The stylus is doing its job. Hearing the song in the needle, very quietly, means the diamond is in the groove. Do not order a stylus for that clue. On this Sony HP-510A the first useful sound was exactly that: music off the cartridge, almost nothing from the speakers. The platter also looked a little off as it turned. The music at the needle still sounded intact.
That faint sound has a name, needle talk. It is the cantilever vibrating in open air. It is always quiet. The fault is whatever is supposed to carry that vibration's electrical signal the rest of the way.
What you hear at the cartridge
| At the needle | From the speakers | Next | Shop |
|---|---|---|---|
| The song, faint and clear | Silence or crackle | FM, then the four cartridge clips | View The song, faint and clear (affiliate) |
| Scratching, or nothing musical | Silence | Look at the cantilever. A missing tip is a stylus | — |
| The song | The song, one channel only | The clip for that channel, then the amp | View The song (affiliate) |
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Split the path
Switch the selector to FM and tune a station, with a wire on the antenna screws if the band is dead. The antenna check is a different fault. A tape monitor left on Tape mutes the radio and the record together, which looks like a dead everything.
- The radio plays. The amplifier and at least one speaker work. The loss is between the cartridge and the selector: a clip off a pin, a broken lead in the tonearm, or a dirty phono contact.
- The radio is silent too. The phono cartridge is not the only problem. Continue with the crackle order.
Four tiny wires leave the back of the cartridge. Each clip has to be on its pin. One clip off is a dead or crackling channel even while the needle is talking. With the stereo unplugged, seat the clips. If a pin is green with oxidation, a short burst of DeoxIT D5 on the metal, then the clip pushed back on, is the cleaner. It does not replace a cantilever.
On this unit the later faults stacked. A mono switch copied one channel's crackle onto both, dirty controls silenced phono, and the right channel kept crackling after the cleaning. Needle talk only answered the first question: the diamond was still reading the record. The 511's stylus number is the wrong part if you do end up shopping for a needle.