Help With Matching Seperates

[Nikopol]

Hello folks,
although I am not new to listening to music I am new to the world of hi-fi.
I have recently been tempted to resurrect my old LP's. So of I went and bought some cheap gear. I have an old Technics CD player and have connected this to an Acoustic Solutions SP101 amplifier. I have also connected this to a bush turntable. (as I said I'm new and intend to upgrade eventually!) The whole shebang is punted out through some very cheap AS AV-20 speakers.
Sadly I have a problem. LP's sound fine but I have to turn up the volume. CD's are much louder but on playing albums that have a lot of tonal contrast (the sultry tones of Norah Jones) I get distortion. I have by-passed the speakers, thinking these were the obvious cause, by plugging in the headphones. Same problem through these.
Whats going wrong? Could the CD player be chucking out too much power for the amp?
The back of the CD player says power:~50/60hz

 

[huwg]

Hello,
No answers, just questions I'm afraid.
Has the CD player got a headphone socket? if so try plugging the phones into that.
Have you tried plugging the CD into any of the other line-in sockets on the amp (eg tuner, tape in)?
Do you have access to any other music system (mini, micro etc) as these often have aux inputs into which you could plug the CD player. - might want to try this as a last resort as if the CD is duff, you don't want to damage the other piece of kit.

The fact that the turntable works fine might point towards the line-in socketry on the amp or the CD player itself.

I used to have a Technics CD player, does yours have a volume/output level control on the remote? if so does playing with that affect the situation?

What sort of volume levels are you playing music at? The speakers may be proving a difficult load for the amp drive, is there an impedance rating on them (measured in Ohms)? - If they are the same make as the amp then I'd have thought that they shoud match electronically.

When does the distortion kick in low/high volume levels? low/high frequencies?

I'm no expert but trying things in a methodical manner often finds the culprit.

 

[Nikopol]

Huwg,
thanks for replying. I've tried the other line in idea but the problem is the same.
The speakers are 8ohms which my amp can drive at 30 watts RMS.
The sound distorts when when Eva or Norah hit the high notes (I guess this is high frequency) all other sounds are clear throughout volume ranges. Volume doesn't seem to make a difference.
I have no headphone socket on the CD player.
I'll have to find something around here with a line in and test the CD player.

 

[huwg]

Hello,


I used to have a Technics CD player, does yours have a volume/output level control on the remote? if so does playing with that affect the situation?
.

just added this bit,whilst you were replying

 

[deanym]

You'll need a phono stage to amplify the turntable signal before it goes to your amplifier as its a helluva lot lower than that ffrom a cd player.

And try in-line attenuators on the cd line in from Rothwell. They drop the signal by 10dB which should be enough to balance and lessen the harshness.

 

[Nikopol]

Guys,
I've plugged my CD player into the Aux on my sons Philips micro system. It worked fine no distortion whatsoever. I'm wondering if the amp is duff. I wouldn't expect a low cost micro system to outperform even a budget amp.