is usually called the phono preamp or phono stage. This can be one of three - a separate box (e.g. project box, Rega fono), built into an integrated amplifier I.e. an input labelled phono or more recently they can be built into the turntable. Your amp does not have a phono Input is you need to use a line level input (which is typically 25 times the voltage of the phono input) and so either you need a separate phono stage or a turntable that has the phono preamp built in to provide a line level output that can be plugged into any of the non phono amp inputs e.g. cd, tuner, aux etc.

So typically turntables like the Project Essentials and Rega Planar series need the separate phono stage (there are exception if you search) whereas the Teac linked and most of the Audio Technical have them.

Look out for the words line out or line level output in the descriptions.

Hope this helps.
 
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I just thought I'd touch base. I managed to repair the CD player part of the system. Happy days! Plays fine now and no problem. I replaced the belt, cleaned the lens with some isopropyl and good to go. I noticed two of the caps on the board were looking a little bulged so I have ordered some replacements to swap them out with more as a preventative measure. I have a bunch of decent low esr caps that I use for guitar tube amps, but none were quite right, so for the sake of a few quid, ordered some up.

Next up is the cassette deck which needs the most help. I did consider just buying new but have researched and found out that the only cassette transport being made today is some terrible Chinese-made thing which is in pretty much anything with a cassette deck these days. That goes from some nasty looking Pyle thing to the Teac CD/Cassette unit I was eyeing up as a replacement if my renovation didn't work. So I think I'll just concentrate on getting my Denon deck up and running.

As for the turntable, the Sony unit no longer seems to power up. I've no idea what's up with it as I've not opened it up yet. But either way I've pretty much decided to upgrade it. Current favourite is the Denon D400F. I did look at the Project Carbon Debut as the supplied upgraded cartridge seems attractive, but I kinda think the D400F will do everything I want it to do and has the phono stage built in.
 

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