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Difference Between "Phono" and "Aux" input? (1 Viewer)

Firat Cingi

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Hi, what are the differences of Phono and Aux inputs? I have two AV Receiver options to choose and one of the differences of these receivers is these inputs. I'm planing to use a turntable on this so which one must be preferred?

Regards,
 

Philip Hamm

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Do you have any specific turntable in mind? Own it already?

Turntables need a special preamp in order to work. The PHONO input has this built in. You can only plug a record player into a PHONO input. Some record players have this preamp built in, therefore you can plug them into an AUX, and plugging them into PHONO will not work. AUX is a line level input which you can plug any audio gear into. If you don't have a PHONO input on your receiver you can get an outboard "phono preamp" to plug between the record player and the receiver.
 

Leo Kerr

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PHONO inputs also generally have the RIAA-Re-EQ curve built into them to compensate for a pre-eq done before the disc is cut.

Leo
 

Henry Gale

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It helps to call these things by their correct name. Of course, I had this conversation with the owner of a high end audio shop in an unnamed major Texas city recently and he was ignorant of the distinction.

TURNTABLE: Has a motor, platter, tone arm and stylus.
RECORD PLAYER: Has all of the above plus a phono pre-amp, a power amp and a speaker, or speakers.

So, you can only plug a turntable into a phono imput.
 

Firat Cingi

Auditioning
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Nov 9, 2005
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Thank you for your help.

I'm still searching (and this search will continue at least 3 months because of financial problems :) ), but I have Pro-ject 1 Xpression on my mind. I bought Denon AVR2106 yesterday and it has phono input. Hope this player works with it.

Regards,
 

Henry Gale

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Phillip,
I know you meant "semantic".

Why object to two different things having two different names?
A motorcycle and a moped are quite similar in function, but I'll bet you know the advantages of one over the other and would not intermingle the nomenclature.
I could try for other analogies that a bright young lad like yourself could relate to, but I’m sure you get my point.
A turntable and a record player are not interchangeable, why would you think their labels would be?
 

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