I would wager the hum produced by the QTXsound preamp is due to insufficient power supply filtering. Check the filter caps on the power supply and in the preamp.
Hi there! Great video! Just one thing. When powering on an audio system, the last thing to be turned on should always be the amplifier (typically sources, then equalizers, then amplifiers). That way transient pops are prevented from hitting the delicate speakers downstream. Professional audio systems often incorporate a sequencer that turns on the devices one by one automatically.
I looked at the schematic of the Pioneer Receiver, and well the problem is most likley dried up electrolytic capacitors in the signal path of the phono preamp. I would recommend replacing them with same value WIMA MKS2 capacitors, and call it a day. I had similar happen to the phono preamp in a amp i worked on, and replacing the caps fixed the issue. Also, you would be amazed at what new caps can do in terms of sound in vintage gear. I replaced the caps in almost all my optonica amps, and they sound many times better now. If you do it yourself, i would recommend getting a desoldering station / gun, as it will not damage the circuit boards. Also, the same thing happened in a pioneer receiver that is awaiting restoration, its a SX780. Its preamp is built different, but it still has a electrolytic cap directly in the low voltage signal path (straight after the cartridge)
Agree 100%. Vintage stereo receivers (25 years and older) will need a tune up and replacement of worn out caps. It always makes a difference. As for the phono stage, it's also true that stereo receivers' built in phono stages were often cheap. A dedicated phono preamp such as Pro-Ject Tube Box will sound much better.
+Haniff Din It is not the paper and foil that is a problem, though, rather the liquid electrolyte eventually dries up causing the capacitor's ESR to increase which in turn causes the Dissipation factor (D) to increase and the Quality factor (Q) to plummet (which can be tested for with an LCR meter), all of which further drives the deterioration process and throws tuned circuits well out of tune. Good quality Japanese electrolytic capacitors will often deliver over 20 years of reliable service, but eventually they will degrade. Fortunately authentic high quality Japanese branded capacitors are not terribly expensive, and after replacement you can likely count on at least another 20 years of service, making the repair well worthwhile -- though, avoid ultra-low ESR capacitors for tuned circuits in 70-80s gear as the tuned circuits often depend upon the higher ESR in traditional aluminum electrolytic capacitors.
heat turns caps to crap real quick especially in older equipment with tubes. If the environment is over 100 degrees I pop one out and see what it reads every few years. usually the good brands like Nichicon do great in hot environments
If the filter caps (electrolytics) were dried out wouldn't there be a fairly loud hum coming through on any device one used? I know in little radios like AA5's if they have the original caps in them they'll hum like crazy to the point stations can no longer be heard.
Rebel9668 From my experience the caps in these solid state amps are usually still usable for filtering the AC from the powersupply. I have found that the signal path caps however do far more damage to the signal. I have mesured the frequency reponse of one of my amps i restored. It should have a 1 to 50K +-3dB, when mesured pre restoration, i got 10 to 16K +-3dB After replacing the coupling caps, i got a near flat response in the entire measurement range of my ADC (24KHz max). The noise rejection from the power supply in solid state amps from the 70's and 80's is decent, though usually only in the tone amp section, not the poweramp section. Thus a filter cap that is off by quite a bit is not taht noticeable, unless it starts creating hum in the power amp stage. Though i have had hum from bad filter caps in solid state gear before, its less common then in tube gear (at least from my experience).
I personally love the "convoluted" process of playing and listening to music on older equipment. I love the whole process of turning this knob,then that, pressing a series of buttons etc etc. My wife however says my set up is a pile of old crap as she can't operate it. So I brought a Vortexbox and Squeezebox so she could have all her CD's available on demand. This also is a pile of crap as the choice of music is so overwhelming she cant work out what to select. So she has now brought a portable CD player ghettoblaster sort of thing which she can operate and leaves my "old crap" alone. Sorted.
Good choice. My amplifier is the Sony STR-DB1070 stereo receiver (i.e. it has a built-in tuner, for those of you who didn't grasp that) from the early 2000s. It still came with a built-in phono pre-stage, and it sounds great to me. So, as long as this amp remains in service, so will the phono pre-stage. However, whenever I do switch to a different amp, this Project may well be one of the options I'd consider for being able to play my records. By the way, for those of you interested: I have a Technics SL-1200mkII turntable which I use with a Stanton Stanton 500EE MkII cartridge.
Years ago, I found a Pioneer PL-50 turntable. Now I had one exactly like that when I was overseas, but had to sell it when I left to come home, so this was a thrilling find. When it arrived, I found the belt from the belt drive had lost it;s ability to drive the table so I replaced that, and a bit of oil brought the old unit back to life. The cartridge was like new but my current stereo system had no phono in, so I got a cheap adapter and tried that. Like yours mine put an almighty buzz on the output and even adding larger caps to the PS didn't help much. So one day I saw an old SONY receiver for sale on Ebay, a few bids and that was mine. WOW did that make a difference. This is a complete amp/receiver in one. I never looked up her wattage, but she can drive two sets of speakers, one has 18 inch woofers, the other mid-range and tweeters. The tunes that hit my old ears sound a bit like they did before I left most of my hearing in the jungles of Vietnam. Hearing aides, they say will not bring it all back, but the ones the VA gives me do make a huge difference. Now the problem is, I am getting to lazy to get up and play records any more, and since I have most of the music on MP3's and my hearing aides are bluetooth, I can send the music to my ears from my laptop. Nothing compared to the big system, but at least I get to hear the tunes and that, to my old ears brings back the days before the war, when all I cared about was music, beer and broads.
+Techmoan Me too, I am lifelong video game fan and I always had fear if something happened to my hearing or sight, it really would hurt to loose enjoyment of life because of those things and getting it rectified is great news, especially for someone with your love for music and technologies that play it back.
I have a Tube Box S similar to his, but with gain buttons. I think it makes a worthwhile difference, prompting me to buy an Ortofon 2m bronze cartridge. Improvements are not massive, but are discernable, and the enjoyment has been greater. The tube box is a good introduction to valves.
Having worked in a vinyl record store for a few years, I highly, highly recommend you buy vinyl that was manufactured before, say, 1989 -- when possible of course. First, there's a higher chance that the master is analog, and there's also a higher chance that the transfer to vinyl was done by people who know what they're doing. Vinyl pressing is a dying art and I can't believe people are paying top dollar nowadays for brand-new 180g albums and reissues that are made from digital masters, and pressed without any regard to dynamics, the format's limitations and so forth. (Oh and, protip: 180g is a marketing scheme.) If you truly want to put a recent pressing to the test, drop the needle on the LAST track of a side, and look for sibilance or distortions in the highs. Then tell me it sounds better than the lossless file or CD. (Which is what you just bought, by the way: a digital master that's been "re-analogued" and pressed on a big slab of plastic). Very few companies do vinyl pressing right nowadays, and they're mostly releasing classic jazz albums pressed at 45rpm on two records. Which is fine if you don't mind paying 50$ per album. And one other thing: compare the overall audio level of a brand-new vinyl vs. a vintage pressing. You'll find that recent pressings are much quieter and that you need to crank your amp much higher, which means more surface noise!! My theory is that digital masters contain so much treble that the transfer engineer has no choice but to press at a very low volume so the pressing doesn't sound like absolute crap. End of rant! Buy old records! Buy the 3$ copy in the used bin, not the 50$ reissue!
Heck yeah, buy used vinyl records that have been worn, rather than newly pressed ones. All the 70s and 80s vinyl was practically paper thin. It was made for the cheap mass market, not for quality buffs. I'll happily buy a nicely pressed reissue. Youre absolutely rightr in that pressing is an art, and can be done well or extrememly poorly. But that comes down to buying quality stuff. Old records don't guarantee that it was done right either.
yep because every one knows that the "old" records 1st pressings n the like are way cheaper just filling up all those 3 buck used bins, Thanks for sharing :-) (btw I am being sarcastic)
Thanks for interesting point. It is also my latest think Anyway I wouldn't say it is no profit to replace CD with new LP version . I consider CD players not enough durable and prone to slight sound variations depending on technological reasons . My CD is high class but already 15 years so I start to worry about laser. New such class would be again very expensive, repair is not expected. That in my opinion is why many people gave up on CDs. With LPs it is likely that once tuned to synergy with system they may last very long years, also new ones. .
Great video, one tip for anyone into hifi, always switch on the amp last and then switch off the amp first when turning it all off. had it before where you turn on the amp then turn on everything else and you can get a nasty pop through the speakers. Always follow the procedure when powering up and down: always switch on the amp last and then switch off the amp.
+Samara Weaving This one really needed the other one otherwise I'd spend all evening trying to explain why it's not possible to demonstrate the warm analogue sound of vinyl and a tube pre-amp using digital files.
I was watching your new Mission Impossible video (E1) and the pioneer receiver (SX-3600) in the outro jumped right out at me. I immediately thought of videos that may feature it, then I remembered that this one showed it briefly. The reason it really got my attention is I found the Pioneer SX-3500 (From 1980) on the curb, dirty, with the cord chopped off a while ago. I cleaned it up and gave it a new cord, re-ran the tuner string, and now it's working beautifully. I never noticed before that you basically have the same machine. It's in very good condition, and it even shines in the light. The window almost looks like it isn't there because it's so clear. I was almost shocked to see that you have it. It's a fantastic machine, I absolutely love it. Luckily, the Pre-amp in mine is still working beautifully. The only difference I see between the two is the SX-3600 has two tape monitors, and the 3500 only has one. I love it so much that it's the only piece of audio equipment I've found so far (I've found quite a few gems) that I've decided I don't want to get rid of in the foreseeable future. The only thing I wish it had was more power. The 3500 is only 20 watts per channel, and it looks like the 3600 is the same (judging by the VU meters). Within the last month, I replaced my old speakers and receiver with some Sherwood stuff. While the speakers in that system are INCREDIBLE, I feel as if the receiver in the new system, despite being several years newer, significantly more powerful AND having a 5 band graphic equalizer, still doesn't sound anywhere near as good. DEFINITELY hold on to that as long as you can. I have since moved the 3500 and old speakers to the bedroom, hooked up to a turntable there.
