Teac TN400BT

[Gonepostal]

Hello, set up this turntable today using its built in phono stage, obviously that’s not ideal but I’ve never owned a TT before and we only brought this as my wife has a lot of singles she wanted to play.

The sound quality isn’t great, so my question is would I get much improvement in sound quality if we were to buy a separate phono amp, ie Graham Slee gram amp communicator or such.

As I said I’ve no records to play myself but now we have one in our house it follows that I’ll probably start to buy some LPs. Any thoughts/suggestions appreciated.

 

[nopiano]

It’s hard to advise without knowing what you’re hearing, but the preamp is the last thing I’d worry about.

What is the rest of the system? Are the records in good condition? What tracking weight are you using?

can you describe what is disappointing you? (Singles usually sound shite!)

 

[Gonepostal]

Hi, the rest of the system is Marantz Mcr510 with Zensor 5 speakers, the tracking weight is the one supplied with the TT, the singles are not in great condition, my wife had them stored laying flat, a couple had warped.

The sound isn’t as clear as when listening to Spotify via airplay, perhaps this is a trait of vinyl, I wouldn’t know. I just assumed a separate phono amp would improve things.

 

[Deleted member 108165]

Even though it's not a brilliant turntable/phono stage no external phono amp is going to improve the sound quality of trashed records *sorry2* You could try giving them a good clean to see if this improves matters.

When asked about the tracking weight it's not the actual counterbalance weight being discussed it is the amount of vertical tracking force applied to the cartridge stylus... do you have a stylus guage/scale to check this?

A good vinyl front end takes a lot of patience, ocd, and cash investment, it also needs to fed with as near mint vinyl as possible. The old adage applies here, rubbish in = rubbish out. If you are expecting CD quality then stick with CDs or Spotify.

 

[Gonepostal]

Hi, I have no gauge to check the tracking force etc but it has been set to the manufacturers guidelines. It was only 1 single that had warped thankfully, but I’ll give them a wipe to try and clean them up to improve things.

So in your opinions it’s not worth spending a little bit of money on a phono stage.

 

[ifor]

So in your opinions it’s not worth spending a little bit of money on a phono stage.

... your curiosity gets the better of you, you can arrange a two week no obligation home loan of a Slee phonostage. Look for the Slee forum on the internet and arrange it there.

 

[nopiano]

Hi, I have no gauge to check the tracking force etc but it has been set to the manufacturers guidelines. It was only 1 single that had warped thankfully, but I’ll give them a wipe to try and clean them up to improve things.

So in your opinions it’s not worth spending a little bit of money on a phono stage.

The phono stage isn't the weakest link. The first problem is playing singles. The next is it may not be tracking correctly. The third is it will not sound like a cd. The fourth is the modest, albeit very dependable cartridge.

Much further down the line, with a better cartridge it might be worth bypassing the built in phone stage.

What is not to your liking about the sound? That might help diagnosis.

 

[Gonepostal]

Lol just a few things to think about then. I have watched a video on YouTube on how to set the tone arm etc and I think it’s sounding a bit better. I’m going to some LPs to see if they sound better than the singles which have been stored quite poorly.

The sound isn’t as clear as when I stream Spotify, it’s almost like there is a sheet over the speakers. I’ll admit I’ve never owned a turntable before so I’m not sure what I was expecting, I remember my dads albums sounding pretty good when I was a kid growing up and the singles aren’t sounding as good, unless my memory is playing tricks on me.

Im not going to buy a phono stage though. I’ll see how I get on with vinyl before spending anymore money. I must say my wife is happy with it all so in that regard it’s job done.

 

[Al ears]

As others have already stated the phono stage built-in to modern turntables are not brilliant. The cartridge set up is critical and make sure switches on turntable are correctly positioned. Might be worth buying a new LP from Tesco to test it out. If singles still sound rubbish then it's the condition of the singles that is at fault.

 

[Gonepostal]

I’m going to borrow a couple of LPs from my dad. Will see how I get on with those.

 

[davidf]

Anyone looking for a turntable with a good quality integrated phono stage, have a look at the Elipson turntables, like the one I used at the hi-fi show in Birmingham, where I used the Omega Carbon together with KEF LS50 Wireless via Bluetooth - Lou’s Of positive feedback with regards to the resulting quality.

 

[stereoman]

I have a similar model to yours. These Teac TT sound superb for the price and there is no way it can sound so bad. People here are right that the external phono stage will not so dramatically improve things ( the one inbuilt in TEAC is not so bad by the way ). Did you correctly set up the arm and the tracking force ? Maybe your LPs are worn out and yes the extra phono stage will give you better sound. The second thing might be that people nowadays expect too much from TT sound. It used to be great in the past but now we compare TTs to really good digital sources and the difference is not that huge what might disappoint some users...

 

[Gonepostal]

I’ve actually listened to a few LPs now as opposed to singles and I’m enjoying the sound. It’s obviously different to what I’m used too,having been using either CDs or streaming via Spotify for years.

Im not going to be buying any cartridge upgrade or a phono pre-amp, I will be buying some albums though, and if it turns out to be more than a passing phase I’ll look at improving the amp and cartridge.

Thanks for all the help.