[daggerlee]

When I play vinyl, I can hear the music very tinnily being emitted from the turntable itself. I assume this is because it's not grounded properly? It's a 1970s Dual with the seperate grounding cable...

 

[mulveling]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daggerlee /img/forum/go_quote.gif When I play vinyl, I can hear the music very tinnily being emitted from the turntable itself. I assume this is because it's not grounded properly? It's a 1970s Dual with the seperate grounding cable...

I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure that's normal. My table does that as well, and it's grounded. When the table's not properly grounded, you will hear a very distinct, constant hum through your speakers/headphones that's not correlated to the music signal. I think the low-level sound you're hearing is the vibations from the needle/cartridge getting directly transduced into sound waves.

 

[cotdt]

great! you get to save money! no need for preamp, amp, headphone or speakers.

 

[infinitesymphony]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daggerlee /img/forum/go_quote.gif When I play vinyl, I can hear the music very tinnily being emitted from the turntable itself.

What you're witnessing are the basics of how a turntable works. As the record spins, the needle travels over bumps in the grooves of the records, producing sound. The sound that you hear is also traveling through the cartridge, down the tonearm, and out of the RCA cables where it's amplified several times over by both a phono preamplifier and a preamplifier/amplifier. So, that quiet signal you're hearing is the music.

 

[daggerlee]

I see, that's crazy! One less thing to worry about I guess

 

[Davesrose]

you know the early phonographs didn't have any internal amplification, and didn't have speakers attached. They just had a horn attached to the needle! A record needle produces sound "mechanical energy". In the early days, that mechanical energy would just be amplified by a horn. With hi-fi turntables, that mechanical energy gets converted to electrical energy by the cartridge. Through magic, it eventually gets to your speakers

 

[memepool]

Spot on.

Many 78 aficionados argue about whether 'acoustic' grammophones are better than 'electric' ones, steel needles are better than thorns etc etc...like some of you guys argue about DACs.

If you ever get to hear a large acoustic grammophone it's something quite special, the aural equivalent of seeing a ghost.

 

[mulveling]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Davesrose /img/forum/go_quote.gif you know the early phonographs didn't have any internal amplification, and didn't have speakers attached. They just had a horn attached to the needle! A record needle produces sound "mechanical energy". In the early days, that mechanical energy would just be amplified by a horn. With hi-fi turntables, that mechanical energy gets converted to electrical energy by the cartridge. Through magic, it eventually gets to your speakers

Cool, so my instincts were right

When I first heard the "music" playing from the cart with no speakers/headphone hooked up, I was freaked out - then I though about it for a minute and realized that the needle/cart itself was acting like a tiny speaker

 

[robm321]

Yeah, it's pretty cool - actual analog sound

 

[GlendaleViper]

Heheheh. I discovered this as a kid when (much to my dad's chagrin) I decided to manually spin our record player unplugged. I'm sure the simplicity of the vinyl medium's mechanism is what gives it that natural tone.

 

[ingwe]

This thread makes me feel very old.

 

[Sinwerm]

This is a cool thread !! Im a digital guy (now) but I remember as a kid putting my ear very close to the turntable and hearing that tinny high sound emitting. Made me think wow they really captured each sound of live music vibrations and cut/pressed them into a record. So pure , I miss that sometimes ... maybe someday again.

 

[Dept_of_Alchemy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ingwe /img/forum/go_quote.gif This thread makes me feel very old.

This thread makes me feel very young. I have no idea what you guys are talking about.