jschultz Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 So I bought myself an audio technica LP120 a few months ago as a gift to myself to replace my old crappy record player that would make my records skip terribly. After a few months I finally got speakers for christmas, and started setting everything up tonight, but of course now I have realized I was an idiot and the speakers I got are passive and need an amplifier to work. It's been months since I bought the record player and I'm just really eager to finally listen to my records and this has just been a lot of frustration- can someone recommend to me what amp to buy? I'm a college student living in a dorm room so I really need something small and I don't have a lot of money. I understand it won't sound as great as it could if I buy a cheap amp but at this point I want to just get something affordable ($50 or less) and I can buy something better when I have the means in the future. My speakers are polk audio T-15 bookshelf speakers and as stated my record player is an LP120. I was looking at this one: https://www.amazon.com/Lepai-LP-2020A-Tripath-Class-T-Amplifier/dp/B0049P6OTI or something else on this list http://coloredvinylrecords.com/blog/stereo-amplifiers-for-your-turntable-setup/ but I figured I would post this anyways just to make sure I get something that will work with the rest of my set-up Additionally.. is there anything else I need to know about connecting my record player to the speakers/getting everything to work? Trying to avoid anymore bumps in this road Thank you so much in advance for helping! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-Bon Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 as long as the LP120 has a built in phone preamp, it will work however ... your speakers can handle up to 150 watts and that amp will only produce 20 watts RMS per channel... sooooo its up to you. perhaps a bigger amp if possible... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kannibal Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 That amp from Amazon will be fine for something ultra cheap to get you up and running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jlegg Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 18 hours ago, jschultz said: So I bought myself an audio technica LP120 a few months ago as a gift to myself to replace my old crappy record player that would make my records skip terribly. After a few months I finally got speakers for christmas, and started setting everything up tonight, but of course now I have realized I was an idiot and the speakers I got are passive and need an amplifier to work. It's been months since I bought the record player and I'm just really eager to finally listen to my records and this has just been a lot of frustration- can someone recommend to me what amp to buy? I'm a college student living in a dorm room so I really need something small and I don't have a lot of money. I understand it won't sound as great as it could if I buy a cheap amp but at this point I want to just get something affordable ($50 or less) and I can buy something better when I have the means in the future. My speakers are polk audio T-15 bookshelf speakers and as stated my record player is an LP120. I was looking at this one: https://www.amazon.com/Lepai-LP-2020A-Tripath-Class-T-Amplifier/dp/B0049P6OTI or something else on this list http://coloredvinylrecords.com/blog/stereo-amplifiers-for-your-turntable-setup/ but I figured I would post this anyways just to make sure I get something that will work with the rest of my set-up Additionally.. is there anything else I need to know about connecting my record player to the speakers/getting everything to work? Trying to avoid anymore bumps in this road Thank you so much in advance for helping! Hey, where do you live? Usually you can get a cheap amp / receiver from goodwill, or on craigslist pretty cheap if you look for a while. It'd save some money and would likely sound better than what you had from amazon, as your speakers are pretty low sensitivity, so it would be hard to drive them with that little amp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jschultz Posted January 24, 2017 Author Share Posted January 24, 2017 2 hours ago, Jlegg said: Hey, where do you live? Usually you can get a cheap amp / receiver from goodwill, or on craigslist pretty cheap if you look for a while. It'd save some money and would likely sound better than what you had from amazon, as your speakers are pretty low sensitivity, so it would be hard to drive them with that little amp. I'm in philadelphia. I tried looking around on craigslist and ebay but I don't really know enough about audio to be sure I'm buying the right thing vinyl addict 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jschultz Posted January 24, 2017 Author Share Posted January 24, 2017 Thanks for the help so far everyone! I'm between these two at this point https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0049P6OTI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A385A0XNQBW8HY https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001PNOH2I/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freki Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 That 2nd one I can't tell if it has RCA inputs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jschultz Posted January 25, 2017 Author Share Posted January 25, 2017 2 hours ago, Freki said: That 2nd one I can't tell if it has RCA inputs Oh that's true.. It was on a list of amps recommended for turntable set-ups so you'd think it would but maybe not. I'm probably just gonna wait a day or two and then order the first one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinyl addict Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Best advice for a college student on a budget: Craigslist. Buy a used AV receiver. You can find some great deals. I found an $800 Denon receiver for $100 for my home theater setup. $50 can go a long way on CL. Pretty much any of the receivers in this link will work for you. It's AV receiver for $60 or under in Philadelphia. There's over 70 entries. http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/search/ela?query=receiver&sort=rel&max_price=60 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjorn Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 On 1/29/2017 at 11:04 PM, vinyl addict said: Best advice for a college student on a budget: Craigslist. Buy a used AV receiver. You can find some great deals. I found an $800 Denon receiver for $100 for my home theater setup. $50 can go a long way on CL. Pretty much any of the receivers in this link will work for you. It's AV receiver for $60 or under in Philadelphia. There's over 70 entries. http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/search/ela?query=receiver&sort=rel&max_price=60 I agree 100%, I see great deals for amps on CL all the time. I grabbed an older Sony for $50 bucks, and while it's not replacing my Rotel any time soon, it's great for my basement setup. vinyl addict 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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