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Michell TecnoArm II grounding

Robert

Robert

Tapehead
Just got my hands on one of these and intend fitting this weekend. Hmm, interesting thing.
I'd always assumed it was a budget Rega with a few holes whacked into the tube and a fancy counterweight, but no, there is a lot more going on.

Wiring is some fancy silver litz loom (I think Cardas/Incognito) but unusually the arm has two ground leads, one long terminating in a spring clip, the other much shorter terminating with an eyelet.

What's the deal on connecting these?
One to amp, other to TT chassis, use one and not the other.......Michell make lovely kit but the instructions and guides are poor.

Cheers folks.
 
A deck such as a Gyrodeck being of metal construction but having an entirely separate motor pod ends up not being grounded so can be problematic from a static build-up perspective. The additional earth lead enabled grounding the deck’s chassis and therefore the main bearing to mains earth. I’m of the opinion that having continuity from the main bearing to mains earth is a huge, huge advantage when it comes to static. It is something I routinely check with turntables as basically it gives a charged record a route to dissipate that isn’t via the cantilever and audio signal path. I ended up doing this manually with an extra lead with my old Spacedeck as I was having issues, I just ran a thin lead between a bolt on the main bearing and the phono stage ground terminal. Fixed it entirely. No problem with the hefty chunk of metal that is the TD-124, that thing is very well grounded!
 
Thanks Tony, certainly makes sense.

Someone should ask Michell to add this to their arm set-up instruction flyer.

Dear Steve...... :)
 
Hi Rob,

These second short ground leads are also used to common tonearm ground to steel sub-chassis decks like Linn and Thorens TD-1xx series.

Those mounting standard wired Regas onto such turntables can easily add a (very thin) ground lead to the common ground plus Lch -ve terminal at the cable harness plug; that is, should they experiencing any hum issues that involve an absence of common ground to chassis.

There is a thread on here in which I described this to a fellow who was fitting an RB202 on a TD-160C for his daughter and experiencing hum. The Rega wiring proved to be sound, so he fitted the short ground connection to chassis and all was quite thereafter.

Michell actually do (or a least did) this with their entry level Rega OEM (a hybrid of Rega Lch connected ground and short chassis ground)...

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Craig
 
Thanks Craig, info much appreciated.
On the TecnoArm they use what I believe is the silver Incognito loom fitted with their own plugs. Nice wire for the job as extremely lightweight and flexible.
It has a short ground lead (as above but a little longer and much thicker) plus the usual separate long ground lead.

The internal wring is scary thin - great for reducing friction but you wouldn't want to be swapping carts every week.
 
You're welcome, Rob.

The thinness of the added ground wire is a necessity for it to fit down the side of the cable harness plug (and out round the flange at the bottom) without preventing the plug from fully seating into the pillar.

Craig
 
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