Magnovox Micromatic Arm

I have a new (to me) Micromatic that had no stylus. As I was attempting to change the needle the wires behind the cartridge ripped apart. How do I proceed with this? Model 1ST294G

You don't need to remove a cartridge to replace the needle. That sounds like what you did, otherwise the wires would still be intact. You run the risk of tugging/breaking those delicate cartridge wires. Needles simply snap in/out.

If the wires just simply came off (not broken) from their pins, simply plug them back on. I can't remember the color coding right now, but if you have three wires, [I think] the brown is for one channel, the gray is for the other, and white is for the common. I believe that's on the 620 series turntables that may use the EV275/Astatic 165 cartridges. If the wires are truly broken from their connections, well, get out the soldering gun and reattach the wires to their connections, not the cartridge pins directly.

If you don't remember how the wires were attached, you're gonna have to remove the back and look at the colored wires where they connect to the RCA jacks at the base of the turntable. There may be a little jumper connection for the common to eliminate the need for a 4th wire going to the cartridge. A lot of these cartridges only have 3 pins and those with 4 may have a little jumper wire to connect the two to work as one common. Some cartridges do have a letter by each pin to designate what color wire connects to it.

If you're a novice, please be careful...you'll break more than you'll fix. This should have never happened. --BB


Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona

Hi. I'm new to the site, but there seems to be some real knowledgeable folks here. I just recently acquired a Magnovox Micromatic console and would like to do three things:

1) replace the needle; which one should I choose?
2) connect external speakers to the console. How should I go about doing this?
3) the auto is not working properly. the record has some trouble dropping and no matter what the setting moves to off. how can I fix this?

Thanks to anyone who can help help me with any one of these problems. I love the console and would love to improve the above issues.

-spider

spiderman wrote:Hi. I'm new to the site, but there seems to be some real knowledgeable folks here. I just recently acquired a Magnovox Micromatic console and would like to do three things:

1) replace the needle; which one should I choose?
2) connect external speakers to the console. How should I go about doing this?
3) the auto is not working properly. the record has some trouble dropping and no matter what the setting moves to off. how can I fix this?

Thanks to anyone who can help help me with any one of these problems. I love the console and would love to improve the above issues.
-spider

Best to find yourself an experienced repair person.... we are out there.