Help, Info on phono preamps and Marantz 6200 (1 Viewer)

[Jon_B]

Well my dad finally decided to upgrade his old Pioneer 606 dolby digital only receiver. It had no frills, no bells, no whistles to speak of. The only thing it did have was a phono input, which was good because he has a lot of records.
So...the problem/question is, where do I start looking for a phono pre amp, how much money are we talking here? Can anyone recommend one?(Brand, place to buy)
Thanks for any help
Jon

 

[Charles J P]

I am only 22 so I have never hooked up a turn table so I could be wrong, but I would think that you could use the old receiver as a phono pre-amp. All you need to do is hook up the turn table how it was before, and then use the tape loop output to an auxilary input on the new receiver. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this would work.
------------------
My Website: Link Removed
e-mail me: [email protected]
My DVD Profiler
Paradigm Lover

 

[Burke Strickland]

The procedure suggested above (using the old receiver) will work, assuming it has tape loop or pre-out connections to bypass its built in power amps. But, if you are planning to use the old receiver elsewhere, or had planned to get rid of it, or simply don't have room for it in the same equipment rack/cabinet, there is a wide range of stand-alone phono stage preamps available ranging in size from the equivalent of a deck of cards (which would probably fit on the same shelf as the recevier) to a full blown stand alone component (which you'd want to avoid if space is an issue) and varying in cost from less than $50 to many thousands.
The Needle Doctor has several models available ranging from $50 to about $1,000. They carry the BTech for $50: Link Removed (They are pretty picky about what they carry, so if this one is on their list it is probably a pretty good one at this price level.) I bought the Lehmann Black Cube from them, which has high end performance at a comparatively reasonable $595 (when compared to competing models costing well over $1,000): Link Removed Another one, the Sumiko Phono Box, sells for $120: Link Removed They have quite a few others to choose from: Link Removed but none less expensive than the BTech (anything less expensive would probably be too "noisy" to be useful).
So they have "something for everyone". :>)
Good luck -
Burke
[Edited last by Burke Strickland on August 02, 2001 at 09:39 AM]

 

[Jon_B]

Thanks for the links. The old receiver will probably be leaving, so a phono preamp will probably have to be used. I'll check out the needle doctor.
Jon

 

[Saurav]

What's your budget? Burke gave a good overview of what's available across the entire price range (well, before you step into 4 figures ). If you're looking for budget equipment, NAD has a phono preamp called the PP-1 which sells for about $100. There's the Sumiko that Burke mentioned, then something called the QED Discsaver, which is identical to the Music Hall MMF-1, that sells for about $80. The good thing about that one is that it can be run on batteries - no 50Hz hum. For slightly more, Rotel makes some phono stages (don't remember the model number), so does Creek (OBH-8, OBH-8SE, OBH-9, OBH-9SE - 8's for MM, 9's for MC, SE stands for Special Edition). Don't know about the BTech, but I see it regularly on eBay for less than $50, if my memory serves me right. There's also a unit from MCM electronics which costs $13 (yes, $13), and that's about the cheapest you can get. It's a piece of junk though, hums like crazy. Oh, and Radio Shack sells some too, but those are supposedly in the same ballpark as the MCM stage, they might even be the exact same circuit in the exact same box with a different name on top.
A good source of info would be www.audioasylum.com - run a search for "budget phono" on the Vinyl Asylum, you should get tons of options as well as opinions on their relative merits/demerits.
Finally, if you have $600, Burke's suggestion of the Black Cube is supposed to be amazing. It's outside my current budget though, so I haven't researched it.
[Edited last by Saurav on August 02, 2001 at 03:13 PM]