SC5000M motor wheel reversing when stopping playback

Yeah it doesn’t matter in what way i stop the platter, the motor reverses after stopping regardless. Even if the unit doesn’t have power and i spin it manually.

This is not the case for my other SC5000M, so it makes me think there is something wrong with that platter motor. I shouldn’t hear a scratch whenever i stop a track, its annoying.

I was gonna say that the stopping one might be the faulty unit lol.

I did take a look at the old thread to see if anything was new but nothing has changed.

The OP did produce a video of how the deck should work though. If it wasn’t for seeing this behaviour with tts over the years I’d be complaining too. I do think it should stop like in the video.

His doesn’t wobble any more than mine do in the vid. And he is using pause.

Cue should cut the sound, though, in contrast to pause.

None of those buttons cuts the sound completely on the unit where the motor goes in reverse, i hear a backwards scratch regardless. On my other unit the sound cuts perfectly and the motor doesn’t go in reverse when stopping.

I’ll post another video where you can see the motor going backwards more clearly, hang on.

Do a vid for cue.

We know what you are talking about this is not new. It’s just you are the first out of many that has one with a tight stop.

You can always turn the motor of before stopping

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Ok so it is “meant” to be like that when using motorised platters. That’s a relief, i really don’t want to send something back to the retailer again, i just wanted to know if the unit i had was faulty or not.

I just want the sound to be off whenever i turn it off, i mean i don’t expect to hear anything after i press pause or que. Even when using the slow stop time setting, once the sound stops it should stop, you shouldn’t hear anything more after the motor has stopped.

If this is an issue with media players using motorised platters they could probably patch it so that the sound of the slight reverse scratch isn’t heard? It is a digital player after all, that could be a workaround?

@Reticuli as requested here is a vid showing the platter motor reversing when using the que button to stop: https://youtu.be/LrudNGJWQbw

I’m talking about the sound. There should be no sound when you hit cue. Your latest video did not demonstrate you’re experiencing something different than that since you recorded no music. Hitting cue is not going to wobble less physically, but it cheats the sound off with cue so there isn’t drift. My issue in the other thread is simply that it’s waiting until the platter completely stops to let you scratch that point rather than using some other metric to begin seeing record movement again. I believe the motor is immediately off when you hit pause or cue… you can see this with your hand helping it stop. And there’s a brake in there. I don’t think it’s the motor reversing, rather rebound from the internal mechanics… probably the braking parts.

Oh okey, i see what you mean. I just tried it again, using the que button to stop the track prevents the reverse scratch sound being heard, but the que button doesn’t really work as a replacement for a pause button. And as i mentioned before, even if i use my hand to help the platter to stop, as soon as i let go of it the rebound kicks in.

I hope they fix it, if its something that can be fixed. If they made the play/pause button actually cut the sound in the same way as the que button does.

Here is a video with sound, stupid of me to not think about that, was focused on the physical part of it. But yeah, you can hear the scratch here: https://youtu.be/9nBLzGn_Zxo

You mean this one which is exactly what the OP is querying

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If you put your hand along the edge of the record to stop it and then hit pause, there’s no motor on there doing anything to move the record. It does not cause the vinyl record to go magically in reverse after you remove your hand from the edge of the record once the platter has completely stopped. With zero stop speed on that knob, I have even stopped the platter manually at the same moment I hit pause, in nearly the same action putting my hand on both pause and platter edge. Works fine and I feel no reverse motor action, only the subtle rebound wobble on both my Ms that I assume is some bounce off a rubber part on the brake mechanism.

You can’t set up pause to stop the music immediately without affecting the ability to do slow trick stops and sudden motor-off scratches… unless it becomes completely canned and stops detecting the record entirely upon hitting pause. Since people often hit pause with a slow stop time and perform a scratch in there or something else, that’s really a no-go.

If that’s not good enough, I suggest you consider either turning the motor off when you want pause to stop the music perfectly every time or maybe even consider getting the non-Ms.

Clearly not since that’s not my thread, and going back and reading it I see that I gave the exact same response at the end as I just did the OP in the thread we are in right now.

Turning off the motor before you brake seems to be the one of the best choices. You can always use your crosfader to cut out before the kickback (a little old school technique)

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I never claimed it magically goes in reverse? It just spins backwards for a couple of millimeters with the added non-benefit of there being a scratching sound associated with it. As you can see and hear happening in the videos I’ve linked.

Here is me stopping the platter manually, and it “magically” going in reverse even though i helped it coming to a complete stop: https://youtu.be/ETaQh3VEIM8?t=70

Its hard to film it using one hand, but hopefully it helps.

I don’t want the music to immediately stop when i press pause, i understand that there is a scratch sound as the track is shutting off regardless of stop time, that is not what bothers me. What this whole thread (and this one: 5000m - when stopping the platter, it still moves a little (which makes noise) - #22 by Wyley1) is about, is the sound that comes from the motor rebound after the track and spinning of the platter has come to a stop.


What i can gather from the responses so far is that this is a feature, not a bug then. Its still mildly frustrating.

You said twice above that the motor goes in reverse…

I don’t feel any motor reversing action. All I feel is a slight brake mechanism wobble, and my hand on the record edge can prevent that, and if I have stop speed at zero and put my hand on the platter edge at the same moment I hit pause I can also prevent the slight wobble.

And obviously with the motor off pause is instant.

It’s not a feature, it’s just a reality. The platter braking mechanism does not consistently perfectly stop the M. It’s relatively minor and there are ways to mitigate it. A perfect software fix for pausing with motor on would mess up other aspects of the unit, though.

I think you know what i mean after seeing the videos i linked, sorry for not using the correct DJ/motor technician terminology.

In the last video i posted you can see me stopping the platter with my finger, and when i let go the causes the platter to go in the opposite direction even if i brought the platter to a complete stop with my finger.

That is probably going to happen regardless of whether the motor has been running or not or even whether the brake has been utilized from the looks of it on yours. Try slowly manually rotating the platter around to different spots and stopping it and see if it keeps wanting to rotate around on its own depending on where you stop it. That would be a matter of the platter being imbalanced, either through not being level or because it’s got some defect in the distribution of mass on it.

Mine actually have spots around the platter where if I manually rotate it they will tend to want to settle slightly back to certain other spots. Some angles will not do it and some will, which means either mine are not level too or the platter and/or motor has some mass distribution imbalances. No biggy either way, but my bubble level is at a venue right now and I can’t determine which it is.

I have tried manually rotating the platter and stopping it at different spots, it still always rotates backwards on its own after the playback has come to a complete stop. The surface its standing on is levelled, i can even hold it up in an angle and it still rotates counterclockwise a couple of millimeter when stopping playback regardless where i stop it.

It is clear you’re not really bothered by this on your unit, but i am.


Seeing as there are other people who has noticed the same thing it would be great to hear from someone at Denon if this is something that they consider a malfunction, an unavoidable byproduct of the motor they use or if it is an intended feature. I am still unsure if i should or could return the unit in the hopes of getting a unit that has a motor similar to the one on my other SC5000M which doesn’t have this problem. (i have a warranty so if it is indeed something that shouldn’t happen with these players i’d like to know sooner rather than later)


Thanks for your replies and workarounds for dealing with this issue though.