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Help! My Magnepan tonearm finally needs to be rewired!

Hi gang,

I love this tonearm, but it has become quite noisy.  I believe it needs to be rewired.  Do any of you know of a business (or individual) who can do this for me?  I hate to give up the arm -- it's otherwise really good, and in good condition.

Thanks!!

gregbackstrom
7 responses Add your response
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,567 posts
 
An employee of mine worked at Magnaplanar. According to him, there is a burr in the arm tube where the wires have to make an angle to go through the bearing area. Sooner or later the burr damages the wire- in short (no pun intended) they all do something like this sooner or later.

IMO its a bit more work than just replacing the wire- the arm should be disassembled and the burr removed first.
czarivey
5,658 posts
 
Before taking steps to rewire, I would reconnect the ground wire and check if tight to chassis. 

burgh
5 posts
 
I am having a problem with my unitrac also. I hear static if i move the tonearm across the album for another song. Once I hear the static and drop the needle I lose one channel or it is still there but very faint your ear has to be on it the speaker. It seems like about second song in to about the next to last song and then the channel comes back. I have read they don't make 44 gauge Lintz wire anymore but what about this link. I have found others also. Has anyone rewired one before or have a step by step procedure?

http://mwswire.com/specialty-wire/litz-wire/
fleib
1,124 posts
 

This seems to be a bigger problem than I thought when I bought a Unitrac.  The rewire job can be done, but I'm not sure who.

I picked up this arm on Mosin's recommendation.  He's the guy who makes the Saskia table.  He has a couple of Unitracs rewired, but ....

There's an easy answer to this problem, but it requires drilling a small hole in the back of the armtube just in front of the pivot.  Have the wire exit there instead of the bottom of the pillar. You could have one length of wire going to the preamp or use connectors on the table plinth.

My original wire is still working fine, but it would be nice to eliminate the plug in connector at the back of the headshell.

fleib

gregbackstrom OP
1 posts
 

Hi czarivey,

I'm in Tacoma WA.

Thanks for your post, effischer.  I do have a replacement arm/table, so this isn't an emergency.  I just hate to give up on the arm if repair is possible.  I've read about this burr too.  I suppose it would damage any replacement wiring as well!

Cordially,
Greg

effischer
552 posts
 
Hi Greg & welcome to the forums.  I was in the same boat a few years ago and had already had the arm rewired by Magnepan once.  Thread string here:  https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/need-a-magnepan-unitrac-i-tonearm-repaired.  The 44 gauge Litz wire used in the arm tube isn't available anymore and anything else restricts the free motion of the arm on the unipivot.  The guy I ended up working with tried really hard to fix it over several months, but just couldn't make it right again.  I've checked over a few threads about the Magnepan arm since and this is a common problem.  One respondent mentioned that there is a burr internally in the arm assembly that causes the wires to fail and can't be removed.

The final call is yours, but I'd suggest looking for a replacement arm.  There have been a couple of Graham 1.5 and 2.0 units that have popped up here for reasonable money recently, and they are definitely an upgrade from the Unitrac.

Good luck & happy listening.
czarivey
5,658 posts
 
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