Phono Preamplifier

Phono Preamplifier

Turntable, crackly sound?

SO, I bought a turntable a few days ago. I found out I needed a phono preamplifier to play them through my speakers, so I did that today. Now a new problem; an obnoxious crackly sound when I play a record. What are some possible problems? Since it is kind of hard to explain everything I made a quick youtube video of my setup while a record is playing (with the crackly sound). Maybe you can give me some possible problems????? Thanks for the help. VIDEO LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLPsRGHjgG0

I didn't seem to hear any severe "crackly sounding" tracking distortion in the video like I expected to hear. Are you talking about the sibilance on the vocalist's "s" words and such? Just a general problem with tone and timing?

If so, It's probably a cartridge alignment / setup problem. Everything has to be dialed in perfectly for a turntable to sound good and it can take awhile to learn, I guess that's why many people were so glad when CDs came out.

I've heard those short, straight DJ tonearms aren't the best thing for high fidelity listening and the tracking error is worse than with the S-shaped or the longer straight arms with the angled headshell. So, that might be a problem to begin with. I'd start by checking the overhang / alignment of the cartridge. The turntable manual probably tells you how far the stylus tip should be from the back of the headshell (overhang). Once set as well as possible visually, you could try sliding the cart a hair backward or forward in the headshell and tweak further by ear.

Tracking force should be tweaked by ear for the best sound and "timing". You'll find that lower tracking forces result in a sound that's heavy at the frequency extremes and thin in the mids. Too much tracking force will result in thick mids with "stuffy" sounding lows and highs. The perfect setting is usually near the top of the tracking force range specified by the manufacturer. The anti skate should be set to match the tracking force and that can be tweaked a bit by ear from there too. The setting will affect channel balance a bit and there will be a setting that sounds "perfect" after some listening time.

If you can make a direct audio only recording by hooking the phono pre-amp outs or your receiver's tape outs to your computer and using some audio recording software, I may be able to hear it better and be more helpful. You could put it up on a file storage site somewhere and email me a link...

Getting near "perfect" sound out of vinyl isn't easy and you may just have the wrong equipment for your purposes if you just want to listen at home with the best fidelity possible and not "scratch" and stuff... Your system may be too revealing or not adjustable enough for DJ type gear (equalization, etc...). An S-shaped or long, straight tonearm with angled headshell would be preferable. A hi-fi type cartridge with an elliptical or better stylus shape would be much preferable for smooth sound.

The importance of a good phono preamp should not be underestimated. You have to spend quite a bit before the RIAA equilization gets decent and you get nice, smooth sound that can compete with CD for accuracy. I spent around $400.00 on a Jolida JD-9A hybrid tubed phono stage and it was worth every penny. Actually, here's a comparison I did of the Jolida vs. a couple other phono stages using a slightly bright sounding AT440MLa cartridge. The Jolida sounds much smoother than the $165.00 DB Systems DB-8 MM I put it up against. You can hear how the equalization circuitry in the DB Systems isn't quite as complex. It gets things basically right, but it sounds a bit harsh and "thick" because the EQ is rough and it "colors outside the lines" a bit. You can ignore the Soundsmith MMP4 sample. It showed promise, but didn't sound quite right, I think due to the crazy-high gain. I bought a high gain model used from someone and I'm going to have it converted to standard gain by the Soundsmith guy. There's also the same track in there from CD for comparison...

http://www.4shared.com/file/Aap812lP/phono_stage_comparison.html

These were done using a Technics SL-1200MKII, Audio Technica AT440MLa and the various phono stages.

Pyle PP999 Phono Turntable Pre-Amp
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GE 23292 Stereo Turntable Pre-Amplifier
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