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Phono Preamp vs Preamp for a Turntable

Hello Forum Members,

Long time lurcher first time poster, maybe you can help!

I received an older mid '70's turntable for my birthday, a Pioneer PL-15 II. It's beautiful and I can't wait to play some rich LP's out of it. As a first time turntable owner, I figured I could just hook it up to my newer (are the 90's newer? Or just less old?) Marantz SR-7000 receiver which doesn't have a phono jack.

A quick test and five seconds of google has alerted me to my next component hunt, a Phono Preamp, or a receiver with a phono jack. In a perfect world, I'll eventually step up to a vintage receiver, but I don't have the room for one at this time. So, I have been looking at phono preamps, but also stumbled across some Adcom pre-amps (like the GTP 400 and 500), both of which have a phono input. My question is, will these multi-purpose preamps do the trick and be of similar quality to a single purpose Phono Preamp?

Thanks very much for any insight.

KB
karlrborne

Showing 1 response by tobias

tobias
1,534 posts
 
Some units have an input labelled Phono which is only meant to take the output of an external phono stage--there's no actual phono preamp behind the input jack. However the GTP-400 is NOT like that. It has a built-in hi-level (MM) phono preamp.

But beware of inexpensive preamps, especially ones with integrated phono, an extra-cost feature. They may offer the phono feature you don't have, and with integrated phono the GTP-400 would save you a set of cables, but cheaper preamps may not give better overall sound than you're getting from your receiver.
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