Silvertone 2268 / 2268A

Hello. New member here.

This phono is giving me FITS with it's low treble response!

I bought this a few years ago. It arrived with a brtoken power tube, and a burned / snapped resistor between some E caps.
I replaced the broken tube, and all electrolytics, as well as the 3 paper caps as a start.
Played, but odd low treble.
Shotgunned the resistors, same result.
Removed the loudness compensator couplate, and replaced with individual components, same result.
Went so far as to replace every single ceramic capacitor, and even a high reading balance pot... Still, low treble.
I began some slight circuit tracing in the way of powering the turntable itself from a separate power supply (my finger), and hooking the cartridge up directly to the home stereo (1970s Technics) aux input. Sounded great. Rivaled a magnectic cart.
Hooked the Silvertones speakers up to the same home stereo amp, and they sounded great too.
So, this eliminates the cart, and the speakers as any sources of trouble.
A little further (same finger powered setup) I tapped the cart at the volume control wiper. Sounded great to the home stereo amp at full blast, but as soon as the volume control is backed off even just a litte, boom, there goes the treble. Same response with the loudness compensator couplate removed from the volume pots 1 meg taps. The volume was louder, but still the same treble bleed.
Here's the schematic and parts list that's inside the cabinet.


Here's the Sams schematic.


The differences in the 2268 and 2268A chassis are as follows.
The loudness compensator couplate in the 2268 has 100K resistors, mine (2268A) has 68K resistors.
The capacitors going to the positive speaker leads in the 2268 are .01, mine (2268A) are .02.
The resistors just in front of those two capacitors are 33K (left), and 68K (right) for the 2268, and mine (2268A) both have 15K.
The tone control has .004 caps for the 2268, and mine (2268A) has .01 caps.
ALL is wired according to the schematic posted inside the cabinet, for the 2268A
Something I noticed that doesn't jive between the Sams schematic, and the original cabinet schematic is how the negative of each transformer is connected back to circuit. My wiring (in line with the cabinet schematic) show the negative of the left channel going directly to chassis.
The negative of the right channel is connected thru a .02 cap to B-.
The Sams schematic shows for the 2268A the left channel negative going to directly to B-, and the right channel negative going thru a .02 cap to chassis.
Which one makes more sense?

And how is the voulme pot wiper bleeding treble to the home stereo amp?
Am I barking up the wrong tree?

Remove C12 - C18 - C8. (.02uf's)
Replace them with a wire (short)

It'll kill the overloaded bass.

Appreciate the reply, Matt.
I should've mentioned that I'm not particularly interested in circuit modification. If it is what it is, cause it aint what it aint, then so be it.
I understand that this set isn't high end, and the bigger/fluffier the sound, the more impressive it was in the store.
I know what units of this era sound like. This one just sounds worse. Like I wouldn't buy it if it sounded that way new kinda worse.
I'm having a hard time accepting that this amp sounds THAT badly.
Today every pot was dismantled, and cleaned. Same result.
I'll throw a couple more bucks at it and purchase a set of power tubes (maybe).

Really the only explanation I can come with (considering the component replacement level) is this circuit is supposed to pass frequencies more easily picked up by the spring reverb unit.
The reverb sounds cool. A gimmick, at the sacrifice of fidelity? Perhaps.
That Sonotone cart sounds mighty fine to a 70's Technics home stereo amp.
Shame to give up on it, but I really cant think if anything else to replace, other than the transformers, which I doubt BOTH of them would be bad. Then again.... That snapped/burnt resisor between the old E caps tells me that some doofus plugged this thing in after it sat for 40 years, and just maybe did something to those transformers (shared cap for both).

Any other standalone portables ever have reverb?

Thanks again.

For a bit of treble boost, add a small (47-100pf) cap from the tap to the high side of the volume control on both channels.
Other than that, and the flattening of the overall response from shorting those other cap points out, I don't know what else to say from this side of the internet.

Well, like I said, I think it's quickly headed to it being "it is what it is" thing.
It is listenable, especially with the 78s.
I'm just more wondering what could be wrong with it, as it is, stock?
It seems that the treble is most responsive with the tone control at 1 o'clock. Turning it up (should be more treble) just seems to pass and annoying overload of low midrange / high bass.
Biggest portable I've ever seen. Impressive looking.

Here's something I am interested in knowing.
Where can I read up on component selection for tone shaping / frequency passing?

I'd like to learn more on the whats and whys on that feedback circuit etc.

This jogged my memory on a problem I had when I replaced a paper capacitor that was damaged. It had a series of color bands for part identification. I looked up the color code and got an equivalent capacitor. The phono equalization was way off afterwards.

After some more research, I discovered that there were two different 6-bamd color codes used by different companies, and that I had used the wrong one. Getting the correct part fixed the problem.