With this Expanded Range MN6042 Upgrade, holding down the reset button for ~2 seconds will cause the pitch display to start flashing, indicating you are in ER mode. While in ER mode pitch changes are x10, e.g. 1.1% is 11%. The available pitch range is -40/+20%. To exist ER mode simply hold down reset for ~2 seconds and the display will stop flashing, indicating you are now in normal mode.
This functionality is desirable for archiving LP's as slowing down replay will increase traceability and decrease distortion. Pspatial Audio is adding wind-up from -25% for 33.3RPM records feature to their Stereo Lab software to facilitate this, as 25% slow is the sweet spot for the SP-10.
Being early MOS technology, the Technics MN6042 Pitch Synthesizer IC is by far the most failure prone IC in the turntables that use it. Further, at their current age, even working MN6042 ICs typically are not working well due to gate damage sustained over their lifetime.
In our testing of three different Technics ICs, we found all three exhibited an average frequency variation of 8Hz, which directly affects the Quartz Lock frequency of the turntable, leading to increased flutter. With today's technology, we can do far better.
The Fidelis Analog FA6042 Pitch Synthesizer is a drop-in replacement for the original Technics part, designed for absolute reliability and vastly improved performance. Our Pitch Synthesizer is stable to +0.1/-0.2Hz, making the Quartz Lock reference stable to +/-0.00003Hz as measured in our SP-10 MK3.
INSTALLATION NOTES: For an SP-15, replace R214 with the included resistor. For an SP-10MK3, jumper R301 and lift R212. The white dot on the board denotes pin 1.