@Techmoan the humm can be caused by unshielded chinch cables. Had the same problem. I bought a Pro-Ject turntable, came with an Ortofon 2M Red and a cheap ground/ chinch cable combo. Replaced the cheap inclueded cables with braided cables and the humm was gone.
the hum can also be caused the the included switch mode power supply. if you hinge the silver cover back on the QTX pre amp there is a connection for PP3 battery. also grounding the turntable to pre amp then grounding the pre amp to the main amp helps alot too.
Or simply cracked wire in a cable. Happens with solid state as well, I've replaced many in the last 37 years. Simply wiggling cables and speaker wires can find this. And we always plugged them in the other way, before polarized power plugs, sometimes that helped. I expect some hum from old tube stuff, it's OLD.
Still running my Quad 33/303 combination, even have the matching FM3 receiver. 1960 something and still going strong. Old Dual turntable with Shure cartridge, very analogue. Glad you got yours working properly.
I know Im asking randomly but does any of you know of a method to log back into an Instagram account..? I was dumb lost the login password. I would appreciate any tricks you can give me!
I have a Pro-Ject solid state pre-amp and I have to say it works very well. Another reason I picked it up was because it has a USB output if I wanted to save tracks to digital.
Wow, can't help but wonder how you have time to create so many super reviews. Thanks again. I have all the albums you leafed through. No equipment presently, but still have my albums. I used to be a serious audiophile in the 60s & 70s.
You have to watch that Sticky Fingers album cover. The zipper tends to cut into the album in front of it, ripping it open. Had that happen a time or two.
Hello Mat. Early eighties I used to buy albums and play them as a master for reel to reel tapes and sometimes cassettes. When I would play them straight out of the jacket they had some microscopic particles that would make some noise using my Pioneer direct drive turntable. I came up with the idea to spray the record with rubbing alcohol and play it wet. I would spray enough on that you could not see the grooves, a layer that I smoothed out with the fine felt cover on the bottle. This alcohol layer took out all static and noise. If I looked real close I could see the stylus making small waves as the record revolved. The alcohol never seemed to affect the record material. I would update the spray as required while the record played because of evaporation.
+MHammer ". I came up with the idea to spray the record with rubbing alcohol"... that was actually a common practice in the 70s. I had a reservoir with alcohol and some contraption that moved with the cartridge to dispense the fluid right before the needle. No more static and yeah, the record would not wear out that much anymore if played a lot.
+Peter Rafeiner I didn't think about the alcohol in the early 60s probably because I was not aware of the noise in the groove of the record as much, different equipment and maybe I was less of a purist. At he time around 1963 I believe I had an Italian made turntable. The platter of the turntable was the size for a 45 but it play 33s. It's fun to reminisce.
Alcohol has serious long term problems. Every application dries out the vinyl a little more, leading to a brittle record that wears more quickly. Wetting a record with distilled water is a much better idea. The quality commercial record cleaners of the time used distilled water and a bit of glycol, not alcohol.
I agree, playing vinyl in itself can be quite a task. But that's why I just have a DJ mixer and plug it into there then from the mixer direct to my studio monitors. Sometimes you have to sacrifice time for better quality in anything you do.
You leave me in the dust, sir! I've got a bit of a thing for old cassette players and seem to acquire them in odd ways. Currently I have two late 70s Pioneers (one needs a new belt, the other one needs some bulbs for the VU meters but works), an el-cheapo Ferguson toploader and a mid-80s Toshiba that is by far and away the best of the four. I was stunned to pick up a late 90s Sony 7.1 amplifier for £40. My turntable is an inexpensive Citronic direct-drive, all going into some M-Audio active studio monitors (small ones). I'm a musician so being able to combine all of my hi-fi and recording gear (large-format interface ,etc) into a single set of speakers is incredibly convenient. Part of my musical hobby involves using the old cassette players as a textural device. As a kid, I had dozens of cassettes and I'm just in the process of trying to get them back from my folks as well as their old cassettes. Next on the list is a reel-to-reel (I have some NOS tape lying around) and maybe an 8-track if I can ever find any cartridges. I am really enjoying your videos. I discovered you last night and have watched a fair few. What I particularly like is that you enjoy quality audio gear but don't buy into the 'audiophile hype' that so many others do. I like your focus on quality and subjective testing, as well as keeping it practical and reasonable. It's very refreshing and one day I'd very much like to own a system like yours.
As I've gotten older I've gone more to the KISS principle. Fewer components = less in the sound path to cause a problem. Turntable to Amp to speakers. Less chance of grounding issues, bad connectors, etc. When I changed the cables on my Thorens TT I did not go to jacks, but rather kept the hard-wired connection in the TT. Just one less connection that can potentially leak and cause distortion.
I had the same experience with my Thorens TD-160 with a Sure 97Xe cartridge connected to my Luxman amp's phono input. Records sounded dull and lifeless. I heard Luxman amps have really good phono stages. No so much with me. This issue was with matching the capacitance of my amp and my cartridge. With my set up, it did not. I bought a very inexpensive Fosi Audio tube preamp for like $60 and the improvement was amazing. Everything now sounds brighter and cleaner. On the subject of vinyl. You should do a video on different record cleaning systems. Spin Clean versus an ultrasonic cleaner, etc. There's a lot of record cleaning options out there and can get quite confusing. Love to hear your take on them.
I recently purchased an Edward's Audio Phono pre amp for about $200 and couldn't believe how well it preformed compared to a Pro-Ject I had paid twice as much for. It's not a tube amp but I recommend looking into Edward's Audio for those looking for perhaps the best phono PreAmplifier I've ever heard under $400.
if you want a miniature pre-amp that sounds as good as any big box phono pre-amp Emotiva makes a really REALLY good phono pre-amp that sounds outstanding for such a small package, even has impedence settings for moving coil
I would like to recommend the Cyberpower 1215RMS PDU....accommodates large DC Wall Warts and multiple power sockets,one switch to activate 10 devices, extremely heavy duty.
As someone else has commented,.. my suspicion would also fall on the phono input filter compensation components which normalise the response and amplitude for an RIAA curve ( the amplitude from a stylus is only in the region of 5mV or so, as compared to a normal input which van be anything in the region of 200mV), and the filter components, which are probably well on their way to failure or reduced performance are causing some expected clipping in the audio output,. but not bad for a piece of kit that is probably 35+yrs old...
Thanks. The Audio Technica lp120 has the same problem with its build in preamp. One dude desoldered the bad preamp that would take the high frequency sound away. Now the high frequency sound is back and it has never sounded better with an external preamp. I think that external preamps are always better.
The reason for the "Warm Sound" is because of the wave form varies with analog. Digital takes that variation away. Even a crystal clock with resonate harmonics. But the Tubes bring back the Warm sound & are more popular than ever. Carl Slicer, Vernon, Conn. (1610).
TM I have just bought a Little Bear T7 for £40 from china. I had an Edwards Audio Apprentice but it didn't inspire me. This little Bear however is a different story. For years Ive had a Thorens TD 160 super with a Fidelity Research 101SE cartridge but it always sounded flat and dull through my Quad 44/405/B&W Matrix 3E. This valve phono amp has transformed the sound. It improved after half an hour and at one hour its working perfect. The detail and transparency are phenomimal as if the near silent low noise during the quiet patches and the silence between tracks. I played the America album and was blown away. I am hyper critical. Just wanted to share with you. PS thanks for all your vids, my hat is off ot you
I do have An old Lafayette La 224b, a 10 valve amp.(bocama) From about 1970. These can be found second hand from 150-300 euro's. 30 watts Total. Gives the real old sound, even with cd! Greetings!
I have a Pioneer SX1980 and I had to have the phono preamp rebuilt as some of the electronic parts got old. It sounds great now. You might check into this before you dump your nice 80's amp.
What you need to do is check the capacitors in your old Pioneer amp. Most likely what's happened is that the electrolytes have dried up causing them to loose capacitance. If you take a look at the inside, the values are clearly marked on most devices that are solid state. It's easy enough to remove the old ones with a soldering iron. From there you only have to make sure you keep the same polarity when installing the new ones. New capacitors can be found in many places on the internet. My favorite site to buy components is Mouser.com.
Power supplies 'double insulated' with plastic earth pin, does this upset the earthing of the amps? Do you lead all chassis earth wires to a single ground point?
I also have my entire music studio , not just my vintage technics record player, going into a 70’s Pioneer amp. My synths and computer audio are going into the Pioneer amp as well and it sounds great. Sony commercial tear drop 2 way speakers from around 2004 are what i have. No room for bigger speakers.
You should have stayed with the QTXsound preamplifier. The hum is coming from that bulky adapter that you used on it. You could have been much cheaper by buying a decent powersupply (PSU) for it. That would kill the hum and brighten up the sound. One tip: As I see that it is 9 Volt, just try a 9 Volt battery first before buying such a PSU. You'll notice the boost in quality! Batteries are still the best for preamps!
any OM series stylus will work with your cartridge and these are really easy to get - see ebay. Also check your cartridge alignment on that sansui deck.
