I have this friend who moved but gave me a lot of records he didn't want. I don't have a player since I only collect cd's but thought this would be a good excuse to get one. I hit the flea market because I am poor right now. Picked up this old, crappy Emerson model. Now I need speakers. On the back of the unit are ports for AV cables. Where can I find speakers that will connect to this? I went to Circuit City but the employee playing on my limited knowledge of this kind of equipment said I needed a Pre-Amp unit for which the cheapest is 140.00! Obviously for such an archaic machine that I got, this wouldn't be required and I plugged some AV cables into my television set and you can hear it. Best Buy was no luck either. Can anyone help?

By AV ports do you mean two RCA sockets, one red and one white? If you do then I'm pretty sure you'll need an amplifier with a 'phono' input to plug the turntable into, then have speakers coming out of that...If you get an amp without a phono input then you will need a pre-amp...I'm pretty sure this is right...

phildodd wrote:By AV ports do you mean two RCA sockets, one red and one white? If you do then I'm pretty sure you'll need an amplifier with a 'phono' input to plug the turntable into, then have speakers coming out of that...If you get an amp without a phono input then you will need a pre-amp...I'm pretty sure this is right...

It is two RCA sockets with both white, if that makes a difference? What about an RCA jack? I'm afraid an amplifier who overload the player because it is so old, or is that possible?

There are others who understand this better than I do (people with names that rhyme with Scodobod), but here's the skinny.

You're getting a very low signal coming out of that turntable. In addition, I'll bet it also has a junky looking wire coming out the back that needs to be used as a grounding wire. The signal being pumped to those little wires of yours has a strange equalization and needs to be amplified. So you need something that can provide correct equalization, ground the unit and boost the signal to send out to a speaker.

Your Circuit City guy was kinda right - you do need a preamp. But the cheapest thing for you to do is to buy an old integrated amplifier (includes preamp and amplifier together - commonly called a "stereo" or "hifi") with a "phono in" jack. Plug your two RCA jacks into that and make sure to ground the turntable with that little wire coming out of the back. The phono in jack will provide preamplification and equalization that a "CD in" jack, for example, wouldn't.

Then hook up some speakers to the "speakers out" on the integrated amp. There are ways that you can do this with your existing stereo (if you have one), but my suggestion probably has you listening to that stuff for under $100 and some luck. Then you can go out and buy the Melvins "Night Goat" single and listen to it the way it was meant to be heard.

= Justin

Justin,

Would some place like Radio Shack have an integrated amp for a reasonable price? The problem is investing only a little for what I got. Eventually I would like to upgrade a new stereo with a turntable but this is what I have to be content with for the moment. I do have a stereo, RCA model. I looked on the back and it has black and red (latches?) that the wires from the speakers "clamp" down on. Does that make sense? I don't know what the correct terminology is.

Thanks

Just a preamp won't help--you need a phono preamp specifically. When LPs are mastered, the bass is rolled off (or the high frequencies accentuated), which does two things: it lessens the needle jump effect of heavy bass, and on playback, it serves as a form of noise reduction, since the highs are attenuated (and a lot of surface noise with them).

So what you need is a phono preamp which adheres to the RIAA curve. If you're handy with a soldering iron, such can be had for as little as $46 (including shipping and rack hardware) from PAiA, or similar prices for pre-built units (see here).

HTH,
M

HOTH -

Do you want to buy something now for pretty cheap that you can use to hear those records? Or do you want to buy something now that's real nice and that you won't have to replace?

If it's the former, I'd say get a cheap integrated amplifier. Here's the general ebay listing for such things:

http://electronics.listings.ebay.com/Am ... ngItemList

I wouldn't necessarily buy off ebay, but looking around here and paying attention to familiar (not esoteric) brand names like Fisher, Pioneer, etc. should give you an idea of what to look for. Then go pawnshopping or ebaying or whatever.

Keep in mind the principal of signal chain. That is, follow the sound as it moves from your turntable to the speaker. Between the needle and your speaker, you need

1. A turntable to convert the movement of the needle to an electric stereo signal. This must have a separate signal ground.
2. A preamp to add the RIAA curve and slightly amplify the signal to a line level.
3. An amplifier to turn your line level signal to something that can power speakers.

An integrated amplifier is integrated because it combines (that is, integrates) the preamp and the amp. With that scenario, you still need to plug the turntable into the integrated amp's "phono input (and ground)" and the speakers into the "speaker out".

Remember that your signal is travelling in one direction. So an input cannot be an output. Your speaker clamps are an output - outputting the amplified signal to a speaker. The wires hanging off your turntable are an output - outputting the non-equalized, low level signal to the preamp/amp.

Make sense yet? This type of thing is easier shown than explained.

= Justin

First of all... maybe this is one of those all-in-one turntables... where the pre/power amp is built in and it uses RCA jacks as speaker jack...

Anybody remember these?

if it is working properly you may only need a pair of cheap speakers to get started...

you're being a little vague... are you talking about two units now (RCA, emerson)?

TheMilford wrote:First of all... maybe this is one of those all-in-one turntables... where the pre/power amp is built in and it uses RCA jacks as speaker jack...

Anybody remember these?

if it is working properly you may only need a pair of cheap speakers to get started...

you're being a little vague... are you talking about two units now (RCA, emerson)?

Maybe, Possibly, Yes? It is an Emerson model and I connected the RCA jacks from the unit into my television and it plays through the tv speakers fine. Does that clarify it better? I could take a picture of it and post it here if that would help the mystery? Thanks again for all the input so far from everyone.

EDIT* Are stereo speakers available where you can simply plug in RCA Jacks and connect to the stereo though if it has a built in pre-/power amp then?

First of all, one thing, just to clarify, speakers don't go "through" anything.

always think of the sound (voltage) starting at the source then traveling through each component and finally "driving" the speakers elements at the end..

are you trying to say:

"Can you hook up a pair of speaker to the RCA jacks on the back of the Emerson using speaker cables with RCA plugs?"

if the Emerson has a power amp built-in and the RCA jacks in question are in-fact "Speaker level" than yes.

It may be that the RCA jacks are "Phono level out" meaning you'll have to use the advice provided above by Justin or maurice.

A clear photo would help.