Question Raga Planar Turntable & Marantz SR6012.

Joannmark

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Hi, I'm looking for a little help please. I own a Marantz SR6012 which has a built in turntable phono stage. Im looking to purchase a Rega Planar 1 turntable & my issue is the length of phono cable (7m) as I need to get to my amp in another room.
My options are
1. Get the Regs Planar 1 £248 & use an RCA phono adapter to join the hard wired RCA phono leads to my phono cable & into the turntable input of my Marantz which has a built in MM phono stage.
2, Get the Rega Planar Plus, which has a built in phono stage with no hard wired rca cables, meaning I can plug my phono leads directly into the Rega Plana 1 plus & into another phono on my amp e.g CD input, using this method I am not forced to join the RCA csbles using an adapter.

Any ideas which one would be best? I'm a little worried about going down the option 1 route (which is cheaper) due to having to use the phono adapter, but I've no idea if the Marantz built in phono stage would be better or worse than the one that comes with the Rega Planar 1 plus.

Hope this makes sense. Any help would be appreciated.

Mark.
 
One thing I'd be concerned about is the maximum length of cable that will work in each case. The output from a MM cartridge is typically about 3 to 4 millivolts, while phono pre-amp output (line level) is around 1 to 2 volts - about 500 times the cartridge output. I'd expect line level to go a lot further than unamplified TT cartridge output.
 
One thing I'd be concerned about is the maximum length of cable that will work in each case. The output from a MM cartridge is typically about 3 to 4 millivolts, while phono pre-amp output (line level) is around 1 to 2 volts - about 500 times the cartridge output. I'd expect line level to go a lot further than unamplified TT cartridge output.
Thanks for the reply. I know its not ideal regarding the cable length but I'm a but stuck with that. Im leaning towards the Rega Planar 1 plus myself. Would the phono stage of the marantz not boost the level or could this level have simply dropped too much by then? I'm a bit of a novice I'm afraid (first TT in 30 years).
 
Thanks for the reply. I know its not ideal regarding the cable length but I'm a but stuck with that. Im leaning towards the Rega Planar 1 plus myself. Would the phono stage of the marantz not boost the level or could this level have simply dropped too much by then? I'm a bit of a novice I'm afraid (first TT in 30 years).
Indeed, that's question - whether the low voltage signal from the cartridge will get as far as the Marantz in the first place. I don't know, but hopefully someone else will.
 
Or use the difference between the 2 decks prices to put towards an external phono stage that will probably be better than in the AVR and maybe even the plus, but it can be placed in between the two to use the planars own cable and then a shorter length say 5-6m to the AVR.
 
 
Provided you don't buy a really cheap and nasty cable, 7m shouldn't be an issue. However, a 7m cable with ground wire can be a little hard to source, as they're not in great demand.
 
Non phono stage Rega's don't have a grounding wire, not sure about the Plus
 
Hi. I opted for a Rega Planar 2 in the end. I've plugged in the 7m cable into the Marantz phono stage. Im a little concerned as the volume is very low unless I crank the AVR right up. A little 'underwhelmed' with the sound. Could this be down to the length of cable? Maybe I need to get a seperate phono stage as suggested by Thatsnotmynaim. Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Thanks. Mark.
 
7m for a phono level signal is pretty long and could be the problem. Check by moving things temporarily and using a shorter cable before spending money. Also can that AVR vary the gain on each input?
 
Try this:

Screenshot 2020-10-25 at 11.54.26.png
 

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