Hi all,

Wondering if you could provide a bit of help.  I got in the mail today my very own RX-2 to go with my Beosystem 5500.  Now, I'm a longtime fan of B&O equipment and have several neat pieces in my collection.  However, this is (in my 36 years) my first real turntable.  Sure, I had an 'all-in-one' integrated dubbing tapedeck/AM/FM/record player made by Yorx (?) in the late 1980s, but I've never had a real stand-alone turntable until today.  What's more, I haven't even used a turntable in probably 13 years!

Now, I got my 'new' RX-2 on everyone's favorite auction site.  It arrived at my doorstep this morning.  Before running off to work, I unpackaged it to check it out.  It was boxed well and the tonearm was secured, but the platter was free to bounce around.  I knew that this wasn't proper, but I powered it up and it seemed to spin fine.  So far so good.  In the auction the seller stated that the MMC4 cartridge "could skip occasionally due to wear."  Fine, I planned on getting a replacement SMMC4 anyways.  This didn't stop me however from going to the local Salvation Army store today after work to get a few vinyl LPs to try out on my new toy...

I got home and plugged up the RX-2 to my Beomaster 5500 and put on 'Thank God It's Friday', a 1976 soundtrack that I got for 99 cents.  I checked the record to make sure it wasn't too terribly filthy.  It wasn't, so I cued up the record and waited for disco sounds of the 70s to fill my Klipsch speakers...

Much to my disappointment, all I heard was static and saw a stylus that didn't seem to track across the record.  I tried adjusting the weight on the end of the tonearm, but that didn't really seem to do much.  I checked the cartridge but didn't notice any unusual 'fuzz' hanging from it.  I did notice that the platter seems to be higher in the back than it is in the front.  

Basically, I have no clue what I'm doing.  I'm a 36 year old "high-fi enthusiast" who has never owned a proper turntable.  Am I supposed to level the platter somehow?  What should I set the tonearm weight to?  Am I doing something wrong?  Am I doing ANYTHING right?

Thank you for any advice you can provide.

Lift of the platter, under there you should find Transportation screws, turn anti clockwise some 2 rounds, now the whole platter mecanisme should "float" return platter and try again.

Its amazing to see, hear and enjoy these old vinyl records and a BG is just the right turntable for it, its Black Magic

Sign up as silver member and get the manuals for your equipment

Sounds odd! Does the stylus actually touch the record? You should get noise - whether pleasant or not is immaterial in the first event! If all you get is static, there is something wrong with the connection of the cartridge to your amplifier. You need to find out where. Put the record player on to play and then manually lift the arm after it drops. Lightly touch the stylus with a finger - you should get some noise. It only works after the arm drops as the muting circuit will be operating before this. Noise at this stage would be good!

Also to add to above check that there is a stylus tip on the end of the cantilever!

I played around with the springs under the platter to raise it a bit.  Looks much more level now.  I'm getting noise (but pretty faint music) out of it now.  My brother has an fairly good condition MMC4 that I may borrow to see if the problem is in my cartridge. 

How is the deck connected to your BM 5500. Din, RCA and connected to tape or phono, and is your cables the originals.

It is connected via RCA plugs into the phono inputs.  I'm not sure, but the RCA cables appear to be original to the unit.

First, check with another cartridge if posible, if not. If you have other equipment with phono connect and/or preamp, connect the RX 2 there.

If it plays with another cart. you found the failure.

If the RX 2 plays with other equipment you will have to check the preamp in your BM 5500.

If it do not play with any of the above, you will have to open the RX 2 clean the contacts and as open, lubricate where needed.

The wires coming from the cantilever goes to the contacts.

Thanks, I'll let you know what I find out with my brother's cartridge.