Wood Goblin wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 6:16 pm All this hi-fi talk has me thinking too . . .

I’m not in the market right now—this is more out of curiosity than anything else—but what receiver/amp would people recommend for both vinyl and a television? Is there anything modest size that can handle both well?

I have a Yamaha RX 570- cheap ($50 on clist) that is just fine for both sources.

Wood Goblin wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 6:16 pm All this hi-fi talk has me thinking too . . .

I’m not in the market right now—this is more out of curiosity than anything else—but what receiver/amp would people recommend for both vinyl and a television? Is there anything modest size that can handle both well?

assuming you are OK with the TV as a 2 channel source, and you only have two speakers, there are a dramatically large number of excellent integrated amps/streamer combos in the 50-100w range that would easily do the job.

Thanks, Chris and Motorbikeguy. That gets to the heart of the question, which was whether an amp that can accommodate a TV would also have a decent phono input, or whether the phono component was just an afterthought—one bell/whistle among many.

Wood Goblin wrote: Thu Jan 06, 2022 8:56 am Thanks, Chris and Motorbikeguy. That gets to the heart of the question, which was whether an amp that can accommodate a TV would also have a decent phono input, or whether the phono component was just an afterthought—one bell/whistle among many.

Hello,

I had a similar need a few pages back. In my case, I have my TV switching multiple HDMI sources: cable TV/XBox/Nintendo Switch (I have a son, ok?) so I don’t need a multimedia switching receiver. What I DID need however was an amp that could use the optical out from the TV, which for my needs was met with a Yamaha A-S701. It also has a phono preamp. The downside is it was 800 bucks but I think the 80watt version is $550.

Note that you may not need optical, or you could use a separate optical>rca box, which opens up a world of cheaper used amps and receivers.

Not sure if my experience is useful, but it sounds like you have a similar need.

Oh and a quick follow up to that: the Yamaha integrated amp I have now replaced a cheap Sony receiver that I used with a decent Hagerman separate phono preamp. The Yamaha with onboard preamp is a nicer listening experience. I can't credit the phono pre specifically with that, but it doesn't make things worse.

twelvepoint wrote: Thu Jan 06, 2022 9:15 am
you could use a separate optical>rca box, which opens up a world of cheaper used amps and receivers.

good point. I have a couple of those el cheapo optical to RCA digital to analog converters. They were bought to solve a problem that they could not solve, but they work well and sound fine for TV. If you don't need to run the HDMI signal through your hifi and why would you if you are not doing surround sound?) you can take the audio from the TV to any analog input - so you could use just about any old integrated amp or receiver you like. Even some old vintage crap.

to the revised point - phono preamps in a lot of mass market hifi stuff are pretty piss poor, but some are good. Sorta "you get what you pay for". As said above, an external dedicated phono preamp with its own power supply is almost always a good upgrade. You can get some great MM only phono stages for $200 or less. Even better if you buy used.

Do the cheap optical-to-RCA converters cause any issues with sound-image syncing?

Wood Goblin wrote: Thu Jan 06, 2022 1:32 pm Do the cheap optical-to-RCA converters cause any issues with sound-image syncing?

that is the problem I was trying to solve. It turns out with the active crossover there is so much delay built into my hifi that I cannot run the audio from the TV through it, because the video is always faster than the audio. My TV allows you to set a delay on the audio from something like 0-100ms. That did not help me, since my audio was already behind the video by too much by virtue of all the stuff it has to go through AFTER it comes out of the TV. So I am back to using the speakers inside the TV.

The two DACs that I bought did not seem to add any significant delay.

The first one i bought was just a box with ports, no volume control. the level was significantly lower than what my preamp wanted to see, so I had to boost the volume with the preamp. So I bought a second DAC with a volume knob. That fixed the gain matching issue, but not the delay issue, which, as I said, is inherent in my extremely long audio signal chain.

Thanks, motorbike!

motorbike guy wrote: Tue Aug 17, 2021 9:28 am

Teacher's Pet wrote: Mon Aug 16, 2021 8:03 pm Need a receiver, looking for suggestions.
[...]

Amp- Sony STR-DH190. 50 watt receiver with phono section. Not 12" wide, but not very deep. $168. It works. It sounds good. It does bluetooth so you can stream shit from your phone. it has a phono section. Did I mention it is $168? crutchfield.com
[...]

Bought the Sony based on this rec - I know it's hardly high-end but it'll be a dramatic step up over the barely-working JVC I've been limping along with for years. All the sliders for balance, tone, volume are completely kerfuckled (problem is worse than just dirty contacts - cleaner does not help).

I think I'm going to need to build a small shelf to perch the TT over it though as the shallowness won't work w/ my turntable. *shrug* don't threaten me with a good time I guess. I think I'm going to try to get fancy and put leveling feet on them as they're sitting on a repurposed basement bar that has a wee bit of droop (although thinking about it as I type I suspect if it'd be smarter/easier to just brace that & square off the counter top instead).