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Turntable hookup

#1
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7/16/09 at 12:00pm
  • Joined: July 2009
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Hooking up my pioneer pl-117d turntable to my receiver (it's another pioneer, older model, not sure exactly the kind), but I'm noticing something strange. When each channel is plugged in individually by its self, things work as expected. But when I plug the other one in, the audio drops significantly, like it's no longer being amplified. Very strange indeed, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to fix it. I even tried hooking it up to another receiver and the same thing happened. Am I missing something here? I just can't understand what's going on, especially because each channel works fine by itself.
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#2
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7/16/09 at 5:29pm
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A lot of times receivers do not have a designated phono input anymore.  What input are you hooking into on your receiver?  If it doesn't have a dedicated phono input chances are it doesn't have a preamp for your turntable which would cause the level to drop.  Do you know if your turntable has a built in preamp? 
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#3
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7/19/09 at 1:37pm
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Well the receiver is from probably the 70s, so I'd assume the phono input with the ground screw right next to it can be used for a turntable. And I don't think the TT has a built in preamp, it's a Pioneer PL-117d if that helps.. It was all working fine a while ago, so I don't know if something just went bad inside the receiver? It's tubes and everything in there so I'd imagine it would be pretty expensive to repair if that's the case.. I can however get it working if I have one of the cables just barely plugged into the back of the receiver, so bad connection maybe?
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#4
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7/19/09 at 4:55pm
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also, don't know if this helps at all, but i noticed when i have one rca plugged in, then connect the other one, the power output meters (don't know their official name!) drop way down, to barely moving.. any thoughts on that?
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#5
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7/19/09 at 9:53pm
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hmm it does sound like something strange is going on with the inputs on the receiver end.  It doesn't sounds like anything wrong with the setup since you said it was working fine and now it's not.  Are the RCA plugs on the TT side internally connected or can you try something as simple as swapping out the RCA cables to see if that makes a difference?
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#6
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7/20/09 at 9:38pm
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well I thought I fixed it somehow, and it was working great - for a while. Is there a possibility the stylus or cartridge is in need of replacing? Seems like it just gets tired after a while (about 2-3 records, both sides) and won't keep up its strong output.. Because it seems to work for a while, then I change records and it suddenly gets real quiet like the whole problem is starting up again. Tried cleaning things as best I could, no dust on the vinyl or stylus, and yet apparently the stylus and cartridge were replaced recently and lightly used since then (according to ebay, so i'm not exactly betting on the accuracy of that statement..)

or is it more likely the preamp in my reciever is starting to go..


Edited by acromack - 7/21/2009 at 05:00 am GMT
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