Phonoland

I'm new to this forum and I would like to say "Hi!" =)

I was hoping someone would be able to help me with this.. I have an Rca New Vista stereo console, I believe it was made in 1969-1970, its model # is HL 866, it has the turntable with the floating stylus. When I aquired it, it had a problem where the right channel being low in volume, so I had to compensate by increasing the balance in the right channel. This worked great for a while as the unit has really incredible sound. Then alas, yesterday the right channel pretty much completely went dead. I do get some sound (in the horns but not the woofer) if I turn the balance completely to the right. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to fix it? perhaps a bad capacitor maybe? I think this may be a common problem on the vistas, because I had another older unit that has the same radio tuner and it suffers the same problem. I would appreciate any help, I really like this stero and I was hoping to keep it going for a while. Thanks again!!

anyone? I suspect its a bad amp

Assuming that your radio section of the unit behaves in the same way I agree that the amp is where you will find the problem. I would check the power supply electolytics or just replace them first and see if that takes care of it. My next move would be to check out the output transistors. Somebody may have a more analytical approach to this however. Regards.

Ceramic cartridges deteriorate slowly over time. If it's just the phonograph that has a weak channel, the cartridge must be replaced.

Record-changer wrote:Ceramic cartridges deteriorate slowly over time. If it's just the phonograph that has a weak channel, the cartridge must be replaced.

If it turns out you need one I saw your cartridge for sale on e-bay. I think NOS but that's no guarantee it's a good one. They can be found with a warrantee on the net if you look. Ed Saunders, and Needle Daddy come to mind. If the radio works fine I would bet the cartridge is shot.

thank you all for the help! =) hmmm, is there any thing specific I should be looking for in the amp? also for the cartridge on the ebay auction, do you happen to have the item #, or what was the keywords you used to find it?

One thing you could try is trading the left and right channels on the turntable connections to the amp. If the trouble goes to the other channel, the cartridge or its connections.