Schiit Sol Turntable Review - Episodic.

Discussion in 'Vinyl Nutjob World: Turntable and Related Gear' started by purr1n, Sep 10, 2019.

  1. SuperRoo

    SuperRoo Acquaintance

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    Same here. Noisy during quiet moments while playing at loud volume. Might be our Sol being susceptible to this noise.
     
  2. ripblade

    ripblade Acquaintance

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    The chassis may be grounded solely through the audio ground via the headshell ground. This can result in noise as the pivot moves with the record. Make sure you have electrical continuity between the ground post and the arm pivot with the audio plug disconnected.

    I mentioned this to Schiit via a beta feedback email but haven't heard if it's been addressed, or even if my case was a one-off. In the end I decoupled the audio and chassis grounds in the circuit board and made sure the ground post grounded the chassis instead of the audio ground. This fixed all of my grounding problems. YMMV.
     
  3. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    But it isn't a high-end offering, is it? Isn't it a high-endish-as-possible at budget price offering? Getting more than one "should" get at the price?

    Adding esoteric options (sorry: in fifty years of listening to records (plus fifteen of not), I never even heard of a balanced turntable connection until this thread) runs the risk of making it a high-end offering.

    Schiit might still be able to do that at a lower cost than the classic offerings, but it is surely going to put the price up.
     
  4. SuperRoo

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    Would a simple wire from the ground lug to the chassis do the trick? Or is there more to this?
     
  5. Inoculator

    Inoculator Friend

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    You are right, definitely overkill. I know things like the new Yamaha GT-5000 (obscenely expensive) are starting to offer XLR outs, but that is obviously very niche and pretty unnecessary.

    I guess I should have phrased it as, I wish Schiit was using the standard 5 pin DIN connector seen on higher-end tonearms. This standard connector opens up a whole world of tonearm cable options.
     
  6. ripblade

    ripblade Acquaintance

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    I put a star washer under one of the screws that attaches the steel cover to the chassis. This bit through the paint and provided continuity from ground post to chassis.

    This alone may be enough to fix the noise, but I also separated the signal and chassis grounds in the circuit board, which requires some labour intensive surgery. I thought it was an improvement sonically, but it's not an earth shattering difference. I just don't think it wise to combine the grounds as they're there for different reasons. It's common practice though.....Rega, etc does it, but you'll never see it in anything high end.
     
  7. SuperRoo

    SuperRoo Acquaintance

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    Thanks, If you were to post a how to I'd like to give that mod a try. The tearing stuff up and soldering doesn't scare me. The technical part is just not my area of expertise.
     
  8. ripblade

    ripblade Acquaintance

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    I posted a description with a photo here:

    https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...iants-and-schiit.841060/page-32#post-13337156

    Getting the actual board out is a bit tricky, but not impossible. The wire jumper from the board ground to the ground post was cold soldered, so unscrewing the ground post was all that was necessary to separate the two. The rest is something that anyone with bench tech experience can handle.

    Note that in that post I mentioned the headshell ground doesn't need to be changed. This is true in 99% of cases, but if you're running an MM with a metal body and a shorting strap (eg Stanton 681, Pickering V15, etc) you *may* wind up with a ground loop if you don't remove the strap or use the isolating blocks these sometimes come with.
     
  9. SuperRoo

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    That simple mod made a noticeable improvement.
    Thanks,
    Richard
     
  10. ripblade

    ripblade Acquaintance

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    You're welcome, Richard!

    So yours had the same problem, I take it. Bit of a gaffe to include a ground post that doesn't ground anything, if you ask me. I was getting huge ES discharges through my stereo - not the normal kind one might experience when peeling a record off the platter, but from 3ft away putting the record back in its sleeve. It was becoming clear to me that the only path to ground for all that metal was through the phono stage inputs. Yikes!

    Hopefully, Schitt will have this sorted out by the time they bring Sol back into production. I'm also hoping they take the opportunity to sever the audio and chassis grounds on the circuit board, and send us beta testers new boards when the time comes :D

    Glenn
     
  11. tranq

    tranq Friend

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    Do you guys have photos of the mods you made? I'm a bit dense and not understanding where you put the star washer
     
  12. SuperRoo

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    It goes between the Sol bottom base and the module where you turn it on and off. Connecting the grounds of each together. There are two screws I did both.
     
  13. ripblade

    ripblade Acquaintance

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    I put mine under the screw head. This scratches the paint on the metal I/O cover so the screw itself grounds the cover to the chassis/plinth. Doing both screws is a good idea but I could only find the one washer small enough to be discreet. It did the job.
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2020
  14. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    OK, so I've never even seen a sol and may be talking from the wrong orifice here, but, just a thought as I was reading...

    Whilst the screw head is in contact with paint, is it not threaded into bare metal, or into a bolt (or something) the other side which is bare metal?
     
  15. ripblade

    ripblade Acquaintance

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    Yes, but for continuity between the ground post and chassis, both ends of the screw must touch metal, not just the threaded end. There's no other direct connection between the ground post and the chassis.
     
  16. oneguy

    oneguy Acquaintance

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    Is this still going live in February?
     
  17. SuperRoo

    SuperRoo Acquaintance

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    Jason recently said it will be February. Just waiting on final version mats.
     
  18. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    Jason said on Friday:
    https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sch...most-improbable-start-up.701900/post-15478682
     
  19. myquealer

    myquealer New

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    On the Head-fi thread Jason said Sol will likely be available for purchase again tomorrow (the mats finally arrived today).
     
  20. seeirwin

    seeirwin New

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    It's hard to keep track of all of the places where news trickles out. Did Jason mention whether the beta testers were going to receive the new mats?
     

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