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Pioneer PL-12D

 


 

Pioneer PL-12D

 


The PL-12 had its weaknesses, but it was cheap and plentiful...


 



Pioneer's all conquering budget turntable from the golden era. Even if you've only ever glanced on eBay from time to time you can't miss these, they're everywhere. Simplistic engineering with just a simple shaded pole motor driving the platter through a flat section belt with a derailleur type speed change and an alloy S shape arm. What you see is what you get, which in this case can be quite a lot. In many ways a 'lite' version of a belt drive Thorens of the same era.

The reason I like the PL-12 so much is that it's so inexpensive, plentiful and simple yet what is there is substantial enough to build onto. I'm not trying to argue that these could compete with high end turntables, it's not apples and apples - you wouldn't see a Lenco or a Linn LP12 for sale on eBay for a quid. But even these days they make a great first step into vinyl for a lot of people, or when upgraded can be a capable alternative to many other entry level turntables - a great sound for little outlay.

Buying

Most PL-12s come with Shure M series cartridges and knackered styluses, the Shures tend to have a warm soundstage with a strong but not overpowering bass, in comparison to a modern cartridge they could be described as sounding quite 'woolly', a characteristic shared by a lot of vintage loudspeakers and derided by a lot of purists. But that's not a bad thing, a well set up PL-12 can still sound quite impressive if played side by side with a modern CD player, that woolly sound can also go a long way to improving the soundstage if your speakers and room setup are less than perfect.

Vintage era amplifiers tend to sound quite bright so the deep tone of the PL-12/Shure combo can be a well suited addition to a vintage system. If you're after a modern, cool, transparent sound then the humble Shure M series cartridge probably won't cut it - there are other cartridges around which tend to work well, the majority of similar era Audio Technica, Ortofon and Goldring cartridges can sound good on the stock alloy arm. To be fair, if you're looking for a modern purist sound, the PL-12 isn't going to work for you anyway.

A Pioneer PL-12D

A typical battered PL-12D

Condition wise, it depends what you're looking for. If you don't care for cosmetics then you can pick a PL-12 up for a couple of ££, the shipping will probably cost more.

The most common fault which the PL-12 suffers from are breaks in the audio leads where they get tugged around over the years near where they enter the cabinet. No cure for this except for a new pair of leads. If you've got intermittent sound through one or both channels, give the audio leads a good flex and also wobble the plugs where they go into the amplifier.

Failing this, unscrew the knurled collar on the tone arm and remove the headshell, rub the gold contacts on some rough paper - the headshell to arm connections are through four spring loaded pins and as there's not much pressure connecting them and no movement to clean them, they tend to suffer from dirt build up.

 

Speed problems

There's no form of pitch control on the PL-12. The motor is a synchronous induction motor, this means that its speed is dependent on mains frequency - for this reason, Pioneer used to ship two different motor pulleys with the turntable, one each for 50Hz and 60Hz mains supplies. If you have the wrong pulley fitted (unlikely unless the turntable was bought from a different country), the speed will either be roughly 15% too slow or 20% too fast - this difference in speed would be very noticeable, enough to turn Barry White into a Soprano or vice-versa.

Strangely, PL-12's do commonly have issues with speed, usually they run slightly too fast - I used to get a lot of people asking for advice about this. A new drive belt will help slow things a lot, but sometimes they still run ever so slightly faster than they should. The best way I found to deal with this was to cut strips of artists' card and fix this around the pulley surface under the platter - one layer at a time, checking the speed each time - this sounds like a DIY bodge but it works well to slow the speed in small increments.

Another (less common) possible cause for speed problems is the belt not sitting squarely on the motor pulley, or rubbing on the derailleur fork, probably the easiest way to correct this is to adjust the height of the motor pulley.

A good way to measure the speed is to use a stroboscope disc - this won't tell you the exact speed but will give you an idea whether it's too fast or slow.

 

Restoration

These turntables are as simple as they come, apart from some new oil in the main bearing to help cure the inevitable rumble, a couple of drops of oil in the motor and a new drive belt, they will go on happily for an indefinite time. Not to say that an untouched PL-12 wouldn't benefit from a few things, of course it would, it's 30+ years old after all - but it's not a life and death matter of getting it 'serviced' before it breaks.

The workings of a PL-12D

A complete restoration should involve a complete strip down and clean of individual parts, the arm being cleaned and oiled and the cueing control re-greased, I'll usually do this to a loft find. One issue with the PL-12 in particular is that the foam which damps the springs under the deck disintegrates, this will cause the deck to wobble more than usual when you touch it (the foam acts as the shock absorbers on a car would, they stop the car bouncing endlessly up and down when it hits a bump) - this should be replaced to make it stable again. Some people also claim that this is the cause of hum and rumble, although I haven't noticed that myself.

The dust cover can be refinished and then polished, this process will remove most hairline marks if you're willing to spend long enough on it but deep gouges and cracks are impossible to remedy with any method. The internal wiring is stable and of good quality and is fine left alone but the mains lead and plug ideally should be replaced, as on much old electronics gear the mains lead is a single insulated 'figure of 8' lead which is a health and safety nightmare.

Although the plinth is made from wood (plywood), the covering is merely a Fablon type material. This isn't the finest imitation wood finish ever made but it does seem more durable than the more realistic stuff which graced some of Pioneer's smaller receivers.

 

Upgrades

The cheapest sound upgrade you'll ever make is to remove the dust cover when you play it, the cover is hollow plastic and acts like a crude microphone, catching acoustic waves from your speakers and sending them back to the plinth and through the arm. Dust covers are for dust, not for sound - remove it when you're playing music and things will sound a lot better as a result.

Finally, if you're feeling really eccentric, you might even try filling the plinth with a heavy material such as sand - you might be very surprised at the difference it makes to the sound...

Upgrades, both cosmetic and sound are another step and are covered in the PL-12D Bronze section.
 


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