General Audio & CD-R Questions

[Jonathan Hutchins]

---- Original Message -----
From: "Steven Hildreth" <s_p_hildreth at yahoo.com>

> Most of the outputs on a turntable are going to be at line level...

Actually, they are at the equivalent of "Mic" level, ready to go to a
pre-amp, which will output a line level signal.  Devices like tape decks,
VCR's, stand-alone music CD players, etc.  have line level output.  Most
low-end receivers have a built-in pre-amp for the Phono input.  Very
high-end gear uses a separate phono pre-amp tuned to the tone-arm cartridge
type.  (They would also have another pre-amp which was responsible for input
selection and tone/volume control, while the power amplifier(s) would be
simple linear amps with no controls.)

It's possible to feed the phono signal to the Microphone input on a sound
card, but it wouldn't take much in the way of a pre-amp to give you better
sound quality (the amplifiers in a sound card are very limited).  I use an
odd piece of gear that's everything you'd find in the average home receiver
except the tuner, and essentially all I'm doing is taking the turntable to
Phono In and using the internal pre-amp outputs at "Line Out" (or "Tape Out"
or "Tape Record").

If you're setting up a standard home audio component system, just hook the
PC in where you would hook a tape deck.  Most cards auto-sense the levels
these days, but you would use the Line In and Line Out jacks on the sound
card if available.  If you're not building a whole system with speakers and
such, either an old receiver or a dedicated pre-amp would do; use the PC
speakers for output.