Advice needed for an AV receiver and turntable connection

[alberta98]

Hi all,

Long time reader and first time poster of this excellent forum. Some advice is required from my fellow AV enthusiasts.

I'm currently working the specifics of my upgraded home cinema system. I've decided (at the moment) to go for the Pioneer SC-LX** range of AV receiver along with the new Monitor Audio SIlver 5.1 series of speakers. One smallish point though that I've been confused about is how I will hook my turntable into this new system. Currently I'm using a phono preamp with my existing receiver. I've seen that the Pioneer SC-LX77 and 87 receivers have a phono input so I was thinking that it might be worth while going for the LX77 instead of LX57 receiver as an obvious way of cutting out 'another' box and also simplifying the inbound turntable connection. Yes I'd have to stump up the extra cash for the LX77 but it would seem like a logical decision I would have thought for such a connection. Well the guy in the local Sevenoaks audio said otherwise when I popped in this weekend. He very much recommended that I preserve my existing preamp. So do I save around £400 and go for the LX57 instead of the 77 and continue to use my phono preamp, or were my original thoughts here correct?

Any and all thoughts would be most welcome.

Cheers,

Steve

 

[macdiddy]

Hi Steve, welcome to the forums, I'm pretty new at this posting thing as well.

In answer to your question, I think the guy in your local Sevenoaks was right to say to continue to use your existing phono preamp with your new AV receiver, This will give you the best sound from your turntable as the quality of the inbult phono stage in the receiver would not be as good. It is this reason why most modern two channel amps don't even have a phono stage built in.

Sorry if this is not what you wanted to hear but most phono preamps are in small boxes and easy to hide if you don't want it on display.

hope this helps you to decide which receiver to go for.

 

[alberta98]

Many thanks for the reply. No issues at all with the comments here - I could actually save £400 with this decision.

Out of interest I'm curious to understand why it is better to externalise the phono connection as it would seemingly be better to shorten and simplify the connection between the turntable and the amp. Perhaps it is because of the very high voltage that is passing through, what is quite a large and complex amp. I suppose that by externalising the amplification of the turntables output to a dedicated box you can avoid any introduction of distortion and interference on the turntable's signal.

If that's correct then it would seem like a strange decision on the part of AV receiver manufactorers to add such a connection to their systems. Is it simply to get another tick in the box to justify the larger ticket price? When you compare the LX-SC57 to the 77 there isn't a great deal of difference aside from the phono connection, a couple of additional ports and the slightly better DAC.

 

[macdiddy]

Hi Steve.

I think you may have answered your own question regarding why it is better to use an external phono preamp rather than the one inside the receiver, yes using an external box will avoid any interference affecting your turntables signal, this is why most major turntable manufacturing company's offer some sort of phono preamp as a kind of upgrade route, some very expensive turntables won't even work without one.

As to why most a/v receivers have them as standard, I think its more of a convenience thing and probably easier to keep the same spec when exporting their equipment to different country's.

hope this helps, plus think what you can spend the money that you have saved on.

:bounce: