Setup help- Realistic STA 2100D, Klipsch kg4s

[Brian Bee]

Was very excited to get these two paired up but am having some issues.

I can't touch the volume dial a pinch without whatever is playing going to fuzz. I'm concerned about damaging the speakers. My turntable has a built in preamp and has never sounded like this on other set ups.
On the receiver, I actually have the -10db Attenuator on it's so severe. I had a couple hours of really nice sounding music on last night. But as soon as I turned off the attenuator, it was troubling.

Weirdly enough, the signal does better when I connect the receiver to the master out of my dj mixer (with the trims all turned down). This is not the set up I want (the kg 4s and receiver are for a single turntable listening station I described in a previous post) but I'm just trying to get everything up and running.

I thought I researched this pairing pretty well.
Did I miss something?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[daveyh]

Ok.

Your turntable has a built in pre-amp?

What kind of turntable is it?

Does this only happen in phono mode or FM and aux when connected to a CD player?

Do you have your turntable connected to the phono inputs in back and have the ground wire attached to the receiver?

Get the manual and find out how to turn off the pre-amp on your turntable. It may be a switch in back or under the record platter.

 

[Brian Bee]

Ok.

Your turntable has a built in pre-amp?

What kind of turntable is it?

Does this only happen in phono mode or FM and aux when connected to a CD player?

Do you have your turntable connected to the phono inputs in back and have the ground wire attached to the receiver?

Get the manual and find out how to turn off the pre-amp on your turntable. It may be a switch in back or under the record platter.

Hi Dave

It's a Audio Technica lp1240. These are built for djing and the pair have served me well for a few years now.
Not the turntable I want to use with the receiver ultimately, but I don't have anything else at the moment.

There's a switch to go phono and turn off the pre amp. If I do this, the signal has no power to reach speakers.

Ah, the ground. The grounds are attached to the mixer currently. The receiver is out of reach. Would cause some extra noise for sure, but the grounds wouldn't be responsible for SUCH a big distortion, would they?

I haven't tried a cd player in aux yet, but I can get clear FM signals and they come through the speakers beautifully.

In terms of impedance and wattage, I DID pair these two ok, correct?

 

[wmgwizard]

By having the pre on the turntable turned on you are overloading the phono input of the receiver.

Turn the pre of or connect the TT to an Aux input

 

[Brian Bee]

By having the pre on the turntable turned on you are overloading the phono input of the receiver.

Turn the pre of or connect the TT to an Aux input

That definitely helped, thank you. Now there's just a ton of line buzz. I'm sure I can bring that down by getting better speaker wire connections, grounding to the receiver, etc. Beyond the line noise, I still think I hear a power buzz. Is there any way to get rid of that? Or is that just the receiver being the receiver?

 

[musichal]

Check that the little wires connected to the phono cartridge are correct, clean and tight.

 

[wmgwizard]

Along with checking the connections between the cartridge and headshell, make sure to connect the ground from the TT to the receiver, this will clean up a bunch of your noise.
You can also try using a different AC outlet to power your system, avoid using outlet strips and extension cords wherever possible.

 

[Brian Bee]

Turning off the turntable preamp really solved the major problem. Thank you. It's been years since I've had a receiver (just amps powering speakers for shows) so I really didn't think about the phono input being its own thing.

If I did want to keep this setup (feeding two turntables into a mixer into the receiver) using the AUX and the turntables' preamps worked well also.

There's no potentially damage inducing noises now, just a whole lot of fuzz which yes, I can clean up with your above suggestions.

Last (I hope) question- the receiver is a few feet away from the turntable(s). There isn't a realistic way to extend the grounds, is there?
*Edit- They sell ground wires plenty long.*

Will keeping them in my mixer do the same work? Or running them to the receiver will get a totally different result?

Again, ideally, I'd like the speakers and receiver attached to a single turntable and probably an aux streaming device, so grounding everything won't be as much trouble. But for now, I'd like to enjoy the speakers...

 

[wmgwizard]

You can extend the ground wire from the TT to the receiver but the shortest, most direct connection is always best.

If you are using your TT's & mixer into the receiver run a ground between the TT grounds and receiver.

 

[Brian Bee]

Got it. Thank you all for the simple, direct help!

 

[cademan]

I might also mention that if your equipment has plugs where the spades are equal size, try turning them around at the wall socket to maybe see if that would help to clear up some ground loop issues.