Could the reason for the inferior output from the phono stage of your receiver have to do with (considering the vintage of the unit), that the phono input was designed for a ceramic cartridge instead of the cartridge you are using? (Could not determine if it was a moving magnet, or a moving coil). It definitely wasn’t a ceramic cartridge. Mm or mc coil cartridges require at least ten times the energy a ceramic cartridge requires. This could account for the lack of quality audio output.
im a tad too young to actually remember tubes when they where big, but a buddy of mine built a tube amp for his livingroom and it blew my damn mind, i had never heard audio so cleanly before. its nice to see that there are some products out there that do this, i may have to pick one up for myself.
I too wanted to get that same preamp for my tutrntable ,but the price pro-ject is asking was out of my budget,so I got a regular preamp it was ok ,but then I saw on line this preamp that had vaccum tubesit was a good price and I thought I would try if I did not like I would return it ,but when I hooked it up the sound was amazing I did not expect the soundto be fantastic I was hearing things that I could barely hear before I was blown away .it not fancy it was under 30 dollars it was worth it,I also tried a tube amplifier to put in between equalizer and reciever to act as a buffer it is like nite and day the sound ,sounds very warm pleasant I enjoy listening to my system even more that I did the same for my system at work ,you cant believe the difference ,the highs are not annoying like they used to be I even had to resset settings on my equalizer at home and at work !!
unless you are using a very high end pre amp/integrated amp phono stages inbuilt are usually pretty shitty, its like they just chucked it in as a second thought. I recently purchased a yamaha a-s701 and found out they are using the same phono stage as the entry level models (201,301 and 501) so definately going to upgrade soon
I still have some old records, but nothing to play them on. I only have about five, though. That first audio clarifier box is similar to one I have for video. I used to have a DVD player daisy-chained through a couple of VCRs to my TVs single input. One of the VCRs was set to detect a copyright signal and show the old dark pink/light pink flashing over the video signal. The video stabiliser box fixed that problem.
I recently picked up a Ampapa tube headphone/phono preamp/amp. I really like the sound. It wasn't too expensive and I definitely prefer tube amps. I wanted to give it a shot before I sank any more money into it. I am a audiophile returning from my 1980's experience. It is great to start entering the audiophille community again, even as a neophyte (to headphones: I got the Senn HD650's to start). I used to have some of the equipment you use! I ended up with a Tandberg 1/2" reel to reel, Thorens turntable, and Perreaux amp and pre-amp, among others. I even gave the Accoustat 7'10" speakers! What a great time.
5:00 It was a joy to see that you have a pre amp witha ground to get rid of that hum, but then those switches to customize to the type of cartridge! This is beautiful and amazing. You have a standard mount tonearm. You could easily spend more on your cartridge than you did on the preamp! And because you have those switches, you can go … Moving magnet vs moving coil!!! Now there would be a great video!
Like your turntable mine you have to lift the cue handle move the tone arm over the LP then release the cue and it slowly touches the edge of the record and plays
I can’t help noticing that you power up your equipment in the exact opposite order that I’ve always done it. I was advised a long time ago and believe it to be true, that you should always power up starting with the sound source, then working through the signal chain, to the amp last. Otherwise you’re hearing the all the other things turning on through your speakers and there’s potential to damage them. Don’t know how likely that is to be honest, but I’ve just always done it that way!
I have that qtx sound preamp reboxed under another brand but it is run off a 9 volt battery (i guess to isolate grounding/hum issues) It works great, with no hum. Saying that, as to it's sonic abilities I have not compared it to any other turntable phono preamp, so I can't say for sure. A tube / valve preamp will for sure be better...
70's 80's vintage Pioneer amps are very flat in the bass section. I used to own a couple, even the huge sx1080 but it's the same with all of those. My Grundig (RTV 840) and Fischer (CA-873) amp had a very bassy warm tone, while Onkyo and Telefunken amps are quite in the middle. What I am currently doing is running a miniDSP toghether with my modern Harman/Kardon amp. It allows very precise eqing, highly reccomend getting one of those.
That is a good starting unit had one years ago when I first got into hifi.10 phono amps and thousands of dollars latter I have a 15,000 dollar 36 tube 4 piece unit. This one your reviewing is a great value for its tiny price.
Perhaps you can be of great help! I bought a ESI Phononorama preamp and USB to transfer tapes and records to a computer for a friend.The idea was for him to use his analog record player to process the signal into the LG receiver DM 2740. The pre-amp comes with both Phono and Auxiliary output as well as the USB connector. I cannot get audio output either into the USB nor the auxiliary port of an LG (toaster like) the DM 2740. The signal in leds blink when the turntable plays a record, which means that the phono preamp is receiving the signal and its powered up. But there is no audio signal from the analog plugs such as the headphones or line out. The LG might not be compatible with the USB signal, perhaps, but the cable sends power to the pre amp and the leds blink to signal peak levels.There are no gain nor volume knobs to adjust the input and output levels, however, everything seems to be working from the point until the pre amp has to send the audio signal to the receiver. Also the receiver process the signal from an iPhone into the Port-In of the LG. What could be the culprit?
You will get better results from any reasonable CD player than from the phono set up you're using . Valve phono pre-amps or better said all valve amplification tends to hum and it is not always an earthing problem it also has to do with proximity of the components to each other and specially with the nearness of the Speakers which to me is the more common problem.
I don't doubt that, being a Pro-ject, the pre-amp is a genuine valve circuit. But if you want something cheaper, beware of cheap phono pre-amps that have a couple of valves that serve no purpose other than to attract the buyer and glow a little. When my Pioneer A-207 needed replacing, I got a Cambridge Audio One, refurbished for £150 off Ebay (Richer Sounds price new £400). I added a cheap Behringer PP-400 phono stage, but after a while realised that the sound I was getting from the record deck didn't match that from other sources, and, after watching a few videos, I crossed my fingers and tried a Art-Pre DJ Phono stage, whose price had gone up to £50 (and still rising) following a number of excellent reviews. In conjunction with a pair of home-made interconnects based on Van-Damme hi-fi cables, the record player sounded as good as a the other sources. Interestingly, my record deck does not have an Earth post. With the Van-Damme lead, there was no hum, but other leads (including allegedly good quality ones) caused hum. It's not too dear, around £8 a metre from which I made two stereo leads, with cheap RCA phono plugs, allegedly gold-plated, from China. Total under £10.
I just had this same problem with my pioneer sx 780, my phono input sounded bad and the left channel wouldn't work most of the time. All of the other inputs worked fine. Now it sounds great again with my new pre amp
switching power supplies, especially cheapo ones tend to add his/hum to sound. qtx PHONO amp had one I noticed. I would always use transformer heavy ones.
A huge number of modern amps have phonostages. sure, AV amps often don't, but many decent stereo amps do, especially at the sub-£1000 end of the market. That said, you made a great choice with the Pro-Ject. You can get even better performance by replacing the stock power supply.
Agreed, the wall wart it came with is almost certainly strangling the sound - a linear bench supply from Maplin would make a big difference. They do 13.8v units for about £40 which have a small pot inside where you can tweak the voltage up/down
It's weird that build-in phono pre-amps in early 1980's amplifiers are sounding so bad, isn't it? Back in the 80's, the main source of music was your turntable and just a tiny part of your amplifier is destroying the complete sound quality. And yes, the Tube Box S is a great pre-amp!
@TV13 - Please don't jump to this conclusion simply because of Techmoan's experience. His Pioneer is very old and may have an age related problem in the phono input. Most vintage Japanese amps had fantastic quality phono inputs, compared to modern Chinese-built external ones. As you say, turntables were the main source, so care was taken with the design of the phono input and quality discrete components were used.
I'm 41 years old, maybe that's old enough to remember vinyl records, their cracking noise, witness how delicate and how quick their deterioration is if you are not super careful, an also remember the lack of detail compared to CD. In 1989 bought my first CD and never looked back, and by 1993 had replaced all my collection to CD. Do understand their revival, specially for younger generations, but I don't miss it. Could you tell me what I'm missing? what did I forget about it? Do understand the ritual but don't remember anything in particular that makes want to get back in to vinyl again.
+Jonathan Gomez I just love different audio formats. If they sold the latest albums on elcasets I'd be buying those too. I can't sell anyone on vinyl. I'm not even sure why I buy it.
+Jonathan Gomez As a teenage boy and absolute audiophile, I just bought my first turntable together with some of my most-loved albums on vinyl and I absolutely adore it. I mean, it's obvious that you get the "vinyl feeling" when sitting on your couch and having the record playing right next to you, but that's not the point. The point is, that even with my pretty "cheap" setup (~500€ vinyl gear + ~500€ sound system) the music sounds so much better than the best quality I can squeeze out of my pc (which also has a high end sound card). The bass is so much more vibrant and powerful, you can hear stuff you'd never imagine hearing on digital audio (best example is the remastered Pink Floyd: The Wall LP) and the sound is in general more crisp and defined. I also like the "warm" sound of the analog audio, but that is a personal thing. Obviously there are also apparent downsides such as having the flip and change the LPs all the time, especially if you have only two or three songs on each side, making sure everything is grounded at all times (man it's annoying to always make sure the ground wire has contact) and last but not least having to take care of the LPs themselfes to not damage them. But still, as an audiophile, I did not yet find anything that sounds better than vinyl and I think that's the reason for it's comeback. I almost daily take 10-30 minutes of my spare time just to sit back and admire the beautifulness that is listening to vinyl.
