Oracle Delphi turntable
Customer brought this deck in for a repair and service. It had been bought in the ‘80s and stored away in its box since then.
Cosmetically it all looked a bit sad. Surface mold on the metal work and the head shell was covered in vert-de gris.
The mains adaptor had broken pins so they had to be sorted as a start off. Owner was uncertain as to this history of the purchase, so wanted to determine if this was a 110 or 220 V transformer.
The drive belt was intact, amazingly. Although, it was starting to feel sticky, so a new one will be needed. Powered the deck up and it seemed to run. The turntable bearing was given a minimal wipe of an oily tissue. The stylus was checked and was good. The headshell connections were intermittent but after all cartridge and pins were cleaned with a fibre pen and cleaning fluid audio was good. The speed however could not be obtained. Both 33 and 45 were about 10% slow. These can be adjusted independently vial multiturn pots, both were found to be at their + limits. With the PAPST motor module out, there was a speed control pot found to be way out of value. With this replaced, the speeds could be set up spot on.
With everything cleaned up and adjusted, big weight underside to get the deck level, all was good. I don’t think if I had purchased it, I would have left it 25 years or more to use it.
