Category: Audio Visual

Phono Preamp Products To Satisfy Nostalgic Music Lovers

Stuart

These days everybody plays the role of DJ, whether that means selecting which tracks to play as a driver ferrying friends around town or putting on a playlist as host of an event. But as we can tell from the norm of deejaying now revolving around music being played on MP3s, much of the DJ’s art has been forgotten in the post-vinyl age. Of course you can still buy records, indeed their larger format has been embraced anew by musicians who value album art. What is missing, however, is the correct equipment to play these records on. You may frequently pass charity shops whose baskets literally overflow with 7 inch and 10 inch discs of funk, soul, indie, pop and jazz. But when do we pass shops selling record players and their essential counterparts: speakers, phono stage, phono preamp and phono amp? The shameful answer is once in a month of Sundays.
As the hip hop legends De La Soul sang in ‘The Magic Number’: ‘Everybody wants to be a DJ/Everybody wants to be an MC/But being speakers are the best/And you don’t have to guess’. This 1980s trio knew the value of quality equipment but they also had the privilege of being surrounded by top suppliers and occupying prime territory in the music scene. In the twenty-first century, where many more of us are amateur DJs and do not know where to seek out our speakers and amplifiers, we feel quite at sea.

The bizarre contradiction of our times is that we have more choice than ever as consumers: the internet allows us to look worldwide for our purchases. This abundance of choice confuses us, however – if we really are musical amateurs we simply do not know which audio company to type into our search engine. Shopping for sound is an arduous task: at least with other material goods like clothes or homeware it is possible to base your choice on a photo. Unless you know exactly what you are doing, this is impossible: these are arcane devices.

Here are some tips: vinyl is all about the richness of sound. The job of a phono preamp is to bring the unique warmth of the record to your ears with minimum interference. A real balanced output is what you are after in a phono stage and an authentic reproduction of sound that cuts out crackles and privileges the beat is what every DJ or private audiophile deserves. The phono amp should contribute to better sound than digital media.

Please visit http://www.whestaudio.co.uk/ for further info.

Phono stage explained

Emma

Connecting amplifiers to a turntable and an audio system should be simple, but we are all familiar with that frustrating moment when we think it is all ready to go, but the sound just will not come out of the amp at the required volume.  The reason for this can be that most of today’s amplifiers are not fitted with an input socket market turntable, so they cannot be connected without a phono preamp.  This is essentially an electronic circuit or stage that deals with the correct amplification of the phono cartridge and sends it to the amp or audio system. It is also often termed a phono stage or a phono amp, but these all refer to the same thing.

Beneath all these technical terms is a simple box that connects between a turntable and an amplifier.  In order to decide which one to choose and what sort of price to go for, an understanding of how the phono amp works may be of some use.  When vinyl records were the norm, integrated amplifiers featured an input for the record player or turntable as standard, but this began to stop when analogue sources started to become digital in origin.  As digital sources have similar voltages, a preamp-stage was often no longer required, as a simple switch that selects between inputs was enough.  For this reason, the ‘passive preamp’ was created, but rather than containing an actual preamp, these boxes just house switches and relays.

For those who require an actual preamp, it is just a matter of obtaining a phono stage, linking up the turntable to it, and hooking up the output from the preamp to your amplifier.  The performance you will get will be dependent on a few factors, and the prices vary greatly.  An extremely cheap preamp is generally unlikely to provide you with excellent quality audio, but equally, some budget preamps are dressed up as very costly ones. The safest option for novices is to go for a medium priced one, which will at least ensure that you are not severely overcharged for an inferior product.

It is important, therefore, not to be confused by the technicalities.  The phono stage, the phono preamp and the phono amp all have the same function, that of connecting your amp to your turntable.  With this technology in place, you should be able to play all your favourite records with impeccable sound and absolutely no stress.  As long as all your other equipment works, that is!

Please visit http://www.whestaudio.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.whestaudio.co.uk/

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