Magnavox Spirit of 76 Question

Bought this at a garage sale and it has a few issues...The unit plays, both channels working but it sounds very Bass heavy and muddy the tweeters are working but not adding much to the mix I'm leaving the Bass at 2 and the treble at 10 and it still sounds muddy and not very lively also I removed the record changer and cleaned and re-lubed all moving parts using light ND oil and also cleaned the idler wheel...the rubber was still soft and not glazed but the platter is turning slow??? I cleaned and lubed the 8-track and after running to a local flea market I was able to score a old Teddy Pendergrass 8Track to test it and it works fine. will replacing the Electro. Cap's help any of these issues???

H Deash,
I do not work on home record players, but I do work on jukeboxes, that have similar, if not identical problems.
As such, I can tell you that about 50% of the amps I see, need more then replacement of the caps--
On the slow motor problem--Two things I can tell you NOT to do--1. Place additional weight on the tone arm, and 2. "Mess with" the idler spring. Did you oil the idler wheel itself, and whatever mechanism "pulls" it to the turn table ? Also, did you clean the inside of the turntable where it contacts the idler wheel? Ron Rich

Ron,
Thanks for offering some help. I didn't do the two things you told me not to do, adding weight to the tonearm didn't sound like it would help either
problem and I've read enough post at this site to know messing with springs never fixes anything, right? I thought I did a good job cleaning and lubing
the record changer, but I will pull it back out and double check how I lubed the mech.that pulls the idler wheel to the platter. I did lightly lube the shaft
of the idler wheel and cleaned the under side of the platter.

Deash,
Another "thought"--motor mounts, if hard, or "rotten" can case this type of a problem--
Ron Rich

No, the motor mounts and idler wheel were is good shape..still supple or soft whatever but I think I might have found the problem the rubber boot
that joins the stylus stem to the stylus body is rubbing on the record and I think I'll try to lighten the tonearm I'm pretty sure the screw at the back/
underside of the tonearm will make that happen...I've included a pic of the headshell/cart./stylus....if I'm wrong and that is the correct heigth of
the cart from the record let me know please.

Deash,
Whoa--Stop ! Something is defiantly wrong with this picture !
Nothing other than the needle should touch the record ! That "brush" even looks suspect.
Could it be that the cartridge has broken loose from the clip in the rear ? Or is the clip bent ?
Needle pressure should be no more then 7 grams MAX--probably more like 2-5 grams on that phono.
Someone with knowledge of that model, or a Service Manual, plus a gram gauge is needed here. I would not advise you to "turn screw(s)" !
Ron Rich

Right on, Ron!

That tonearm should be tracking at around 3 grams, 4 tops.
Either the needle assembly is defective, or the cartridge yoke is crushed/damaged, or someone was messing with the tracking weight adjustment.

The way to adjust it properly is with a gram gauge, to 4 grams - allowing around a gram for the brush offset.

Going to eBay looking for a Gram Gauge. Is it called something other than that? The Cartridge is securley attached to the clip, the clip is slotted at the top
and the Cartridge is designed with for lack of a better word with a Tab that slides into the slot and those two piece's are joined togather like they should be. It is possiable that the previous owner messed with bending the clip.This is $15 garage sale purchase the stylus was missing when I purchased it, I found the stylus in 2 piece's under the turntable when I removed it to service it.

You might try www.victoryglass.com for the gauge--MIGHT be less then ePay--Ron Rich

Ordered this from a vendor on eBay for $30 ....how do you go about setting the tanget tracking on these old Hi-Fi's??? I recently bought a console at a auction
and it was missing the stylus so I purchased one on eBay and installed it and had one channel working but you could tap the tonearm and get both channels working for 10-15 seconds with both channels working it sounded great so I got back on eBay and ordered a NOS tetrad 3-43s replacement cartridge a EV 5254d
and when it came I removed the old cart. and istalled the new cart. the old cart fit snuggly in the head shell and had to carefully pry it from the HS but the new cart. fit in the headshell nicely but it wasn't the snug fit the old one was and anyways after I installed the new one I wanted to test it and did and I couldn't have been happier with the way it sounded and played a few albums just to check it and after that I lifted the tonearm up and just wiggled the cart to see if it was loose it was and it dropped out of the head shell so I decided to add a very small amount of glue to the top of the cart and attach it to the the headshell and after I did that I played another album and this time when the stylus hit the run in wax it just skated across the album....there's more to this story and I'll finish it tomorrow I got to get up early just returned back to work after a 2 1/2 year lay-off I want to thank all you tax payers for loaning General Motors all that $$$.

O.k. I have the stylus tracking force set at 3.60 grams and that made no improvement. Still looking for help with this, the cartridge# 560389-1 and that is the cart. that came with it and looks correct as you will see in the pic's....the needle is 396-DS77 I bought this from NEEDLEDADDY1 on eBAY and is identical to
the one I found broken in two under the turntable. I've taken some pic's of the cart. and clip out of the tonearm maybe someone has some advice....again I bought this at a garage sale and have no idea what the previous owner did to this player?

Are you sure that is the correct pickup?

ALL of the Maganvox sets that I have seen used this cart (scroll down):

http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/vie ... p?t=126020

A version of this but with 1/2 in mounting ears was in the 1965 model that I have. I replaced it with a Pickering magnetic.

Given that the cart seems to be bottoming at it's mid section, have you tried bending the "tail" slightly to produce a better angle?

As for the dullness in the sound,,well you have to be realistic here. This sort of set was not designed for the true hi-fidelity market, this type of buyer wanted a "nice piece" of furniture and a "plush" sound. This was classic working-class Americana sound. The horn midrange/tweeter in the old units were low efficiency by design. The tone section of the amps can be modified to increase treble response and a better pickup would help over all, but it is what it is.

If the unit has provision for external speakers and you have some efficient ones, you might be pleasantly surprised by going that route.

Rob/NYC

Does the cartridge still bottom out on the record? If so then the cart is most likely shot. Though a little out of focus, the yoke on your closeup of the cart looks damaged or at least shot.

As I mentioned previously, the thing is probably messed with as they all are from sticky fingers and mishandling.
Putz with it all you want.

Or get a new one.

Upon closer inspection the yoke has deteriorated and need's to be replaced.