+Jonathan Gomez Agreed John I'm 61 and was a total vinyl hifi nut in the 70's with a Lin Sondek platter fluid arm B&O stack speakers etc etc it all cost a small fortune and on some vinyl's like Dark side I even bought master pressings which also cost a bomb but being twice as thick didn't warp at all over time. However soon as Marantz came out with their CD kit and Brothers In Arms was released one listen and I dumped all my vinyl and converted to digital. The separation alone knocked vinyl into a cocked hat. We used to hide Valves in a cases, now its cool to have them glowing on your side board attracting dust and in a constant state of perpetual operational decline Vinyl sounds like junk after a few hundred plays how ever much you treat them with Kidd gloves , Its inevitable , call it a diamond stylus cartridge or what ever its still basically a needle being dragged along a grove made of plastic bouncing from side to side. IMHO its all a nostalgia trip, digital is cleaner sounding with more frequency depth and vastly better stereo separation I had even had Quadraphonic for a while (very limited albums made in quad though) and even that couldn't touch digital for clarity or separation. The jump in purity of sound between vinyl and digital was as big as that between 33's and 78 shellac's. Vinyl's are fun but no longer real HI FI and as I did you just end up listening for pops and crackles more than listening to the music.
+Jan H. Isn't part of the problem the Loudness War ? Vinyl didn't have the artificial increase of sound output and because of that, I always felt that music that wasn't treated this way sounded better and purer - people might confuse this with Vinyl sounding better but it's not the fault of digital music. I agree that vinyl sounds warmer but that's mainly because it lacks the higher tones so you get a slightly muffled effect. On a PC with a good soundcard like the Xonar, that effect is easily copied without needing the expensive set up. I think most people who claim you can't mimic Vinyl digitally, are only imagining this. Though I still love the idea of vinyl, the £1.000 for a decent player and amp minus speakers is a tad too much ... .
redavatar Yes, the loudness war is indeed a part of the problem, but not everything. I even prefer a song on vinyl over the same song as an uncompressed flac, which is not affected by the loudness war (or is it? not that I would've heard about it yet). Still I have to admit that without direct comparison I couldn't tell which one is which. I can hear (I'm surprised at how good my ears still as althrough I've been a drummer for about 10 years now) the difference between my LPs and flacs but it is not, at all, a day and night difference. Mp3 is easy to tell since they sound really flat, but flacs are probably almost on-par with vinyl.
I do understand the importance of a good phono preamp. I've used Musical Fidelity, Cambridge Audio, Vincent, and now a Schiit. However, the idea the tubes will have maximum effect in that preamp is difficult to understand. The Amp has its own preamp section that manipulates the sound, and that's why tube hybrid amps have become so popular. I suggest it better to invest in end of the circuit rather the beginning.
Just a bit of curiosity here surely you haven't actually grounded your turntable. Because the phono amp is not grounded itself. Surely you need to run the grounding wire from the amp as well as your amp will be grounded.
Sorry to hear about your hearing problem, that's a pain. I hear better in my left ear, so I always have to ask someone else if the speaker pan is even.
Would buying an old tube system with Turntable be a better option? I had an old Silvertone cabinet model with the big wooden lid. It was tube but still sounded very muffled. I'd like to see what a refurbished model would sound like.
Ah the joys of separate component systems. I have a old blind friend who absolutely loved his radio shack realistic system with Mac 1 speakers. It's safe to say that someone would literally have to pry them out from his dead arms to get ahold of them. I'm sure by now he has sourced a backup for his amp that is an exact replacement just in case. Cheers.
Very nice. Excellent video...very informative. Pleased you had a happy ending in this venture...not an inexpensive option, but oh soooo worth it. Loved your taste in vinyl, BTW. You and I would get along just fine if we were to hang out and luxuriate in some of the finer sounds from Motown and Stax Records. Both, Al Green and Marvin Gaye are some of my favourite artists from back in the day. There was soooo much great music made back then. My first receiver that I bought (back in the day) was a wee Pioneer SX-636, a 25 w/ch unit. I upgraded to another Pioneer, but this time an integrated amplifier, in search of more juice in the early 1980's but kept the SX-636 and used it strictly as my FM tuner. (I couldn't justify the price of the matching tuner for the SA-7800 amp) Good stuff that ole Pioneer gear :-)
I use hybrid dac, pre and amplifier, it's great! You must to warm de valves before they deliver the sound you want (15 minutes in my case). Great canal!
I considered buying one of these when I had to turn up the volume especially high when playing my new turntable (a Denon DP 47F - can you guess why I chose it?). Turns out the problem was my Denon receiver doesn't like MC cartridges and that's what I'm using. I had to buy a step up transformer (which doesn't have to be plugged into an electrical outlet or turned on). Problem solved - $330.00 later.
Awesome sound improvement by replacing both standard Chinese ECC83 (12AX7) with the ECC 803 Selected Gold Pin tubes from JJ Tesla Electronic! A pair of NOS General Electric 5751JAN (MILSPEC) will improve the sound too.
Reallly enjoying these videos man, you seem to care more about a quality sound than a lot of DJs and producers that I know, good to know that people like you still exist. I'm not much of a youtube commenter but I will say that them Ortofon stylus are not that hard to find in most cities, I can think of at least three shops in Soho that sell them, but you're right about the rise in price with the death of vinyl, I've had to go back to my old Stanton cartridges because I'm on such a low budget. Lets hope that with vinyl coming back this stuff will go back down in price. Consider me your new subscriber and keep up the good work. :)
@ 3:22 get either a switch mode power supply, or (more expensive) use a battery pack if your mains power pack is a funny voltage you can always build an adjustable voltage regulator using a lm317t from maplins or ebay for a reasonable price and use either a switch mode psu or battery pack which should get rid of the noise
Here is what happened to me, my old Technics SUA-900 amp was lovely for the past 20 years (Vinyl only) and the rich sound did my vinyl great justice, BUT .. I bought a new amp : Yamaha AS 701 (Circa £500.00) and what a difference, the prob is that antiquated amp nice as it is, it belongs in the 80s.
Techmoan, glad you are happy with the results you got. But I remain suspicious.....the poor sound from the Pioneer preamp was probably some combination of dirty signal routing switches and dried up capacitors. The outboard preamp had hum issues most likely due to a bad power supply. The expensive "valve" (vacuum tube) preamp no doubt sounded fine if for no other reason than it was new and no part of it was worn out. BUT.....have you seen the tear downs that have been done on several similar tube photo preamps? Some of them use the tubes in such a way that they have no effect of the signal and the actual amplification was being done by an IC. Some others were simply inexpensive IC preamps that had tubes glowing on top for appearances, but not remotely connected to the audio signal. Yet, reviews of those products raved about their amazing sound! I saw a tear down where the tubes used were simple rectifiers, not capable of amplification, and another where the tube filaments were not even powered, and the warm orange glow came from RGB LEDs under the tubes.
You should get a bunch of power strips so you can use them for individual components, for example, the Vinyl power bar would switch on the Amplifier, The Preamp and the Turntable, and whatever else.
You know why that preamp is humming?... It doesn't know the words! :)
Loooooooool
12voltvids *Ba-DUM-Tss!* 😆
That cable... is mine! Sorry, just the way he described the power cord being short.
Dad joke level 1,000,000. Epic 😎
I would wager the hum produced by the QTXsound preamp is due to insufficient power supply filtering. Check the filter caps on the power supply and in the preamp.
Hi there! Great video! Just one thing. When powering on an audio system, the last thing to be turned on should always be the amplifier (typically sources, then equalizers, then amplifiers). That way transient pops are prevented from hitting the delicate speakers downstream. Professional audio systems often incorporate a sequencer that turns on the devices one by one automatically.
I AGREE 👍
Order to turn off would be the opposite? IE turn off the amp first?
@@beosliege Correct
I looked at the schematic of the Pioneer Receiver, and well the problem is most likley dried up electrolytic capacitors in the signal path of the phono preamp. I would recommend replacing them with same value WIMA MKS2 capacitors, and call it a day. I had similar happen to the phono preamp in a amp i worked on, and replacing the caps fixed the issue. Also, you would be amazed at what new caps can do in terms of sound in vintage gear. I replaced the caps in almost all my optonica amps, and they sound many times better now.
If you do it yourself, i would recommend getting a desoldering station / gun, as it will not damage the circuit boards.
Also, the same thing happened in a pioneer receiver that is awaiting restoration, its a SX780. Its preamp is built different, but it still has a electrolytic cap directly in the low voltage signal path (straight after the cartridge)
Agree 100%. Vintage stereo receivers (25 years and older) will need a tune up and replacement of worn out caps. It always makes a difference. As for the phono stage, it's also true that stereo receivers' built in phono stages were often cheap. A dedicated phono preamp such as Pro-Ject Tube Box will sound much better.
+Haniff Din It is not the paper and foil that is a problem, though, rather the liquid electrolyte eventually dries up causing the capacitor's ESR to increase which in turn causes the Dissipation factor (D) to increase and the Quality factor (Q) to plummet (which can be tested for with an LCR meter), all of which further drives the deterioration process and throws tuned circuits well out of tune. Good quality Japanese electrolytic capacitors will often deliver over 20 years of reliable service, but eventually they will degrade. Fortunately authentic high quality Japanese branded capacitors are not terribly expensive, and after replacement you can likely count on at least another 20 years of service, making the repair well worthwhile -- though, avoid ultra-low ESR capacitors for tuned circuits in 70-80s gear as the tuned circuits often depend upon the higher ESR in traditional aluminum electrolytic capacitors.
heat turns caps to crap real quick especially in older equipment with tubes. If the environment is over 100 degrees I pop one out and see what it reads every few years. usually the good brands like Nichicon do great in hot environments
If the filter caps (electrolytics) were dried out wouldn't there be a fairly loud hum coming through on any device one used? I know in little radios like AA5's if they have the original caps in them they'll hum like crazy to the point stations can no longer be heard.
