TEAC reference 300 mkII - dodgy phono stage?

[admin_exported]

I gave my wife an ION USB turntable for Xmas, and went to plug it into the phono sockets on the back of my TEAC amp. It sounded really muffled and distorted. I then plugged it into the Aux sockets and hey presto - it sounds just fine! I thought the phono sockets were specifically designed to take the lower level of signal you get from a turntable and that it would have sounded bad plugged into any of the other, non-phono sockets on the back of the amp?

I guess as we can now clearly hear Mrs Kennyg76's extensive collection of 80s pop (hopefully this will soon be consigned to her iPod - hence the USB part of the turntable...) I suppose there isn't a problem. Any thoughts though?

 

[Tony_R]

I believe the ION USB turntable has it's own built in phono stage, thereby negating the need for an amp with a dedicated phono stage.

Plugging it in to the Aux input as you did, should yield the correct sound.

My guess is by plugging it into the phono sockets, you were just overloading the phono stage on the TEAC - hence the muffled and distorted sound.

Tony.

 

[chebby]

Glad you got that sorted out.

When your wife is ready to hear her old vinyl how it was really meant to sound (and download to your computer via a built in USB just like on your ION) you could upgrade to this....

http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=PROJ-DEBUT-USB

It will not damage your records and it has a built in phono-stage with analogue - digital convertor/USB and a decent Ortofon cartridge also.

Ideal for ripping vinyl tracks ready for importing to iTunes or wherever.