Kewl, We Has A Hi Fi
 

Got the beginner "hi fi" set up for the boy. He's been wanting this, since every hipster teen boy does.

Dual 506 turntable. Cambridge Soundworks bookshelf speakers.

And some random A/V receiver that lacks a phono preamp, so we can't get much volume from the records - going to replace that component.

I use a little Radio Shack Amp as a phono preamp. Cheap, and works great. Turntable to phono and tape output to aux. in on the receiver.
RadioShack RCA SA 155 2 Channel Amplifier Phono Tuner CD Amp | eBay

There are tons of low cost preamps available. If you want to be a true hipster, get an inexpensive unit with tubes.

This one is a simple kit you put together. It screams audiophile hipster: Amazon.com: Little Bear Tube valve Phono Turntable RIAA MM Preamp preamplifier amplifier Ver2.2: Electronics

A phono preamp does 2 things. It boosts the tiny signal & it applies the RIAA curve to the signal. Both are mandatory for phono playback.

Ian

It is fun to see how stuff that is pedestrian to us is fascinating to kids.

Not just the record player - he sat in the chair listening raptly to our local jazz radio station. FM, wow, what's that? This generation was listening to CDs, ripped CDs, and MP3s from birth . . .

I have two spare phono cartridges.

Audio Technica AT92E

Audio Technica AT440ML/OCC

I think I'm going to put away the latter and not let him use it, for now.

Pretty soon he'll want a reel to reel.

Funny to see that pre still kicking, I bought one back in 1990!

Nothing wrong with that. They are still around. ;)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1444227315.jpg

I highly recommend the NAD phono stage. Ive used mine for many years with several cartridges from a 50$ moving magnet to a $700 benz micro low output moving coil.

Amazon.com: NAD PP 2e Phono Preamplifier: Electronics

If you are switching around cartridges make sure you do a little homework about aligning the cartridge and setting tracking force. You should be able to print out a paper cartridge alignment tool for your tonearm

The one I posted isn't a pre. It has 25wpc, which is pretty good for a small box. One of my clients hired a not so handy handyman to hook up speakers to an outdoor TV at her restaurant. I won't go into all the ways he failed, but I used one of these amps as a quick and cheap way to make it work.

Oooo, those were/are so very cool.

I will say that, after so many years listening to music "on the go" through cheap earbuds, Bluetooth soundboxes, as background tunes when cooking, etc - sitting down in a comfortable chair and concentrating on jazz through two stereo speakers was a real change.

Yes, you need a phono preamp. Non-negotiable.

Holy Batman Robin we still have some of those kicking around at work!

Many moons ago I bought a fancy Luxman amplifier that did not have a phono stage (CD's were the rage and vinyl was dead dontchano) so I bought a cheap Kenwood preamp to spin my disks... daddyo...

Still have my high end Sony cassette player/recorder :cool:, need to put that up on eBay.

Note to self... get old RCA shortwave working... radio is very cool, a historical and cultural influence that has shaped our world... something we all take for granted.

And another one leaps on to the slippery slope . . . :D

We just turned down a line of headphones that uses 2000 year old Russian bogwood for their cups . . .

Ian

^thanks for the RIAA link. Interesting reading. I spin records from time to time on an Akai turntable with a Grado cartridge into my NAD receiver which is old enough to have a proper phono input.

Vinyl is a great medium. I especially appreciate that when you play a record, you usually end up listening to at least the entire side of the record. Its a nicely "digestible" length of time. With digital music its so easy now to skip from song to song (or shuffle play) that it seems one seldom sits down and listens to an extended body of work from a single artist. The LP record sort of forces you to do that, which I find to be a unique and enjoyable quality of that audio delivery mechanism.