Rebel9668
From my experience the caps in these solid state amps are usually still usable for filtering the AC from the powersupply. I have found that the signal path caps however do far more damage to the signal. I have mesured the frequency reponse of one of my amps i restored. It should have a 1 to 50K +-3dB, when mesured pre restoration, i got 10 to 16K +-3dB After replacing the coupling caps, i got a near flat response in the entire measurement range of my ADC (24KHz max). The noise rejection from the power supply in solid state amps from the 70's and 80's is decent, though usually only in the tone amp section, not the poweramp section. Thus a filter cap that is off by quite a bit is not taht noticeable, unless it starts creating hum in the power amp stage.
Though i have had hum from bad filter caps in solid state gear before, its less common then in tube gear (at least from my experience).
I personally love the "convoluted" process of playing and listening to music on older equipment. I love the whole process of turning this knob,then that, pressing a series of buttons etc etc. My wife however says my set up is a pile of old crap as she can't operate it. So I brought a Vortexbox and Squeezebox so she could have all her CD's available on demand. This also is a pile of crap as the choice of music is so overwhelming she cant work out what to select.
So she has now brought a portable CD player ghettoblaster sort of thing which she can operate and leaves my "old crap" alone. Sorted.
I've never had a problem with my wife's squeezebox except a bit of wow and flutter just after I turn it on.
Gribbo9999 Hahahahaha!!! You made me laugh way out loud. Thanks :)
best comment ever
Wilburrys
Which is what you should have done in the first place ;-)
Haha reminds me of my brothers stereo system. Was like starting up a spacecraft with all the switches.
LOL, yeah, that's kinda how mine is with all the stuff I have hooked up!
@@_g7085 knob twiddler!!!! hah!
Good choice. My amplifier is the Sony STR-DB1070 stereo receiver (i.e. it has a built-in tuner, for those of you who didn't grasp that) from the early 2000s. It still came with a built-in phono pre-stage, and it sounds great to me. So, as long as this amp remains in service, so will the phono pre-stage. However, whenever I do switch to a different amp, this Project may well be one of the options I'd consider for being able to play my records.
By the way, for those of you interested: I have a Technics SL-1200mkII turntable which I use with a Stanton Stanton 500EE MkII cartridge.
Years ago, I found a Pioneer PL-50 turntable. Now I had one exactly like that when I was overseas, but had to sell it when I left to come home, so this was a thrilling find. When it arrived, I found the belt from the belt drive had lost it;s ability to drive the table so I replaced that, and a bit of oil brought the old unit back to life. The cartridge was like new but my current stereo system had no phono in, so I got a cheap adapter and tried that. Like yours mine put an almighty buzz on the output and even adding larger caps to the PS didn't help much. So one day I saw an old SONY receiver for sale on Ebay, a few bids and that was mine. WOW did that make a difference. This is a complete amp/receiver in one. I never looked up her wattage, but she can drive two sets of speakers, one has 18 inch woofers, the other mid-range and tweeters. The tunes that hit my old ears sound a bit like they did before I left most of my hearing in the jungles of Vietnam. Hearing aides, they say will not bring it all back, but the ones the VA gives me do make a huge difference. Now the problem is, I am getting to lazy to get up and play records any more, and since I have most of the music on MP3's and my hearing aides are bluetooth, I can send the music to my ears from my laptop. Nothing compared to the big system, but at least I get to hear the tunes and that, to my old ears brings back the days before the war, when all I cared about was music, beer and broads.
I sincerely hope your hearing problems are soon rectified fully.
+McRocket Thanks for your concern, my ears are fine at the moment. Hopefully things will carry on like this.
I hope they will.
+Techmoan Me too, I am lifelong video game fan and I always had fear if something happened to my hearing or sight, it really would hurt to loose enjoyment of life because of those things and getting it rectified is great news, especially for someone with your love for music and technologies that play it back.
+McRocket Headphones will kill hearing much faster.
+Techmoan first your taste and now your taste? you don't even look that young
I have a Tube Box S similar to his, but with gain buttons. I think it makes a worthwhile difference, prompting me to buy an Ortofon 2m bronze cartridge. Improvements are not massive, but are discernable, and the enjoyment has been greater. The tube box is a good introduction to valves.
Having worked in a vinyl record store for a few years, I highly, highly recommend you buy vinyl that was manufactured before, say, 1989 -- when possible of course.
First, there's a higher chance that the master is analog, and there's also a higher chance that the transfer to vinyl was done by people who know what they're doing. Vinyl pressing is a dying art and I can't believe people are paying top dollar nowadays for brand-new 180g albums and reissues that are made from digital masters, and pressed without any regard to dynamics, the format's limitations and so forth. (Oh and, protip: 180g is a marketing scheme.)
If you truly want to put a recent pressing to the test, drop the needle on the LAST track of a side, and look for sibilance or distortions in the highs. Then tell me it sounds better than the lossless file or CD. (Which is what you just bought, by the way: a digital master that's been "re-analogued" and pressed on a big slab of plastic).
Very few companies do vinyl pressing right nowadays, and they're mostly releasing classic jazz albums pressed at 45rpm on two records. Which is fine if you don't mind paying 50$ per album.
And one other thing: compare the overall audio level of a brand-new vinyl vs. a vintage pressing. You'll find that recent pressings are much quieter and that you need to crank your amp much higher, which means more surface noise!! My theory is that digital masters contain so much treble that the transfer engineer has no choice but to press at a very low volume so the pressing doesn't sound like absolute crap.
End of rant! Buy old records! Buy the 3$ copy in the used bin, not the 50$ reissue!
+Guillaume L apologies for ruining your day and making you very angry with my video about a preamp.
+Techmoan I absolutely, sincerely love your channel. Almost as much I love good audio. :-p
Heck yeah, buy used vinyl records that have been worn, rather than newly pressed ones. All the 70s and 80s vinyl was practically paper thin. It was made for the cheap mass market, not for quality buffs. I'll happily buy a nicely pressed reissue. Youre absolutely rightr in that pressing is an art, and can be done well or extrememly poorly. But that comes down to buying quality stuff. Old records don't guarantee that it was done right either.
yep because every one knows that the "old" records 1st pressings n the like are way cheaper just filling up all those 3 buck used bins,
Thanks for sharing :-) (btw I am being sarcastic)
Thanks for interesting point. It is also my latest think Anyway I wouldn't say it is no profit to replace CD with new LP version . I consider CD players not enough durable and prone to slight sound variations depending on technological reasons . My CD is high class but already 15 years so I start to worry about laser. New such class would be again very expensive, repair is not expected. That in my opinion is why many people gave up on CDs. With LPs it is likely that once tuned to synergy with system they may last very long years, also new ones. .
You have a high output moving coil cartridge! How exotic. The fact that your preamp can accomodate this spec is part of the huge improvement in sound.
It's moving magnet..
Great video, one tip for anyone into hifi, always switch on the amp last and then switch off the amp first when turning it all off. had it before where you turn on the amp then turn on everything else and you can get a nasty pop through the speakers. Always follow the procedure when powering up and down: always switch on the amp last and then switch off the amp.
2 videos in one day, you're spoiling us 😂😂😂😂😂
+Samara Weaving This one really needed the other one otherwise I'd spend all evening trying to explain why it's not possible to demonstrate the warm analogue sound of vinyl and a tube pre-amp using digital files.
+Rahul Iyer it's not out until October.
+Techmoan I hear ya 😂
+Rahul Iyer I wish....when it comes to expensive stuff I'm pretty much on my own.
I was watching your new Mission Impossible video (E1) and the pioneer receiver (SX-3600) in the outro jumped right out at me. I immediately thought of videos that may feature it, then I remembered that this one showed it briefly.
The reason it really got my attention is I found the Pioneer SX-3500 (From 1980) on the curb, dirty, with the cord chopped off a while ago. I cleaned it up and gave it a new cord, re-ran the tuner string, and now it's working beautifully. I never noticed before that you basically have the same machine. It's in very good condition, and it even shines in the light. The window almost looks like it isn't there because it's so clear. I was almost shocked to see that you have it.
It's a fantastic machine, I absolutely love it. Luckily, the Pre-amp in mine is still working beautifully.
The only difference I see between the two is the SX-3600 has two tape monitors, and the 3500 only has one.
I love it so much that it's the only piece of audio equipment I've found so far (I've found quite a few gems) that I've decided I don't want to get rid of in the foreseeable future.
The only thing I wish it had was more power. The 3500 is only 20 watts per channel, and it looks like the 3600 is the same (judging by the VU meters).
Within the last month, I replaced my old speakers and receiver with some Sherwood stuff. While the speakers in that system are INCREDIBLE, I feel as if the receiver in the new system, despite being several years newer, significantly more powerful AND having a 5 band graphic equalizer, still doesn't sound anywhere near as good. DEFINITELY hold on to that as long as you can.
I have since moved the 3500 and old speakers to the bedroom, hooked up to a turntable there.
@Techmoan the humm can be caused by unshielded chinch cables. Had the same problem. I bought a Pro-Ject turntable, came with an Ortofon 2M Red and a cheap ground/ chinch cable combo. Replaced the cheap inclueded cables with braided cables and the humm was gone.
the hum can also be caused the the included switch mode power supply. if you hinge the silver cover back on the QTX pre amp there is a connection for PP3 battery. also grounding the turntable to pre amp then grounding the pre amp to the main amp helps alot too.
