Connecting a turntable to receiver

[Voicefixer]

I have acquired a Technics 1200M3D turntable and wish to connect it to my Nakamichi TA3 receiver. My questions are: I wish to locate the turntable in a spot where the provided audio cables do not reach the receiver. Will I get a good result if I add a 6 foot cable using couplers? Also, can I connect the ground wire to something other than the place provided on the receiver? If so, what?

Thanks for your advice. Eugene

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum!

For the ground wire, you can always connect another insulated metal cable to that ground wire, and then connect that second cable to the grounding pin on the receiver. In other words, it's just an extension cable for the ground. As long as you make a good electrical contact between that grounding cable and the grounding pin, you're good.

I'd think that a 6-foot extension cable for the RCAs would be fine, but I'm not a vinyl expert. I'd say hook it up and see if it sounds good to you - just my suggestion, as in the end, it only matters if you like it.

 

[john72953]

Adam is correct.

You obviously want to keep the connection length as short as possible, but I understand you may not have that luxury. A shame really as I feel that anolog is much more sensitive to length of cable, quality of cable, solid structural foundation of componant placement and other variables.

That however is only my humble opinion.

John

 

[mtrycrafts]

I have acquired a Technics 1200M3D turntable and wish to connect it to my Nakamichi TA3 receiver. My questions are: I wish to locate the turntable in a spot where the provided audio cables do not reach the receiver. Will I get a good result if I add a 6 foot cable using couplers? Also, can I connect the ground wire to something other than the place provided on the receiver? If so, what?

Thanks for your advice. Eugene

Turn tables can be fussy about cable capacitance, a drawback, as that will alter the frequency response. May need to find out what is the capacitance amount for that cartridge.

 

[Pyrrho]

I would personally try very hard to get the turntable and receiver close enough together to not need an extension for the reason sited by mtrycrafts. It does not matter whether this would involve moving the turntable or the receiver or both.

If that is not possible, you might want to get a separate phono preamp, and position it close to the turntable, and then you would plug the turntable into it, and it would plug into a line level (not phono) input on your receiver.

Of course, it might work out okay just hooking up an extension to your turntable cables, and if that is all you can afford to do, then you may as well try it and see how it works. You might want to do the research on your cartridge that mtrycrafts suggests to give yourself a better chance of success.

With any line level output device, I would say just go ahead and use an extension of 6 feet, as it wouldn't matter. But unfortunately, you are talking about a very low level output device that can be extra finicky.

 

[TLS Guy]

I have acquired a Technics 1200M3D turntable and wish to connect it to my Nakamichi TA3 receiver. My questions are: I wish to locate the turntable in a spot where the provided audio cables do not reach the receiver. Will I get a good result if I add a 6 foot cable using couplers? Also, can I connect the ground wire to something other than the place provided on the receiver? If so, what?

Thanks for your advice. Eugene

Adding 6 ft of cable to a turntable will add too much capacitance to the cable, and degrade HF response.

If you have to have the turntable that far away, buy a phono preamp, and put it close to the turntable, and then connect the line level output from the turntable to a line level input on your receiver, not the phono input. That will give you by far and away the best results.

 

[highfigh]

If you have to have the turntable that far away, buy a phono preamp and put it close to the turntable, and then connect the line level output from the turntable to a line level input on your receiver, not the phono input. That will give you by far and away the best results.

I can vouch for this- a client asked me to find a nice turntable for a decent price and because of the way the system is configured, it had to go on the opposite side of the room from the rest of the equipment and the rack is in the basement, directly below the left side of the room. The phono preamp was placed near the turntable and the sound was very nice. With the low signal voltage, it's easy to pick up enough noise to compete with the music and make listening far from a great experience.