[davidmiya]

I currently have some cheap Pioneer turntable that I picked up at Circuit City. While it plays vinyls fairly well when hooked up my to my ancient (1970's) receiver, I can't seem get the volumes I'm looking for when I hook it up directly to my Meta42 amp. At maximum volume, my Meta42, when hooked directly to the turntable can barely drive my ER-4P's, much less my HD600's.

I don't know what to do!?! I don't want to drive my Senn HD600's out of the receiver's headphone jack because they doesn't sound that good. (Actually it sounds MUCH better than most headphone jacks because it was made in a era where people actually cared about headphone jacks).

Anyways, I really need some advice. Any ideas are more than welcome!

 

[Wilson M.]

You can't hook up a turntable directly to a headphone amp. The signal is too small as well as it requires RIAA equalization for the frequencies. Your old receiver has a phono stage (most did back in the 70s) that does the amplification and equalization of the turntable's signal.

Your headphone amp doesn't have a phono stage.

You can get a standalone phono stage in between the turntable and amp or you could use your receiver. Hook the turntable normally to the receiver. Hook up your headphone amp to the "tape out" of your receiver (assuming it has tape outputs or other kinds of outputs). Play a record (with phono selected on your receiver) and you should be getting a proper line level signal into your headphone amp.

That should be it.

 

[Audio Redneck]

You can sometimes get a phono stage at radio shack that is about as good as you need for your table, for $25. The web-site shows it out of stock, but if you call a couple stores, I bet you might track one down.

 

[davidmiya]

Thanks for all the advice!

The phono stage in my receiver does work. But there is an incessant hum that doens't go away. I might consider one of those Radio Shack stages.

 

[Wilson M.]

I'm assuming that you have a ground wire connecting the turntable to the ground on the receiver.

You shouldn't put the turntable too close to the receiver because it can still induce hum in the phono stage. Also, any kind of large power supplies or motors near a phono stage can induce a hum. Of course, you can't separate the power supply of the receiver from the phono stage but I doubt that its own power supply would be the source.

EDIT: Also, if your receiver only has a 2 prong plug, try reversing the plug into the outlet (it may or may not have a polarized plug where one prong is larger than the other). Check to see if there is anything else plugged into the same circuit as the receiver that might cause a hum (something with a motor usually). Plug your CD player into the receiver to make sure the hum is indeed in the receiver's phono stage and not the receiver itself (don't use the phono inputs for your CD player or you will fry the phono stage).

 

[davidmiya]

After moving the turntable a little farther away, the hum went away for the most part. The rest of the distortion is probably due to my "ultra-crap-super-budget" turntable. However, I must say that the sound from my dad's old vinyls is the best I've EVER heard in terms of being "real." If I close my eyes, I almost feel like I'm in the audience.


One more question though: Is it ok to plug my heapdhone amp into the receiver output labeled "Tape: REC"? It seems to work fine...so I GUESS it's ok?

P.S. Guess what! My dad found his old Bose 901 speakers along with 2 rear speakers to go along with the setup! Oh man, these speakers may be old and outdated, but they sure put out a helluva soundstage! My only complaint would be the boomy bass and undefined midrange. (I suppose headphone hi-fi makes you a harsh critic of such things)

 

[Wilson M.]

Hum can be a hard thing to track down but with phono gear it is usually because of motors near the phono stage. It's the reason why they tell you not to put a pre-amp too close to a turntable because the motor can induce hum in the pre-amp.

Tape:REC = Tape output.

It means that the signal from the receiver is being sent to an external tape recorder for recording. It is a line level signal that is not controlled by the volume knob so that recording happen at full strength no matter where you put the volume knob.

Since your headphone amp has a separate volume control, it is the perfect output for the amp. All standalone pre-amps also have main outputs which are volume controlled and are not as good for sending to another amp with a volume control. The main outputs are for standalone power amps which usually do not have volume controls.

In typical pre-amp design, the tape outputs are taken right at source selection so that you bypass the entire line stage going from source to tape output. It helps to maintain the best signal quality. My pre-amp can be turned off and I can still get my CD player to play through the tape outputs to my headphone amp. My turntable of course requires the pre-amp to be on because the phono stage needs power to process the signal.