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Hooking up a turntable to a home theater receiver

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Byronape

New Member
Turntable: Onkyo CP-1017A
Old Receiver: Marantz 2226B
New Receiver: Onkyo TX-SR393
Speakers: Pioneer SP-FS52
TV: Samsung QN82Q60RAFXZA

For Christmas several years ago, I picked up an Onkyo CP-1017A vintage turntable. It was previously connected to a vintage Marantz Model 2226B that we "inherited" from her father and a new set of Pioneer floor standing speakers. While the receiver was a bit low powered for the speakers, we never listened to it very loudly and they sounded fantastic. However, the old Marantz finally gave up the ghost and I don't feel confident in my technical skills to try to repair it (plus, if I'm going to try to repair it I'm going to bite the bullet and do a full restoration).

I figured I'd take this opportunity to start putting together a full home theater system and find a way to integrate the turntable into the total audio setup. I know this comes with some challenges, thus my questions.

1) I have verified that my Smart TV has an ARC and Optical Audio connection, and that the Onkyo receiver I intend to buy also has both inputs, so I can stream from the TV itself and use the receiver and speakers for audio. I will be picking up a full set of speakers in time, but our current living room does not have a convenient place to put together the surround sound system so I'll be waiting until we move in a few months to get the speakers. This is the easy part. The real question...

2) I know the receiver does not have a phono input, just the standard Aux inputs. I know the phono signal coming in is: a) different voltage than the standard Aux b) has some alterations to the sound since bass requires larger grooves in the record, so to accommodate the need for the grooves to be as small as possible the signal that goes to the receiver/amp has the bass boosted to compensate. So the question is... how critical is a dedicated phono preamp, and what is the best/most cost effective solution for a guy on a budget?

I've seen a lot posted online about PS Audio's NuWave Phono Converter, but does anyone have any first hand experience with it? It looks like it's way more than I need as I highly doubt that I'll be ripping any of my records to a digital format in the future, plus it costs WAY more than I can justify paying for it.

I don't know enough about this kind of equipment to really know if something in the sub $40 range will get the job done and keep the lovely sound of vinyl or if I'm going to need to either go with a receiver with a phono input, or get some kind of phono signal converter.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
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The sound without the phone preamp will be at such a low level you would have to turn the amp up to max to here it at all and that can lead to accidents when you switch to another source. My suggestion is to buy an amp with a phono input as you haven't bought the amp yet, or buy a low priced phono pre amp to do the job. Yes it's important.
 
Yes, a Phono preamp is absolutely necessary.

$40 is not much of a budget but perhaps your best value for them can be found here: https://phonopreamps.com/ or with the ART DJ Pre II. Check out the link as they tell you how to hook it up too.
 
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I kinda figured that the preamp would be needed.

Just checked out the website you listed, and it looks like the route to go. The 750LC is a good price (cheaper than a comparable receiver with a phono preamp) and minimizes the amount of fiddling that will need to be done when moving between inputs, which will make the wife happy.

Anyone else have any different suggestions?

Montycat said:
Yes, a Phono preamp is absolutely necessary.

$40 is not much of a budget but perhaps your best value for them can be found here: https://phonopreamps.com/ or with the ART DJ Pro II. Check out the link as they tell you how to hook it up too.
Click to expand...
 
Byronape said:
Anyone else have any different suggestions?
Click to expand...

Art DJPre II. It's been the standard recommendation for under $100 phono stages for several years. In addition to Amazon and other mail order sources, it is also sold at brick and mortar stores like Guitar Center. The current new price is $65.99, but depending on your location you can possibly find a gently used sample for $40 - $45.

You didn't mention what cartridge you are running on your Onkyo turntable, but the DJPre II has two capacitance settings as well as adjustable gain, which makes it suitable for a wide variety of cartridges. The controls are easily accessible and the manual describes how to set them in easy to understand instructions.

It's not the be-all-end-all in phono stages, but for the money, it can't really be beat.

If you're interested in learning more, a PDF of the Art DJPre II instruction manual can be found here.
 
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Whats wrong with the Marantz? Is it the amp section only thats dead to the whole unit?

If its just the amp section you can use the pre amp outs to the Onkyo and use the Marantz as the phono pre amp.

Just thought and it won't cost you a cent.

Athanasios
 
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