OH
MY
GOD
OH
MY
GOD
Finally got my hands on some records that have been sitting at my old address in Cali. My Crow LP came with two stickers; maybe I should sell it as an UBER RARE misprint variant!? Haha
Recent acquisitions:
Coil:Musick To Play In The Dark vol. 1 showed up last week
Coil Presents Black Light District: A Thousand Lights in a Darkened Room (also the Dais version, natch)
The motherfucking Crow soundtrack
Has anyone else got the Crow soundtrack with a blue title on the LP center labels? Still wondering what that means...
My Pioneer compact stereo system I bought in 1999 was becoming increasingly temperamental and it was clear it was time for it to retire. I went to the local audiophile shop and got all new components, with the exception of a new turntable:
Cambridge AXR85 Stereo Receiver
Cambridge AXC35 CD player
KEF Q150 speakers
I have an Audio Technica LP-60XBT with the cartridge and stylus that came with it. The AT has a switch to use a line or phono. I have it switched to phono and connected to the phono input in the receiver.
My CD’s and music streamed via Bluetooth sound great, but I have to turn the volume up on the receiver much higher to get the same volume and intensity from my vinyl. Even then the vinyl sounds a little blunted. I had to turn the volume up a little for vinyl with my old Pioneer system, but with the new components it is much higher.
Is this difference in volume typical, or am I doing my vinyl a disservice not upgrading my turntable setup? Is it more about upgrading the cartridge and stylus vs the turntable itself? Any recommendations?
I am not an audiophile...yet? I see another trip to the local audiophile shop in my future.
From your description, my first guess would have been that you have the TT connected to one of the line inputs, but you're clear that this isn't the case. In which case, my guess is that the phonostage in your new amp, since its designed to accept cartridges with a wide range of outputs levels, is exposing the relatively weak output of the cartridge on your TT. This would have been masked when using the TTs own phonostage, which is presumably better level-matched for that cartridge. Your new phono stage can handle MM carts with output range from 2-6mv, and your cartridge puts out a signal at 2.5mv - close to the bottom of the range, so yes it will sound a bit quiet. Your new stage is designed to be able to handle much louder carts.
Ah, I see. Thanks for the explanation. When I was at the shop there wasn’t much discussion about the turntable and cartridge compatibility, mostly because I said I would use the one I already owned. I have only had it for about a year and I was already reaching the upper limits of my comfort level with spending on one trip, so I wasn’t open to exploring my turntable options. I’ll visit the shop again in the near future and see what they recommend so my vinyl has a better sound quality.
Last edited by thenorthwood; 12-21-2020 at 10:37 PM.
If you're wanting the best bang for your buck, I would recommend a stand-alone phono preamplifier. Here are a few (popular) options which are all much, much cheaper than the (expensive) turntable + upgrades rabbit hole:
Schiit Mani // $129 (handles MM and MC)
Rega Phono Mini A2D MKII // $175 (handles MM)
Cambridge Audio Alva Solo // $199 (handles MM)
It does seem that in this case the TT is the bottleneck. I suspect the reason the TT now sounds - as you put it - blunted, in comparison to the digital, is that your new amp and speakers are exposing the relative shortcomings of the TT in relation to your new digital sources. When it comes to upgrading, consider the second hand market - your money will go a lot further.
While looking at the new cEvin Key I saw these in his Bandcamp store and couldn't pass it up...
Norma Jean - Meridional
2020 bootleg just came in!
@NotoriousTIMP let us know how it sounds.
Thanks for that Techmoan vid, MrLobster. I sought out the parent vid, which was about a “Dual” turntable purchased in Aldi, which was a real eye-opener. I’ve got a Dual TT and I thought they were long gone, but I learned the brand name has been necroed. (Mine’s an old original from the early 80s, a CS-505, I’m ok).
He seems like an engaging presenter, I’m going to try some of his other stuff.
RIP MF DOOM
Does anyone know if there is a way to connect more than 2 powered speakers to a record player? We have a player with a preamp so we just use RCA to connect one and then speaker wire to connect the other. If I just twisted 2 speaker wires and daisy chained them to additional speakers would that work? We have our record player in the living room but we moved into a new house and we'd like to have speakers in the office as well.
you're actually talking about un-powered speakers (powered speakers refers to speakers that use AC power rather than a power amp)...unless i'm very confused here. are you using RCA or speaker wire? do the speakers also plug into the wall for electric?
if you're talking about un-powered speakers, technically it will work BUT you should really use either an amp that has two discrete speaker outputs (Speakers A & Speakers B) or an outboard box that's meant to distribute to more than one pair of speakers, as to balance the impedance. my dad has some in the garage if you want me to send you one, just pay me for shipping.
or if you're in a real hurry, you can buy this - https://smile.amazon.com/Improved-Se...&tag=hyprod-20
Last edited by eversonpoe; 01-12-2021 at 05:57 PM.