born-again audio 250

[thebeathunters]

hi everybody

i was already in love with my Audio 1 but destiny has its own stereophonic ways.
i had noticed an ad a few weeks ago on the boncoin.fr website for an audio 250 sold in the southwest of france and after initial contact, it appeared that the seller, a charming lady- was there to take care of somebody's stuff but actually lived an half-hour away from my village, up in Beaujolais country. she agreed to wait until bringing the system back home before selling it. she wasn't fully aware of Braun but knew she had something valuable on her hands.

i visited her yesterday and discovered the 250's FM radio playing nicely on its woody L710 speakers. bought in 1971 by one of her relatives, the system is visually in pretty good shape except for a little crack near the right hinge and a few light marks on its body. she warned me that the turntable didn't work so i removed the parts and discovered that the belt was missing. in fact, it was there... but melted around the axes from old age or overheating, still sticky and soft (see pictures). i tried the motor which seems to run fine but it was smearing that plastic tar everywhere so i didn't insist.

obviously, when the problem occured, the lady didn't bother to have it fixed. she probably couldn't find a living soul around to deal with it anyway so she bought a little Numark portable plastic turntable and had it plugged to the system to enjoy her classical records collection.
an original spare belt was part of the various items (no notice but various litterature, little pads for the speakers, cables, etc) that came with the system back in the days.
this belt seems oddly too big for the job (see pic) but if it's the right thing, i just wonder if i should use it or better find something more current if i don't want to witness the same phenomenon in the future.
your advice and tips are very welcome here!

add a nice vintage BST wax8 headphones to the deal and i happily left with my new toys! i spent some serious q-tip cleaning time this morning, listening to chaka khan and rufus. it's not perfect yet but i got rid of most of the mud.
more pics to come/ to be continued...

cheers,phil

[derlange]

Hello Phil,

I also started with an audio 1 m (that one with a magnetic pickup) and the next one was also a audio 250 which is very nice and still quite compatible to todays standards. Later I turned over to the audio 310. This was the last model of the old shape and its receiver is even better than that of the Regie 501, quite comparable to the Regie 510 and its turntable has also a manual lift.

That is the way I started and a lot of other Braun devices followed.

I wish a lot of fun with your two audios. Did you also bought the L 710? They sound excellent.

Yours
DerLange

[thebeathunters]

hi derlange

i guess it's a classic to start with the original components and then move on up
i plan to get a 300 or 310 too when the opportunity occurs. of course i took the L710 along, i wouldn't rip this nice system apart.
what's your take on the belt? maybe the one i shot isn't for the turntable (see my ignorance of technical stuff). are the models they sell regularly on ebay "old" stock or more currents items? thanks for sharing.
phil

[braunfreund]

Hi Phil,

the rubber wheel turns to a smeary tar if someone had applied too much oil or grease that came into contact with the rubber. For a first test, fix the wheel in an electric drill (running slow) (you need special tweezers to take off the stopper ring) and scratch off the rubber at the edge with a knife or someting similar until "good" rubber is coming. If it's not completely round, it's not a problem since the belt and the high weight of the platter filter ot the speed variations. The speed of the turntable is only given by the ratio of the motor shaft and the aluminum drive wheel diameter.

The rubber wheel is identical to that of the smaller Braun PS2 record player chassis , perhaps you can get one.

A belt that fits can be ordered at http://www.schallplattennadeln.de/RIEME ... A-C/Braun/ It's the same as in audio 300.

I's a German supplier that also sends to France.

I hope you can make it work--kind regards

braunfreund
Frankfurt, Germany

[thebeathunters]

thanks everybody for your tips and concern. i finally cleaned the last residues with alcohol and everything seems to run smoothly on the different speeds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N8PYyqUaB4

i ordered my new belt thru ebay and can't wait to test it.
next movie will be with the turntable playing (hopefully). what do you want to hear?
phil

[thebeathunters]

new belt arrived this morning and fits perfectly so i was able to check the phono functions.
well, mono is ok but stereo is out... i thought about checking the cartridge/ cell and noticed there's a wire missing: the blue one. could it be the problem?
i tried to replace it by another - taken from a spare cartridge (technics)
- but it didn't work
so are these little wires specific to (old) braun and maybe you guys know where i can get one...

[carlos]

Dear Phil,
some information: headshell-wiring, signal right red, signal left white or yellow,
ground right green, l+r are shortened with a small bracket at the cartridge terminlas inside the headshell. That is the reason why you see only 3 wires.
Another reason for only mono playing could be the phono-preamp, tis error is well
known. You have to check all the C´s on this board and replace them, than everything will be o.k. again, I did it last week for a friend. Do you have a wiring diagram for your audio? Would be helpful because of the C-values.
yours Carlos

l

[quixcanardnon]

some information: headshell-wiring, signal right red, signal left white or yellow,
ground right green, l+r are shortened with a small bracket at the cartridge terminlas inside the headshell. That is the reason why you see only 3 wires.

Hi Carlos,
I have just seen this topic. I'm restoring an Audio 310, and have found the same thing; there are only three wires connected, and left-ground and right-ground are jumpered together on the cartridge. Why is this done like this? I tried connecting all four wires as normal (and removing the jumper) but got only left-channel output!

I cannot figure out why it is set up like this.

Any insight?

Thanks!