Or simply cracked wire in a cable. Happens with solid state as well, I've replaced many in the last 37 years. Simply wiggling cables and speaker wires can find this. And we always plugged them in the other way, before polarized power plugs, sometimes that helped. I expect some hum from old tube stuff, it's OLD.
Still running my Quad 33/303 combination, even have the matching FM3 receiver. 1960 something and still going strong. Old Dual turntable with Shure cartridge, very analogue. Glad you got yours working properly.
Definitely a treat for yourself - it's quite expensive! Nice video.
For anyone with the faintest interest in vinyl and is working a full time job, that little tube box is not expensive 😉
@@fnagdungdagint False.
Got one open box on ebay. 100 dollars less than a new one.
I know Im asking randomly but does any of you know of a method to log back into an Instagram account..?
I was dumb lost the login password. I would appreciate any tricks you can give me!
@Immanuel Kaleb Instablaster :)
Praying for your hearing. I would be crushed to lose my ears! Thanks for the video; great info!
I have a Pro-Ject solid state pre-amp and I have to say it works very well. Another reason I picked it up was because it has a USB output if I wanted to save tracks to digital.
Wow, can't help but wonder how you have time to create so many super reviews. Thanks again. I have all the albums you leafed through. No equipment presently, but still have my albums. I used to be a serious audiophile in the 60s & 70s.
You have to watch that Sticky Fingers album cover. The zipper tends to cut into the album in front of it, ripping it open. Had that happen a time or two.
The Rolling Stones cover had me laughing. Can't believe they added a real zipper.
+Scott K
Designed by Andy Warhol too. He was a bit partial to a zip on a record cover.
+TheMonohub ayooo!
Record Albums not that much..I found one on eBay for $20 us
Yes the original Sticky Fingers album had a zipper
Thanks
Hello Mat. Early eighties I used to buy albums and play them as a master for reel to reel tapes and sometimes cassettes. When I would play them straight out of the jacket they had some microscopic particles that would make some noise using my Pioneer direct drive turntable. I came up with the idea to spray the record with rubbing alcohol and play it wet. I would spray enough on that you could not see the grooves, a layer that I smoothed out with the fine felt cover on the bottle. This alcohol layer took out all static and noise. If I looked real close I could see the stylus making small waves as the record revolved. The alcohol never seemed to affect the record material. I would update the spray as required while the record played because of evaporation.
+MHammer ". I came up with the idea to spray the record with rubbing alcohol"... that was actually a common practice in the 70s. I had a reservoir with alcohol and some contraption that moved with the cartridge to dispense the fluid right before the needle. No more static and yeah, the record would not wear out that much anymore if played a lot.
+Peter Rafeiner I didn't think about the alcohol in the early 60s probably because I was not aware of the noise in the groove of the record as much, different equipment and maybe I was less of a purist. At he time around 1963 I believe I had an Italian made turntable. The platter of the turntable was the size for a 45 but it play 33s. It's fun to reminisce.
Alcohol has serious long term problems. Every application dries out the vinyl a little more, leading to a brittle record that wears more quickly. Wetting a record with distilled water is a much better idea. The quality commercial record cleaners of the time used distilled water and a bit of glycol, not alcohol.
agree brad,sold all my gear to buy more alcohol makes radio sound great.
I agree, playing vinyl in itself can be quite a task. But that's why I just have a DJ mixer and plug it into there then from the mixer direct to my studio monitors. Sometimes you have to sacrifice time for better quality in anything you do.
You leave me in the dust, sir! I've got a bit of a thing for old cassette players and seem to acquire them in odd ways. Currently I have two late 70s Pioneers (one needs a new belt, the other one needs some bulbs for the VU meters but works), an el-cheapo Ferguson toploader and a mid-80s Toshiba that is by far and away the best of the four. I was stunned to pick up a late 90s Sony 7.1 amplifier for £40. My turntable is an inexpensive Citronic direct-drive, all going into some M-Audio active studio monitors (small ones). I'm a musician so being able to combine all of my hi-fi and recording gear (large-format interface ,etc) into a single set of speakers is incredibly convenient.
Part of my musical hobby involves using the old cassette players as a textural device. As a kid, I had dozens of cassettes and I'm just in the process of trying to get them back from my folks as well as their old cassettes. Next on the list is a reel-to-reel (I have some NOS tape lying around) and maybe an 8-track if I can ever find any cartridges.
I am really enjoying your videos. I discovered you last night and have watched a fair few. What I particularly like is that you enjoy quality audio gear but don't buy into the 'audiophile hype' that so many others do. I like your focus on quality and subjective testing, as well as keeping it practical and reasonable. It's very refreshing and one day I'd very much like to own a system like yours.
As I've gotten older I've gone more to the KISS principle.
Fewer components = less in the sound path to cause a problem.
Turntable to Amp to speakers. Less chance of grounding issues, bad connectors, etc.
When I changed the cables on my Thorens TT I did not go to jacks, but rather kept the hard-wired connection in the TT. Just one less connection that can potentially leak and cause distortion.
Another great video where the host actually shows the piece if equipment that he is talking about!
I had the same experience with my Thorens TD-160 with a Sure 97Xe cartridge connected to my Luxman amp's phono input. Records sounded dull and lifeless. I heard Luxman amps have really good phono stages. No so much with me. This issue was with matching the capacitance of my amp and my cartridge. With my set up, it did not. I bought a very inexpensive Fosi Audio tube preamp for like $60 and the improvement was amazing. Everything now sounds brighter and cleaner.
On the subject of vinyl. You should do a video on different record cleaning systems. Spin Clean versus an ultrasonic cleaner, etc. There's a lot of record cleaning options out there and can get quite confusing. Love to hear your take on them.
I recently purchased an Edward's Audio Phono pre amp for about $200 and couldn't believe how well it preformed compared to a Pro-Ject I had paid twice as much for. It's not a tube amp but I recommend looking into Edward's Audio for those looking for perhaps the best phono PreAmplifier I've ever heard under $400.
if you want a miniature pre-amp that sounds as good as any big box phono pre-amp Emotiva makes a really REALLY good phono pre-amp that sounds outstanding for such a small package, even has impedence settings for moving coil
I would like to recommend the Cyberpower 1215RMS PDU....accommodates large DC Wall Warts and multiple power sockets,one switch to activate 10 devices, extremely heavy duty.
As someone else has commented,.. my suspicion would also fall on the phono input filter compensation components which normalise the response and amplitude for an RIAA curve ( the amplitude from a stylus is only in the region of 5mV or so, as compared to a normal input which van be anything in the region of 200mV), and the filter components, which are probably well on their way to failure or reduced performance are causing some expected clipping in the audio output,. but not bad for a piece of kit that is probably 35+yrs old...
hey Mat... great news RE your hearing! And thank you for all of the effort you put into these superb vids! :-)
If it hasn't been mentioned earlier, might I suggest reversing your power-on cycle? Setting yourself up for a possible THUMP that way.
Thanks. The Audio Technica lp120 has the same problem with its build in preamp. One dude desoldered the bad preamp that would take the high frequency sound away. Now the high frequency sound is back and it has never sounded better with an external preamp. I think that external preamps are always better.
The reason for the "Warm Sound" is because of the wave form varies with analog. Digital takes that variation away. Even a crystal clock with resonate harmonics. But the Tubes bring back the Warm sound & are more popular than ever. Carl Slicer, Vernon, Conn. (1610).
TM I have just bought a Little Bear T7 for £40 from china. I had an Edwards Audio Apprentice but it didn't inspire me. This little Bear however is a different story. For years Ive had a Thorens TD 160 super with a Fidelity Research 101SE cartridge but it always sounded flat and dull through my Quad 44/405/B&W Matrix 3E. This valve phono amp has transformed the sound. It improved after half an hour and at one hour its working perfect. The detail and transparency are phenomimal as if the near silent low noise during the quiet patches and the silence between tracks. I played the America album and was blown away. I am hyper critical. Just wanted to share with you. PS thanks for all your vids, my hat is off ot you
Please tell me you put the new stylus back in the new cartridge and replaced the old cartridge! Please!!!
I do have An old Lafayette La 224b, a 10 valve amp.(bocama) From about 1970. These can be found second hand from 150-300 euro's. 30 watts Total. Gives the real old sound, even with cd! Greetings!
I have a Pioneer SX1980 and I had to have the phono preamp rebuilt as some of the electronic parts got old. It sounds great now. You might check into this before you dump your nice 80's amp.
What you need to do is check the capacitors in your old Pioneer amp. Most likely what's happened is that the electrolytes have dried up causing them to loose capacitance. If you take a look at the inside, the values are clearly marked on most devices that are solid state. It's easy enough to remove the old ones with a soldering iron. From there you only have to make sure you keep the same polarity when installing the new ones. New capacitors can be found in many places on the internet. My favorite site to buy components is Mouser.com.
Power supplies 'double insulated' with plastic earth pin, does this upset the earthing of the amps? Do you lead all chassis earth wires to a single ground point?
I also have my entire music studio , not just my vintage technics record player, going into a 70’s Pioneer amp. My synths and computer audio are going into the Pioneer amp as well and it sounds great. Sony commercial tear drop 2 way speakers from around 2004 are what i have. No room for bigger speakers.
I remember being told of a trick to improve your hifi was to clean you mains plugs . Have you ever heard of this ?
