It's been a long cold winter.

I abandoned my attempt at getting the 1958 Golden Voice turntable to be compatible with the console.  So I turned it into a stand-alone turntable, and I have it in my office, and it sounds good!

It tracks a bit heavy, but sounds good!  I won't use it except on occasion, with less-than-perfect albums.  Unless I get over my fear of an 8g tracking force....

My uncle made the base for it, it's oak.  I got the mounting pattern to cut the top out and allow the turntable to sit down onto it's springs.  I actually really like this piece, but I'm not completely sure where it'll end up.

So...back to the Motorola SK-519CW!

I found another Motorola Turntable, this time it's a 1966 1297-A70.

It was a $25 purchase that I couldn't pass up.  However, no sound comes out of it.  I'm currently diagnosing this issue.

With the turntable hooked up to the console power (at least this model had the right power coupling) but with the RCA's left disconnected, I turned on the turntable which switched the amplifier over to the turntable "source".  I tapped the RCA's and verified that feedback came from each side of the console.  I conclude that this means the signal from the RCA to the amplifier is fine.

So my problem is between the RCA and the needle.  Well - the easiest place to start with this problem is the needle itself!  Easy to replace and cheap!  So I contact my favorite part suppliers.

It's tricky ordering parts for these things.  You find a reliable seller, and you get their recommendations for replacement parts - but nothing is 100% certain.  My first attempt to get a new needle for this turntable led me down the path to thinking I needed a whole new cartridge.  However, as I was about to order the new, recommended cartridge, I noticed that the pin-arrangement was not the same.  So I contacted the seller again and we determined that he made an incorrect recommendation.  Below is an image of the headshell, the cartridge, and the needle from the 1297-A70:

Here is what I've been told about this set-up:

This is a Euphonics solid state cartridge.  It by itself does not have any output, it is a transistor, and is designed to only work with an amplifier designed for it.   

I'm not qualified to argue with that assessment, but I'll be doing a bit more research.  Hopefully this doesn't turn out to be too big of an issue, but it's certainly not just a simple process to find the right turntable for these old consoles.

First, the 1958 turntable didn't have the right power coupling.  I can, by the way, run the stand-alone unit into the TAPE-IN on the console, but I have to use external phono amplifiers.

Now, the 1966 turntable might have a cartridge which was built for a different amplifier.  Does this mean I might need a whole new tonearm assembly, and will it be worth it to replace?

Time will tell.....