Please help me set up my record player.?
I have a phonograph turntable with an RCA output and I want to connect it to my surround sound system which has RCA inputs. The phonograph doesn't have a volume adjust and when I turn my surround sound up all the way, I can barely hear my records.
I used to have the phonograph connected to a television with RCA inputs. The television had an 1/8th in. stereo jack for plugging in headphones. Using an 1/8th in. to RCA cable, I could plug the television into the surround sound and with the television volume at 100% I could adjust the volume on the surround sound and get decent audio that way. The television is now broken.
I tried to connect the phonograph to a VCR via RCA and then connect the VCR to the surround sound system via RCA but adjusting the volume on the VCR didn't affect the final output volume at all leading me to think that the VCR is just redirecting the signal and not amplifying it.
Is there any type of device I can buy that will help me get decent volume from the phonograph through my surround sound? Preferably a cheap and small one-line-in one-line-out amplifier with RCA in and out. Please please please please help me find something to solve this problem.
Unlike CD/DVD players, a turntable puts out a very low level signal which is not enough to drive a regular RCA line level input on your typical home theatre receiver/amplifier.
The magnetic cartridge in your turntable outputs a very low level signal that needs to be amplified before it can be fed to a line level input. Along with amplifying the signal. It also needs to go through an RIIA equalization stage to ensure that the frequency response gets evened out before being fed to a line level input of your stereo system or home theatre surround system. A Phono preamp does exactly that, it makes sure the signal from your turntable is amplified and equalized in order to be fed to a line level input of your surround system.
The reason you could hear it before through the TV was because the Headphone amplifier in your TV was amplifying the turntable signal (though it wasn’t equalizing it correctly)
Get yourself a small external Phono preamp (google to find a relatively cheap one) that you can hook up between the turntable and Surround system and you should be all set to listen to your records again.
Wow… All that to say you need a phono preamp… lol.
The ART sounds beyond excellent for $39.00
http://www.amazon.com/ART-Pre-II-Phono-Preamp/dp/B000AJR482/ref=pd_sim_sbs_e_4
This one sounds decent if you’re on a tighter budget…
http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PP999-Phono-Turntable-Pre-Amp/dp/B00025742A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314409217&sr=8-1