Advice for a Goldbricker

W

Wonderbread

Audiophyte
Good morning, experts.

I have a quick question and I'll try to make it simple. Let me just start off by saying that I'm getting a new turntable this week that I intend to hook into my low end surround sound/CD player/DVD player/Reciever.

Obviosly my reciver doesn't have a phono amp. So I'm getting a Parasound ZPhono preamp. I also intend on getting some 2 affordable old school speakers.

My question is this: Am I better off getting a cheap old Reciever with a built in amp, (ex Kenwood-3500) and just running my vinyl and speakers completely seperatly or running my turntable through my newer low reciever/CD Player/DVD player using a preamp?

Does That make sense? Please be gentle...I'm just getting started here.
 
M

m_vanmeter

Full Audioholic
frankly, most "low end" combination everything audio units have horrible spec's and high Total harmonic distortion (THD) ratings.

My suggestion is look for an older a/v unit like a Sony STR-DB830 or 930 or 940 on eBay or Craigslist. You can also hunt for older Yamaha, Onkyo, or Pioneer units, but you will need to read up on the spec's and features to make sure they have the phono input option.

I mention the Sony DB line because I have a 12 year old Sony STR-DB930 that is still one rock solid super sounding receiver, made when Sony still gave a damn about audio quality and equipment build quality.

For these fully functional older Dolby Digital 5.1 or 6.1 units (that did not even know what HDMI was), you can get a very good receiver with excellent spec's for around $100 or so.

Another plus of the older units is many had 6 channel (5.1) or 7 channel (6.1) direct inputs, so if you get an audio decoding blu-ray player like the Pioneer BDP-320 with direct audio out channels you do not need HDMI to play even the newest HD audio codecs. :) Should you ever want to use this system for home theater in the future.

PS: if you don't want to spend a bunch of time searching for "older speakers", consider the current sale at www.newegg.com for the Polk Monitor 60 towers - a super deal at less than $120 each - shipped. Sale will only last a day or so...they come and go fast !
http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail/Mar-0-2010/MarchDeal/index-landing.html?nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL032310&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL032310-_-EMC-032310-Index-_-E0G-_-Loudspeaker#EL
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

newsletter

  • RBHsound.com
  • BlueJeansCable.com
  • SVS Sound Subwoofers
  • Experience the Martin Logan Montis
Top