[Soundbight]

Hello!

As I'm not a 'Techie,’ please may I have the benefit of your advice on a Pre-amp?

Some 30 odd years ago I bought a top of the range ‘Sansui’ amp (120 watts RMS per channel) Receiver/ Amp. with a then top of the range ‘Dual’ direct drive turntable, using a top of the range ‘Shure’ magnetic cartridge and nude semi-elliptic diamond stylus, which worked brilliantly.

Sadly the capacitors eventually dried out in the Sansui Receiver and I was forced to replace, this I did it with a circa. 10 year old Kenwood (Integrated AV) amp. Model V3700. The rated power output (DIN) 1 kHz at 8Ω = 100w+100w (Which will doubtlessly mean more to you than me!)

My Teac CD carousel/player works well with this amp, so I connected my old Dual turntable via the normal phono plug into the amp. But the playback quality is awful I mean table rumble and hiss!

A friend of mine has suggested the reason for this is: the poor quality of the Kenwood amp doesn’t require a quality signal from the CD drive, but old analogue turntables and magnetic cartridges need a good quality signal from a pre-amp to sound acceptable.

If this be the case, I need your kind advice to source the most appropriate pre-amp for the job?

Please advise what pre-amp I should/ could consider for this application, with any reasons to support this purchase, for which I offer my grateful thanks in advance.

[Welwynnick]

Hello soundbight, and welcome to the forums.

I would suggest asking this question in the HiFi Systems & Separates forum, as this section doesn't really deal with stereo and phono equipment.

Cheers, Nick

[IWC Dopplel]

I would also put in your budget as in some peoples book, Sansui and Dual never did top of the range ......

[Soundbight]

Originally Posted by welwynnick

Hello soundbight, and welcome to the forums.

I would suggest asking this question in the HiFi Systems & Separates forum, as this section doesn't really deal with stereo and phono equipment.

Cheers, Nick

Thanks for your welcome message. In order to take up your suggestion I went to re-post this thread and found you or someone had already done so, for which I offer my thanks.

Originally Posted by IWC Dopplel

I would also put in your budget as in some peoples book, Sansui and Dual never did top of the range ......

In answer to IWC Dopplel's question: I'm hoping to keep the price down, so as to avoid purchasing a new main amp with buit-in pre-amp phase. I'm therefore needing guidence to see if this is financially viable/ feasable?

As for my 'Top of the range' comment, this relates to these two manufacturer's top/ high end models in their range at that time. Cheers SB

[Rich]

You might be better buying an old second hand amp, something like an early Arcam Alpha, Rotel or something else along those lines will cost less than £50 and will sound a lot lot better than your Kenwood amp.

I got a an old Arcam Alpha 5 for a friend off Ebay for £35 (the seller was local, so he didn't have to pay postage) for the money it sounded really excellent.

Why not post a thread in this section of the forum Amplifier & Receiver Classified Adverts - AVForums.com quite a lot of people have old good amps knocking about, that they want to get rid of, just make sure it's got a turntable input.

[Mark.Yudkin]

I too bought a Sansui amplifier and tuner (1980) and kept it for 25 years. Although the quality declined fom the mid 80's, at the vintage we're talking, Sansui offered excellent performance for cost and IWC Dopplel is presumably thinking of the more recent models.

I don't have access to any Kenwood V3700 manuals. When you say " so I connected my old Dual turntable via the normal phono plug into the amp", does that mean you used the input specially marked "Phono" / "Turntable" (does you Kenwood have one of these?), or did you just use whatever input was free? Add what did you do with the earth lead from the turntable (leave that out and the turntable will make a horrible rumble / beat / hum)?

Also is your "‘Shure’ magnetic cartridge" a Moving Magnet or a Moving Coil design (I presume the first, but without a model number, I can't check). It's aso possible the stylus, or the cartridge, has reached the end of its life - 30 years is quite old for a cartridge - in which case you'll need a new one.

[IWC Dopplel]

On the very low price end I would personally look for big old receivers with phono inputs from the better japanese players of the day :

Aiwa, Hitachi, even NAD. If you can strike it lucky (unlikely, then Revox and Luxman)

Push the boat out a little and have a look at dated looking equipment from companies like :

Arcam, Rotel, Sugden, NVA, Cambridge audio

[Soundbight]

Thanks for all your replies and the suggestions you've made so far.

Originally Posted by Mark.Yudkin

I too bought a Sansui amplifier and tuner (1980) and kept it for 25 years. Although the quality declined fom the mid 80's, at the vintage we're talking, Sansui offered excellent performance for cost and IWC Dopplel is presumably thinking of the more recent models.

I don't have access to any Kenwood V3700 manuals. When you say " so I connected my old Dual turntable via the normal phono plug into the amp", does that mean you used the input specially marked "Phono" / "Turntable" (does you Kenwood have one of these?), or did you just use whatever input was free? Add what did you do with the earth lead from the turntable (leave that out and the turntable will make a horrible rumble / beat / hum)?

Also is your "‘Shure’ magnetic cartridge" a Moving Magnet or a Moving Coil design (I presume the first, but without a model number, I can't check). It's aso possible the stylus, or the cartridge, has reached the end of its life - 30 years is quite old for a cartridge - in which case you'll need a new one.

I would particularly like to thank Mark for his response as he's pointed out certain ideas worth considering. I used the phono input into the Kenwood and even tried the other free inputs, but all to no avail.

You've made a good point about earth hum, as this turntable was made for the US market (2 lead) without an earth lead, as was the Sansui receiver/amp. But they both previously worked well together, where as I believe the Kenwood was designed for the UK market and not being a 'Techie,' I wouldn't know how/ where to begin to wire up an earth lead!

My "‘Shure’" cartridge is a 'V15 Mark IV' magnetic cartridge I bought a replacement stylus many years ago which I reserved, only to play new LPs, the original for old LPs & singles. I've tried both, but I get the same poor quality results. It hadn't occurred to me that perhaps the old cartridge has reached the end of it's life.

However, as always it's not having a facilty to test these components individually and having to gamble on shelling out for a new cartridge (at over £200) makes me less than enthusiastic!

Yes I could always try buying a secondhand amp (with it's own potential problems of age!) However that would mean me having to find a place to store it (which I don't have), in order to use along side the Kenwood just for playing vinyl records?

Hence I still think the most elegent solution is to try a Pre-amp solution first, based on the original advice I've been given. So any ideas along this route would still be appreciated before I re-consider the alternative suggestions above.

Thanks again.