VTA PH16-X RCA Jack Upgrades?

Help fellow tube lovers. I've been searching online and figured it may better to just ask this question here.

I have a VTA PH16-X phono preamp that I absolutely love. I've upgraded the caps and rolled plenty of tubes and now have a favorite set that's I've used for about a year now. Every so often the right channel drops out on me though. If I lightly touch the output jack it will come back on. I've checked the cables multiple times with a multimeter and they are all in perfect working order. All the tubes have been checked as well. I've even opened up the unit and resoldered the connections to the jacks. That seemed to solve the issue for a few months but now it's starting to act up again. At this point I have the think that RCA jack is just bad or going completely bad so I figured I would look for an upgraded option since I'll have to replace it anyway.

Has anyone upgraded the RCA jacks on their unit, and if so what brand or part would you recommend? I've seen replacement jacks go for as low as $10 a piece and upwards over $200 a piece. I don't want to go with anything junk, but I'm not looking to put in jacks that would cost as much as the unit itself either.

I appreciate any feedback you can provide, or if any of you have run into this issue and know of another fix, I'm all ears, too.

Thanks

Lou

Have you checked / tried different cables?

Yeah. Tried different cables. Then double checked the cables with a multimeter. The issue is completely intermittent. Sometimes it’s works perfectly. The last time, after I cleaned and soldered the connections to the jacks again, it worked perfectly for months. It just started acting up again last week. I really think it’s just a bad jack. I’ve tried everything else. Tried a complete different set of tubes too. I’ll pop the top and check everything again but at this point I shouldn’t have to do that. I’m just ready to replace the jacks and looking for any suggestions for replacement options.

I found that the parts express RCA connectors have better bite than the stock. I replaced stock with these on my ph14 and m125. For whatever reason I had same experience with the connectors. The PE connectors are a nice replacement IMO.

Exactly the info I’m looking for. Greatly appreciated. I’ll give them a look.

Since I just did this, here is the item.

Parts Express Chassis Mount RCA... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002KR5MO?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

FXL, this may be completely off base, but what do you connect the PH16 to?  

When I first built mine, I was connecting it to a volume control which connected to my amp.  I had issues with cable connections even to the extent that I made new cables.  That didn't solve the problem. Tried squeezing the outer RCA can, tried making the RCA pin thicker with some solder.  And a bunch of other dumb stuff.

What ended up solving the problem was when I built my SP12 preamp.  With the the PH16 connected to the SP12 connected to my amp, I've never since had the cable connection issue.  Not sure why -- voltage/impedance mismatch of some sort...

dave

I have it running into the recorder 1 in slot on my Marantz. I’ve always connected my vinyl preamp that way. I used a Dynavector one prior to the PH16 for years with no issue. Even had to go back to using the Dynavector (glad I didn’t sell it) to do a cartridge setup as the PH16 connection issues were throwing the alignment off substantially. But what the hell it’s worth a shot trying to put it into a different spot. I’ve got recorder 2 open. The part that leads me to believe it’s the RCA jack is when it happens I can touch the wire, the inputs on the amp, the tonearm, etc and nothing fixes it. As soon as I touch the output jack on the PH16 the sound comes right back. It’s enough to drive you crazy. Once I resoldered the connections the problem went away for months. And now it just started happening again. It’s almost like the jack opening is wider than the male tip of the wires. As if it’s not getting a solid connection. Just slightly moving the wire or touching the jack at the output (almost restablishing a solid connection) solves the problem. I’ve used contact cleaner. Compressed air. Changed tubes. Cleaned tube sockets. You name it. Everything comes back to that output jack.

Tried swapping to a different input on my amp. Same exact issue still present. Was worth a shot.

Symptoms sound like a cold solder joint.  If reflowing the joint fixed it once, it's worth reflowing again.  Larger parts like binding posts and RCA jacks have a lot of mass, can be difficult to fully heat up and thus are prone to poor connections.  If jack is not fully heated, solder and cable will not have good bond.  Have you looked at the joint under magnification?

I find a dab of flux from a flux pen can be helpful to get the joint wetted with molten solder.  Molten solder will generally transfer more heat than a dry iron tip and really helps speed heating of large parts.

So I’ve been going over the different solder joints for the RCAs and cleaned them up slightly the past week or so. The next step I went and looked at all the solder points for the caps as I upgraded those about a year or so ago. There was one that had a slight bit of give. Not loose but wasn’t as solid as all the other. I decided to check all of these connections after reading through the Sticky post of Troubleshooting tips. This potential cap with an issue was part of the right channel flow on the board, too. The right channel is the one that the sound is dropping out on. I touched up the connection just by heating up the existing solder, as I wanted to avoid just adding more to it. The connection tightened up substantially. I only had about 20 minutes to give it a listen after this change, but as of now the issue is not present any longer. I do say this with a grain of salt as there have been times of extended listening (actually for a few months prior to this recent issue) where the issue was not present. I will say I’m feeling much better about finally possibly finding a long term fix to this problem though. The thing that made me want to continue digging and the part that was really bothering me, is that when the channel would drop the signal, I could just go and tap on the unit, and the sound would come back on. Something like that would lead me to believe it was either a bad connection somewhere (solder joint, RCA jack) or a bad tube. I had ruled most of those things out prior though. I’m hoping I can give the unit a good few solid hours of listening over the next couple days. If the issue comes back now, I have new jacks and wires ready to be purchased. And I still may those upgrades anyway. I’ll post an update over the weekend and hopefully report back with good news that the main issue has been abated though. Fingers crossed.

Great to hear. Its *always* a solder joint! . Especially with such low level signals.

I recommend the connector upgrade. Enjoy. I am considering a PH16.

I’m definitely still planning on it. I’m curious what parts Don Sachs uses in his upgraded version. He states on his website he uses upgraded wires and connections. It would be interesting to compare other options along with Parts Express pieces. I’ve seen they have a few different options on their website as well. The Cable Company does too.

Excellent. BTW, I redid wiring with some mogami I had around while I was at it. Keep us posted.

I have the connectors you listed and the Mogami wire in my cart.