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Pre-amp question.


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I know I'm risking abuse (or at least some gentle ribbing) posting this but I am a newbie, both here and to record players. 

I have a cheap budget player. Music Vinyl On and this is connected to a Logitech speakers and sub via a RCA red and white cable. This is good enough atm for a bedroom - 80 watt speakers and I can only have them a quarter loud. 

 

My question is where is the pre-amp? Do I need one? The speakers / sub have an amp but I can't imagine the record player has a pre-amp. It's too cheap. Is it necessary? What is the difference between an amp and a pre-amp? The system works fine and sounds good to me. I'm a newbie! Thanks. 

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The Vinyl Music On is an all-in-one unit, so it does have an internal pre-amp and amp.

 

In (very) short, the pre-amp amplifies the signal from the needle, and the amp powers the speakers on the unit. All turntables need to go through a pre-amp of some sort before it gets to the amp itself. In your case, everything is happening within the turntable, and you're just pushing the sound to the powered speakers with the RCA cable. 

 

If it gets the job done and sounds good to you, that's all matters!

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Thanks for your help. Doesn't it matter that the sub / speakers also have an amp built in? 

 

It sounds good but I'm gonna need to upgrade the player sooner than later as it's skipping on some songs. It doesn't seem to be able to handle thicker vinyl or certain songs at the start of a record. The songs that are skipping are all at the start of the records. The only record that won't play at all is Phil Collins Serious Hits Live, it skips through the whole thing. 

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  • 2 months later...

Yes, all record players need a pre-amp.  The signal coming from the stylus is very low, so there needs to be a step-up transformer to get the voltage to a level that the power amplifier can use to push out to the speakers. 

Turntable -> Pre-amp -> Power amp -> Speakers is the order of things. 

 

Your turntable is something that should be upgraded as soon as possible, if I'm looking at the correct thing on Amazon.  The reason being that many of these extreme budget entry players can damage your records. 

U-turn and Pro-ject have many turntables for a few hundred that will be a good start.  If you want to really get a good upgrade to last you a while, this one will do very well:  https://upscaleaudio.com/products/pro-ject-debut-carbon-esprit-dc

 

Pair that with a Schiit Mani pre-amp, and you'll be set to go for a long time. 

Edited by Gumbo72203
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 12/2/2020 at 3:10 PM, Gumbo72203 said:

Yes, all record players need a pre-amp.  The signal coming from the stylus is very low, so there needs to be a step-up transformer to get the voltage to a level that the power amplifier can use to push out to the speakers. 

Turntable -> Pre-amp -> Power amp -> Speakers is the order of things. 

 

Your turntable is something that should be upgraded as soon as possible, if I'm looking at the correct thing on Amazon.  The reason being that many of these extreme budget entry players can damage your records. 

U-turn and Pro-ject have many turntables for a few hundred that will be a good start.  If you want to really get a good upgrade to last you a while, this one will do very well:  https://upscaleaudio.com/products/pro-ject-debut-carbon-esprit-dc

 

Pair that with a Schiit Mani pre-amp, and you'll be set to go for a long time. 

Thanks. I bought an Audio Technica 120xUSB shortly after this post and it's a decent turntable. You have to make sure your records are thoroughly clean though or it will amplify the pops and crackles. I also got a Roberts RT200 for free, to review but there is a fault with the autostop (see the post I made on this forum.)

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On 12/26/2020 at 6:54 AM, SCLee said:

Thanks. I bought an Audio Technica 120xUSB shortly after this post and it's a decent turntable. You have to make sure your records are thoroughly clean though or it will amplify the pops and crackles. I also got a Roberts RT200 for free, to review but there is a fault with the autostop (see the post I made on this forum.)

if you're looking to upgrade, any TT that has the USB port is going to be of lesser quality.  Lots of options out there for decent upgrades though!

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