TurnTable connection advice

[maccers]

Evening all.. am doing some homework for adding a turntable to my existing setup. My Marantz amp has a phono input. I’m looking at placing turntable aprox 6 meter from the amp. The way my house is the cables will need to pass fireplace and go round a few bends. It will be well tucked away under floorboards.

If the distance is acceptable what type of cable would be needed? I have been looking around and some only come in certain lengths which makes me think mine position is way off.

Looking at some other online forums people seem to use regular rca cables with a separate earth of any type cable. Is this a reliable way to connect or avoiding huge cable costs?!

Ta.

 

[DT79]

Evening all.. am doing some homework for adding a turntable to my existing setup. My Marantz amp has a phono input. I’m looking at placing turntable aprox 6 meter from the amp. The way my house is the cables will need to pass fireplace and go round a few bends. It will be well tucked away under floorboards.

If the distance is acceptable what type of cable would be needed? I have been looking around and some only come in certain lengths which makes me think mine position is way off.

Looking at some other online forums people seem to use regular rca cables with a separate earth of any type cable. Is this a reliable way to connect or avoiding huge cable costs?!

Ta.

That’s a long distance for the cable from a turntable (very tiny signal). If there is no option to locate the TT with the amp then you would be better off buying a separate phono preamp (not necessarily expensive to get something at least as good as the one built in to your Marantz) and locating that very close to the TT so you can use a really short interconnect (0.5m ideally), then have the longer cable going from the phono preamp to a line input on the Marantz (much higher line level signal).

 

[maccers]

That’s a long distance for the cable from a turntable (very tiny signal). If there is no option to locate the TT with the amp then you would be better off buying a separate phono preamp (not necessarily expensive to get something at least as good as the one built in to your Marantz) and locating that very close to the TT so you can use a really short interconnect (0.5m ideally), then have the longer cable going from the phono preamp to a line input on the Marantz (much higher line level signal).

Thanks for the reply!! Yep cool my dad mentioned it might be too long a distance, he being of the generation that pretty much only had turntables!
So TT into pre amp with short cable, then PA to amp with any type of RCA?

 

[Ugg10]

Or you can get a turntable with a built in phono preamp/stage. Do you have a budget for the turntable. Also if you don’t already have a record collection then a turntable can be an expensive hobby to start collecting from scratch. New LP’s are £20+ generally and the second hand market has increased in price significantly. The days of £1 LPs in charity shops have long gone.

 

[maccers]

Or you can get a turntable with a built in phono preamp/stage. Do you have a budget for the turntable. Also if you don’t already have a record collection then a turntable can be an expensive hobby to start collecting from scratch. New LP’s are £20+ generally and the second hand market has increased in price significantly. The days of £1 LPs in charity shops have long gone.

Long story short I received some LP’s from family and always wanted to add a TT to my setup. I’m 44 so kind of tape, CD roots and like most Digital streamed for convenience etc. Budget around 400 GBP inc cables… just would be great to play the albums I grew up on and always wandered as a kid how they worked I’m not looking for the purest sound (too many miles on motorcycles to appreciate that!) just an occasional trip down memory lane.

 

[Ugg10]

The obvious choice would be the Rega Planar 1 plus which is highly regarded but does come with a basic cartridge. No frills, manual 33/45 change (lift platter and move a belt) but decent sounding.

Ho Weber you could get an older model on sale and add a decent phono stage, something like this -

Project Essential IIIA - upgraded cartridge and acrylic platter at £195

Project Essential III A (Black) Turntable

The Essential III boasts a series of notable improvements that elevate it well beyond the ability of its predecessor, both technically and cosmetically.

www.sevenoakssoundandvision.co.uk

Add a Tisbury Phono preamp for £125 (£159 new)

Tisbury Audio TA-04 2-Channel Phono Preamp for Turntable for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Tisbury Audio TA-04 2-Channel Phono Preamp for Turntable at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products!

www.ebay.co.uk

The turntable (3mV output) plugs into the preamp placed near it, then the preamp (1V output) plugs into the aux/cd/tuner (not phono) input on the amp.

 

[Kapkirk]

6 meters? that will be interesting. You might be better off with a bluetooth enabled turntable, especially if you are just starting off with vinyl. Something like the Sony PS-LX310BT.

 

[DT79]

Thanks for the reply!! Yep cool my dad mentioned it might be too long a distance, he being of the generation that pretty much only had turntables!
So TT into pre amp with short cable, then PA to amp with any type of RCA?

Agree with Ugg that if you don’t already have the TT then it might be more sensible to find one with the preamp built in.

For a regular interconnect carrying line level signals, 6m is long but doable. Definitely look for something screened.

 

[maccers]

6 meters? that will be interesting. You might be better off with a bluetooth enabled turntable, especially if you are just starting off with vinyl. Something like the Sony PS-LX310BT.

That’s an option, I already bought an ifi zen Bluetooth receiver for my amp last year.

thanks all for advice!

 

[Mark.Yudkin]

The normal recommendation for a phono cable is up to 1m (and the shorter the better), whilst for an interconnect 30m is no problem. Like the others here, I recommend getting a TT with a built-in phono amp.

What is the difference between a phono cable and an interconnect cable? - maPlatine.com

In audio, there are several types of cables. In a Hi-Fi system, there are phono cables and interconnect cables. Here are a few explanations in order to understand the difference between these two Hi-Fi cables.

www.maplatine.com

Turntable Cable Lengths – An Audiophile’s Ultimate Guide – VacationVinyl.com

vacationvinyl.com

 

[maccers]

The normal recommendation for a phono cable is up to 1m (and the shorter the better), whilst for an interconnect 30m is no problem. Like the others here, I recommend getting a TT with a built-in phono amp.

What is the difference between a phono cable and an interconnect cable? - maPlatine.com

In audio, there are several types of cables. In a Hi-Fi system, there are phono cables and interconnect cables. Here are a few explanations in order to understand the difference between these two Hi-Fi cables.

www.maplatine.com

Turntable Cable Lengths – An Audiophile’s Ultimate Guide – VacationVinyl.com

vacationvinyl.com

Cheers. I’ll probably look at the Bluetooth option for now. Probably not the purest but it’s a start