[Lux Nocte]

Before I start hurling money at my problems I'm going to ask here. I'm in the process of building my first vinyl audio setup on a student's budget, I have a few pairs of headphones and I recently just got a Little Dot MKiii. I chose it because it will serve as a full preamp and amp for my headphones, and it can also switch to act as just a preamp, having a phono out to run to a reciever/active speakers. Doing some more research in components I am planning to get made me run into two little issues which I want to resolve before I commit to buy them.

1) The turntable I am looking to get is the Audio-Technica lp120. It has a built-in preamp which I don't need because of the Little Dot. The preamp bypass setting still runs the sound through some capacitors on the card which bottleneck some treble frequencies. Internet's solution is to remove the preamp. The problem is that this mod requires you to add a spade connector to the ground inside the turntable. Well, the little dot has no inputs for ground. I'm still new to all this so I'm not sure how necessary this ground spade is. Searching around I found this little guide: http://www.littledot.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=597 which days the little dot is a "grounded device" whatever that means. So is there a way around this or should I look for a turntable without a preamp? Will thise tuentables have ground outputs too?

2) I am looking for some active speakers to go after the ittle dot preamp stage. All speakers I can find include a built in preamp as well as an amp, and I don't know if it would be a good thing or not to run the sound through two preamps. Are there any speakers with the amp only?

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Before I start hurling money at my problems I'm going to ask here. I'm in the process of building my first vinyl audio setup on a student's budget, I have a few pairs of headphones and I recently just got a Little Dot MKiii. I chose it because it will serve as a full preamp and amp for my headphones, and it can also switch to act as just a preamp, having a phono out to run to a reciever/active speakers. Doing some more research in components I am planning to get made me run into two little issues which I want to resolve before I commit to buy them.

1) The turntable I am looking to get is the Audio-Technica lp120. It has a built-in preamp which I don't need because of the Little Dot. The preamp bypass setting still runs the sound through some capacitors on the card which bottleneck some treble frequencies. Internet's solution is to remove the preamp. The problem is that this mod requires you to add a spade connector to the ground inside the turntable. Well, the little dot has no inputs for ground. I'm still new to all this so I'm not sure how necessary this ground spade is. Searching around I found this little guide: http://www.littledot.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=597 which days the little dot is a "grounded device" whatever that means. So is there a way around this or should I look for a turntable without a preamp? Will thise tuentables have ground outputs too?

2) I am looking for some active speakers to go after the ittle dot preamp stage. All speakers I can find include a built in preamp as well as an amp, and I don't know if it would be a good thing or not to run the sound through two preamps. Are there any speakers with the amp only?

 
Those are completely different kinds of preamps. When you are talking about TTs, whether it's a separate unit, built into the TT, or such a circuit incorporated into the preamp section of an integrated amplifier, a "preamp" refers to a "phonostage." Very roughly speaking, if in terms of a CDP, that is the analogue output op-amp/HDAM section. The mod to bypass the preamp aka phonostage means you will use an external phonostage.
 
Here's an example of a phono preamplifier/phonostage/whatever. Note the lack of a volume knob.

 
Basically, if you look at a NAD 304 integrated amplifier for example, it has a preamp stage that controls the volume, but also a dedicated phono input that isn't just labelled as such but actually has a phonostage in it.
 
In other words, you do not need to mod that TT to use it with that Little Dot.

 

[Lux Nocte]

Oh cool, didn't know there was a difference between the preamps.
So just to be sure, I can run my setup as Turntable preamp -> Little Dot -> Receiver -> Speakers
And/or Turntable Preamp -> Little Dot -> Active Speakers.

 

[Lux Nocte]

Bump

 

[AzraelDarkangel]

I'm curious what size room and type of setup you want? I haven't seen too many powered speakers I like aside from a few nearfield monitor types. I'm a big fan of tube amps though or vintage receivers from the 60s and 70s when I can't afford tube amps. But I use headphones right now for much better cost/performance ratio and I don't have to worry about disturbing the neighbors. With an upgraded Little Dot 1+ tube amp with Sparko's Labs op amp and Mullard/RTC 5654 tubes and NuPrime uDSD usb dac through my laptop, the sound is so good I have to spend a fortune on speakers and bigger amps to equal the sound. I do plan on getting a record player too later but I'm probably getting a Pro-ject Debut Carbon DC and external tube phono pre.
 
There are packages available with powered speakers too, random example: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014V6TNQA?psc=1&smid=A2XGE4CX5AV74X or http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B53KB4U?psc=1&smid=AAK72K4OIWDXL

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Oh cool, didn't know there was a difference between the preamps.
So just to be sure, I can run my setup as Turntable preamp -> Little Dot -> Receiver -> Speakers
And/or Turntable Preamp -> Little Dot -> Active Speakers.

 
As long as the TT has a built-in phono preamp you just connect it to the input on the LD.