Need advice- which amplifier to change my life

[admin_exported]

i need an amplifier for my turntable (stanton t90), i have jamo s606 speakers.

i'd like to in the future plug in a standalone cd player (see future post) and sometimes listen to my ipod, but 90% will be listening to vinyl.

my budget is in the same type of league as my other purchases, any recommendations?

 

[John Duncan]

Something with a half-decent phono stage built in, I'd say, which suggests Marantz PM6002 or Rotel RA-04. I prefer the Rotel, but that's just me. I'd have said NAD but I think they're all phono-less..........

 

[chebby]

JohnDuncan:Something with a half-decent phono stage built in, I'd say, which suggests Marantz PM6002 or Rotel RA-04. I prefer the Rotel, but that's just me. I'd have said NAD but I think they're all phono-less..........

The Stanton T90 is a USB turntable (that also has SPDIF output according to Stanton's own website) and also has line level RCA phono output. (RIAA eq is all sorted internally and no phono-stage is necessary on the amp or seperately.)

I would recommend the NAD 315BEE and a cheap (but good) DAC with 75 ohm (coax) SPDIF input.

You can use the USB to output to your computer and SPDIF to the DAC (connected to your amp) or just use the analogue RCA phono lead into any line level input.....

http://www.stantondj.com/v2/prod_t90_tech.asp

 

[John Duncan]

chebby:
JohnDuncan:Something with a half-decent phono stage built in, I'd say, which suggests Marantz PM6002 or Rotel RA-04. I prefer the Rotel, but that's just me. I'd have said NAD but I think they're all phono-less..........

The Stanton T90 is a USB turntable (that also has SPDIF output according to Stanton's own website) and also has line level RCA phono output. (RIAA eq is all sorted internally and no phono-stage is necessary on the amp or seperately.)

I would recommend the NAD 315BEE and a cheap (but good) DAC with 75 ohm (coax) SPDIF input.

You can use the USB to output to your computer and SPDIF to the DAC (connected to your amp) or just use the analogue RCA phono lead into any line level input.....

http://www.stantondj.com/v2/prod_t90_tech.asp

OK, knew it was USB but didn't realise it had a phono stage built in. In which case, NAD would definitely be on my list....

 

[Anonymous]

chebby:
The Stanton T90 is a USB turntable (that also has SPDIF output according to Stanton's own website) and also has line level RCA phono output. (RIAA eq is all sorted internally and no phono-stage is necessary on the amp or seperately.)

I would recommend the NAD 315BEE and a cheap (but good) DAC with 75 ohm (coax) SPDIF input.

Sorry, I don't see the point of signal path vinyl -> phono stage -> ADC -> SPDIF -> DAC -> amp -> speakers. Surely he should just use the line level RCA outs into the amp and eliminate the unnecessary digitizing of the signal?

 

[Anonymous]

thanks for the input.

i've been doing a little googling about the NAD 315BEE, it seems to have great reviews (and a good price). i have a similar question to lydgate about how it should all fit together, could you please explain.

again thanks for all the expert advice

 

[Anonymous]

brendanmc:
thanks for the input.

i've been doing a little googling about the NAD 315BEE, it seems to have great reviews (and a good price). i have a similar question to lydgate about how it should all fit together, could you please explain.

again thanks for all the expert advice

Hi brendanmc,

My opinion is that if the turntable has line level outputs, you should just put those straight into any input of the NAD amp (or any input of any amp besides a phono input). On an amp all inputs are line level, so you can plug a tuner or CD player or whatever into them. The only input that would differ is a phono input, which would apply RIAA equalization to whatever you plug in. Apparently NAD amps don't have phono stages so you won't need to worry about this.

With a CD player or a sound card, using SPDIF into a DAC makes sense as it will allow you to take the exact digital signal from the device, then use the DAC to convert it to an analogue signal. Now every CD player with RCA outs has a DAC inside it -- the point of using SPDIF to an external DAC is that you think you can get a higher quality analogue signal by using an external device.

With the turntable, you might use the SPDIF to go straight into your computer for ripping. But by doing this you're using an ADC (analogue to digital converter) within the turntable, to get a digital signal to encode. But if you then put the signal through the DAC and then a speaker, you've effectively just digitized and undigitized the analogue signal for no reason. I can't see how this will do anything but degrade the signal.

Sorry if I'm being repetitive but to try to clarify, it makes sense to do:

ipod (digital) -> DAC (convert to analogue) -> speaker (analogue)

It does not make sense to do:

vinyl (analogue) -> SPDIF (convert to digital) -> DAC (convert to analogue) -> speaker (analogue).

If you've already got an analogue signal from the turntable, then just put it straight into the amp.

 

[Anonymous]

thanks for the clarification, will use your advice.

ÿ

Brendanÿ

 

[ear]

brendanmc,sorry not exactly an answer for you, just wanted to know, your experience with the s606, are you happy with them? bass how is it?

 

[Anonymous]

I'm happy with them. I've had a pretty rubbish amp (hence my post here), but I'm happy with them, the bass I think is very decent

 

[ear]

Because they are cheap and look great.(and very heavy they are)Guess they will work nicely if the amp does not have a large amount of bass ability.Glad you are happy with them.