What is the input switch that you are using in this video? At 7:08 you are labeling it. Thank you!
You should have stayed with the QTXsound preamplifier. The hum is coming from that bulky adapter that you used on it. You could have been much cheaper by buying a decent powersupply (PSU) for it. That would kill the hum and brighten up the sound. One tip: As I see that it is 9 Volt, just try a 9 Volt battery first before buying such a PSU. You'll notice the boost in quality! Batteries are still the best for preamps!
It is always nice to treat your self. For me it was building a custom Quad. I probably spent about the same amount of money as well.
any OM series stylus will work with your cartridge and these are really easy to get - see ebay. Also check your cartridge alignment on that sansui deck.
Could the reason for the inferior output from the phono stage of your receiver have to do with (considering the vintage of the unit), that the phono input was designed for a ceramic cartridge instead of the cartridge you are using? (Could not determine if it was a moving magnet, or a moving coil). It definitely wasn’t a ceramic cartridge. Mm or mc coil cartridges require at least ten times the energy a ceramic cartridge requires. This could account for the lack of quality audio output.
im a tad too young to actually remember tubes when they where big, but a buddy of mine built a tube amp for his livingroom and it blew my damn mind, i had never heard audio so cleanly before. its nice to see that there are some products out there that do this, i may have to pick one up for myself.
I too wanted to get that same preamp for my tutrntable ,but the price pro-ject is asking was out of my budget,so I got a regular preamp it was ok ,but then I saw on line this preamp that had vaccum tubesit was a good price and I thought I would try if I did not like I would return it ,but when I hooked it up the sound was amazing I did not expect the soundto be fantastic I was hearing things that I could barely hear before I was blown away .it not fancy it was under 30 dollars it was worth it,I also tried a tube amplifier to put in between equalizer and reciever to act as a buffer it is like nite and day the sound ,sounds very warm pleasant I enjoy listening to my system even more that I did the same for my system at work ,you cant believe the difference ,the highs are not annoying like they used to be I even had to resset settings on my equalizer at home and at work !!
unless you are using a very high end pre amp/integrated amp phono stages inbuilt are usually pretty shitty, its like they just chucked it in as a second thought. I recently purchased a yamaha a-s701 and found out they are using the same phono stage as the entry level models (201,301 and 501) so definately going to upgrade soon
I still have some old records, but nothing to play them on. I only have about five, though.
That first audio clarifier box is similar to one I have for video. I used to have a DVD player daisy-chained through a couple of VCRs to my TVs single input. One of the VCRs was set to detect a copyright signal and show the old dark pink/light pink flashing over the video signal. The video stabiliser box fixed that problem.
I recently picked up a Ampapa tube headphone/phono preamp/amp. I really like the sound. It wasn't too expensive and I definitely prefer tube amps.
I wanted to give it a shot before I sank any more money into it.
I am a audiophile returning from my 1980's experience. It is great to start entering the audiophille community again, even as a neophyte (to headphones: I got the Senn HD650's to start).
I used to have some of the equipment you use! I ended up with a Tandberg 1/2" reel to reel, Thorens turntable, and Perreaux amp and pre-amp, among others. I even gave the Accoustat 7'10" speakers! What a great time.
5:00 It was a joy to see that you have a pre amp witha ground to get rid of that hum, but then those switches to customize to the type of cartridge! This is beautiful and amazing. You have a standard mount tonearm. You could easily spend more on your cartridge than you did on the preamp! And because you have those switches, you can go … Moving magnet vs moving coil!!! Now there would be a great video!
Like your turntable mine you have to lift the cue handle move the tone arm over the LP then release the cue and it slowly touches the edge of the record and plays
I prefer the German Vincent PHO8. It isn't tube, but the sound is smooth and the frequencies are what you expect.
I can’t help noticing that you power up your equipment in the exact opposite order that I’ve always done it. I was advised a long time ago and believe it to be true, that you should always power up starting with the sound source, then working through the signal chain, to the amp last. Otherwise you’re hearing the all the other things turning on through your speakers and there’s potential to damage them. Don’t know how likely that is to be honest, but I’ve just always done it that way!
I have that qtx sound preamp reboxed under another brand but it is run off a 9 volt battery (i guess to isolate grounding/hum issues) It works great, with no hum. Saying that, as to it's sonic abilities I have not compared it to any other turntable phono preamp, so I can't say for sure. A tube / valve preamp will for sure be better...
70's 80's vintage Pioneer amps are very flat in the bass section. I used to own a couple, even the huge sx1080 but it's the same with all of those. My Grundig (RTV 840) and Fischer (CA-873) amp had a very bassy warm tone, while Onkyo and Telefunken amps are quite in the middle.
What I am currently doing is running a miniDSP toghether with my modern Harman/Kardon amp. It allows very precise eqing, highly reccomend getting one of those.
That is a good starting unit had one years ago when I first got into hifi.10 phono amps and thousands of dollars latter I have a 15,000 dollar 36 tube 4 piece unit. This one your reviewing is a great value for its tiny price.
Perhaps you can be of great help! I bought a ESI Phononorama preamp and USB to transfer tapes and records to a computer for a friend.The idea was for him to use his analog record player to process the signal into the LG receiver DM 2740. The pre-amp comes with both Phono and Auxiliary output as well as the USB connector. I cannot get audio output either into the USB nor the auxiliary port of an LG (toaster like) the DM 2740.
The signal in leds blink when the turntable plays a record, which means that the phono preamp is receiving the signal and its powered up. But there is no audio signal from the analog plugs such as the headphones or line out.
The LG might not be compatible with the USB signal, perhaps, but the cable sends power to the pre amp and the leds blink to signal peak levels.There are no gain nor volume knobs to adjust the input and output levels, however, everything seems to be working from the point until the pre amp has to send the audio signal to the receiver. Also the receiver process the signal from an iPhone into the Port-In of the LG.
What could be the culprit?
You will get better results from any reasonable CD player than from the phono set up you're using . Valve phono pre-amps or better said all valve amplification tends to hum and it is not always an earthing problem it also has to do with proximity of the components to each other and specially with the nearness of the Speakers which to me is the more common problem.
I don't doubt that, being a Pro-ject, the pre-amp is a genuine valve circuit. But if you want something cheaper, beware of cheap phono pre-amps that have a couple of valves that serve no purpose other than to attract the buyer and glow a little.
When my Pioneer A-207 needed replacing, I got a Cambridge Audio One, refurbished for £150 off Ebay (Richer Sounds price new £400). I added a cheap Behringer PP-400 phono stage, but after a while realised that the sound I was getting from the record deck didn't match that from other sources, and, after watching a few videos, I crossed my fingers and tried a Art-Pre DJ Phono stage, whose price had gone up to £50 (and still rising) following a number of excellent reviews. In conjunction with a pair of home-made interconnects based on Van-Damme hi-fi cables, the record player sounded as good as a the other sources.
Interestingly, my record deck does not have an Earth post. With the Van-Damme lead, there was no hum, but other leads (including allegedly good quality ones) caused hum. It's not too dear, around £8 a metre from which I made two stereo leads, with cheap RCA phono plugs, allegedly gold-plated, from China. Total under £10.
I just had this same problem with my pioneer sx 780, my phono input sounded bad and the left channel wouldn't work most of the time. All of the other inputs worked fine. Now it sounds great again with my new pre amp
switching power supplies, especially cheapo ones tend to add his/hum to sound. qtx PHONO amp had one I noticed. I would always use transformer heavy ones.
Right on. I had a Harmon Kardon tube type pre-amp and really had the best sound. I guess that dates me, but I still miss it.
There may be a miss match between the TM 30 and the Pioneer’s phono preamp. I would try a mid range AT cartridge and see how the sounds comes out.
Interesting that the phono amp is not actually grounded if I saw the power connection correctly. So its really picking up ground from the receiver.
A huge number of modern amps have phonostages. sure, AV amps often don't, but many decent stereo amps do, especially at the sub-£1000 end of the market. That said, you made a great choice with the Pro-Ject. You can get even better performance by replacing the stock power supply.
Agreed, the wall wart it came with is almost certainly strangling the sound - a linear bench supply from Maplin would make a big difference. They do 13.8v units for about £40 which have a small pot inside where you can tweak the voltage up/down
It's weird that build-in phono pre-amps in early 1980's amplifiers are sounding so bad, isn't it? Back in the 80's, the main source of music was your turntable and just a tiny part of your amplifier is destroying the complete sound quality. And yes, the Tube Box S is a great pre-amp!
@TV13 - Please don't jump to this conclusion simply because of Techmoan's experience. His Pioneer is very old and may have an age related problem in the phono input. Most vintage Japanese amps had fantastic quality phono inputs, compared to modern Chinese-built external ones. As you say, turntables were the main source, so care was taken with the design of the phono input and quality discrete components were used.
It's just worn out, bad and leaky caps or transistors probably.
Superb setup and videos. I am very envious of your gear.
I'm 41 years old, maybe that's old enough to remember vinyl records, their cracking noise, witness how delicate and how quick their deterioration is if you are not super careful, an also remember the lack of detail compared to CD. In 1989 bought my first CD and never looked back, and by 1993 had replaced all my collection to CD. Do understand their revival, specially for younger generations, but I don't miss it. Could you tell me what I'm missing? what did I forget about it? Do understand the ritual but don't remember anything in particular that makes want to get back in to vinyl again.
+Jonathan Gomez I just love different audio formats. If they sold the latest albums on elcasets I'd be buying those too. I can't sell anyone on vinyl. I'm not even sure why I buy it.
+Jonathan Gomez As a teenage boy and absolute audiophile, I just bought my first turntable together with some of my most-loved albums on vinyl and I absolutely adore it. I mean, it's obvious that you get the "vinyl feeling" when sitting on your couch and having the record playing right next to you, but that's not the point. The point is, that even with my pretty "cheap" setup (~500€ vinyl gear + ~500€ sound system) the music sounds so much better than the best quality I can squeeze out of my pc (which also has a high end sound card). The bass is so much more vibrant and powerful, you can hear stuff you'd never imagine hearing on digital audio (best example is the remastered Pink Floyd: The Wall LP) and the sound is in general more crisp and defined. I also like the "warm" sound of the analog audio, but that is a personal thing. Obviously there are also apparent downsides such as having the flip and change the LPs all the time, especially if you have only two or three songs on each side, making sure everything is grounded at all times (man it's annoying to always make sure the ground wire has contact) and last but not least having to take care of the LPs themselfes to not damage them. But still, as an audiophile, I did not yet find anything that sounds better than vinyl and I think that's the reason for it's comeback. I almost daily take 10-30 minutes of my spare time just to sit back and admire the beautifulness that is listening to vinyl.
+Jonathan Gomez Agreed John I'm 61 and was a total vinyl hifi nut in the 70's with a Lin Sondek platter fluid arm B&O stack speakers etc etc it all cost a small fortune and on some vinyl's like Dark side I even bought master pressings which also cost a bomb but being twice as thick didn't warp at all over time. However soon as Marantz came out with their CD kit and Brothers In Arms was released one listen and I dumped all my vinyl and converted to digital.
The separation alone knocked vinyl into a cocked hat.
We used to hide Valves in a cases, now its cool to have them glowing on your side board attracting dust and in a constant state of perpetual operational decline
Vinyl sounds like junk after a few hundred plays how ever much you treat them with Kidd gloves ,
Its inevitable , call it a diamond stylus cartridge or what ever its still basically a needle being dragged along a grove made of plastic bouncing from side to side.
IMHO its all a nostalgia trip, digital is cleaner sounding with more frequency depth and vastly better stereo separation
I had even had Quadraphonic for a while (very limited albums made in quad though) and even that couldn't touch digital for clarity or separation.
The jump in purity of sound between vinyl and digital was as big as that between 33's and 78 shellac's.
Vinyl's are fun but no longer real HI FI and as I did you just end up listening for pops and crackles more than listening to the music.
+Jan H. Isn't part of the problem the Loudness War ? Vinyl didn't have the artificial increase of sound output and because of that, I always felt that music that wasn't treated this way sounded better and purer - people might confuse this with Vinyl sounding better but it's not the fault of digital music.
I agree that vinyl sounds warmer but that's mainly because it lacks the higher tones so you get a slightly muffled effect. On a PC with a good soundcard like the Xonar, that effect is easily copied without needing the expensive set up. I think most people who claim you can't mimic Vinyl digitally, are only imagining this. Though I still love the idea of vinyl, the £1.000 for a decent player and amp minus speakers is a tad too much ... .
redavatar Yes, the loudness war is indeed a part of the problem, but not everything. I even prefer a song on vinyl over the same song as an uncompressed flac, which is not affected by the loudness war (or is it? not that I would've heard about it yet). Still I have to admit that without direct comparison I couldn't tell which one is which. I can hear (I'm surprised at how good my ears still as althrough I've been a drummer for about 10 years now) the difference between my LPs and flacs but it is not, at all, a day and night difference. Mp3 is easy to tell since they sound really flat, but flacs are probably almost on-par with vinyl.
Matt,I think your speakers is too much near to turntable and surround a lot of basses frequencies through to the needle,don't you agreed?
I do understand the importance of a good phono preamp. I've used Musical Fidelity, Cambridge Audio, Vincent, and now a Schiit. However, the idea the tubes will have maximum effect in that preamp is difficult to understand. The Amp has its own preamp section that manipulates the sound, and that's why tube hybrid amps have become so popular. I suggest it better to invest in end of the circuit rather the beginning.
Hey techmoan I was wondering if you know what valves are used in the pro-ject tube box?
Just a bit of curiosity here surely you haven't actually grounded your turntable. Because the phono amp is not grounded itself. Surely you need to run the grounding wire from the amp as well as your amp will be grounded.
Sorry to hear about your hearing problem, that's a pain. I hear better in my left ear, so I always have to ask someone else if the speaker pan is even.
Could you plug the tube box into the phono stage on the pioneer and bypass the built in preamp so that you're not wasting a channel on the receiver?
Would buying an old tube system with Turntable be a better option? I had an old Silvertone cabinet model with the big wooden lid. It was tube but still sounded very muffled. I'd like to see what a refurbished model would sound like.
If your turntable and stereo receiver both have a built in preamp do you really need one of these?
Most of the tonal quality and distortion is produced by the power amplifier and matched speakers. A tube preamp will have little impact.
Ah the joys of separate component systems. I have a old blind friend who absolutely loved his radio shack realistic system with Mac 1 speakers. It's safe to say that someone would literally have to pry them out from his dead arms to get ahold of them. I'm sure by now he has sourced a backup for his amp that is an exact replacement just in case. Cheers.
Bought myself one of the tubebox's a few years ago. Like it much better than my Rotel phono preamp. Thanks for the video.
Very nice. Excellent video...very informative. Pleased you had a happy ending in this venture...not an inexpensive option, but oh soooo worth it. Loved your taste in vinyl, BTW. You and I would get along just fine if we were to hang out and luxuriate in some of the finer sounds from Motown and Stax Records. Both, Al Green and Marvin Gaye are some of my favourite artists from back in the day. There was soooo much great music made back then.
My first receiver that I bought (back in the day) was a wee Pioneer SX-636, a 25 w/ch unit. I upgraded to another Pioneer, but this time an integrated amplifier, in search of more juice in the early 1980's but kept the SX-636 and used it strictly as my FM tuner. (I couldn't justify the price of the matching tuner for the SA-7800 amp) Good stuff that ole Pioneer gear :-)
I love the Pro-Ject range. I have a turntable and amp from them. I also use a Tivoli radio and CD player. Love your videos.
raises the question if he did look for a cheaper pre amp for around 200 aud what would people reccomend?
Why is the switch box necessary to your set up
I use hybrid dac, pre and amplifier, it's great! You must to warm de valves before they deliver the sound you want (15 minutes in my case). Great canal!
complete nonsense. these tubes are running with very very low power and are not in anyway needing warm up.
You should check your products availability before you work ortofon stylus are still available and easy to find new or used.
I considered buying one of these when I had to turn up the volume especially high when playing my new turntable (a Denon DP 47F - can you guess why I chose it?). Turns out the problem was my Denon receiver doesn't like MC cartridges and that's what I'm using. I had to buy a step up transformer (which doesn't have to be plugged into an electrical outlet or turned on). Problem solved - $330.00 later.
Awesome sound improvement by replacing both standard Chinese ECC83 (12AX7) with the ECC 803 Selected Gold Pin tubes from JJ Tesla Electronic!
A pair of NOS General Electric 5751JAN (MILSPEC) will improve the sound too.
Taerial why not get Mullard branded ones? NOS for half the price?
Reallly enjoying these videos man, you seem to care more about a quality sound than a lot of DJs and producers that I know, good to know that people like you still exist.
I'm not much of a youtube commenter but I will say that them Ortofon stylus are not that hard to find in most cities, I can think of at least three shops in Soho that sell them, but you're right about the rise in price with the death of vinyl, I've had to go back to my old Stanton cartridges because I'm on such a low budget. Lets hope that with vinyl coming back this stuff will go back down in price.
Consider me your new subscriber and keep up the good work. :)
Love that Labi Siffri album. Cockney songsters Chas and Dave were session musicians on that.
@ 3:22 get either a switch mode power supply, or (more expensive) use a battery pack
if your mains power pack is a funny voltage you can always build an adjustable voltage regulator using a lm317t from maplins or ebay for a reasonable price and use either a switch mode psu or battery pack which should get rid of the noise
Here is what happened to me, my old Technics SUA-900 amp was lovely for the past 20 years (Vinyl only) and the rich sound did my vinyl great justice, BUT .. I bought a new amp : Yamaha AS 701 (Circa £500.00) and what a difference, the prob is that antiquated amp nice as it is, it belongs in the 80s.
Techmoan, glad you are happy with the results you got. But I remain suspicious.....the poor sound from the Pioneer preamp was probably some combination of dirty signal routing switches and dried up capacitors. The outboard preamp had hum issues most likely due to a bad power supply. The expensive "valve" (vacuum tube) preamp no doubt sounded fine if for no other reason than it was new and no part of it was worn out. BUT.....have you seen the tear downs that have been done on several similar tube photo preamps? Some of them use the tubes in such a way that they have no effect of the signal and the actual amplification was being done by an IC. Some others were simply inexpensive IC preamps that had tubes glowing on top for appearances, but not remotely connected to the audio signal. Yet, reviews of those products raved about their amazing sound! I saw a tear down where the tubes used were simple rectifiers, not capable of amplification, and another where the tube filaments were not even powered, and the warm orange glow came from RGB LEDs under the tubes.
Unbelievable, probably all made in China too..
You should get a bunch of power strips so you can use them for individual components, for example, the Vinyl power bar would switch on the Amplifier, The Preamp and the Turntable, and whatever else.
You can use an OM stylus for that LM body. The OM line is pretty robust and you should be able to find one to your liking fairly easy.
6 years later, where can I buy or where do you buy the music in 24/96?