Lennox TT500 turntable is awful

[Nomen Nescio]

My wife bought one of these, as the old stereogram died.
Plugged it into the AUX inputs of the new sound system
(what does CD/cassette/MP3/radio). But it sounds shite,
like a 78 RPM really poor bandwidth.
Is this something to do with RIAA compensation?

 

[Tim]

Nomen Nescio wrote:

My wife bought one of these, as the old stereogram died.
Plugged it into the AUX inputs of the new sound system
(what does CD/cassette/MP3/radio). But it sounds shite,
like a 78 RPM really poor bandwidth.
Is this something to do with RIAA compensation?


Wouldn't be surprised,..you probably need to insert a freq-response

equalising network, Look them up with Google,..if it sounds scratchy, go
for some treble cut [capacitance and resistor *across* pick-up's
output] As to values,..dont have a clue,..suck and see If it sounds
better, and you haqven't lost too much level,..you're home and hosed.

Tim

 

[David Eather]

On 6/06/2011 11:14 PM, Nomen Nescio wrote:

My wife bought one of these, as the old stereogram died.
Plugged it into the AUX inputs of the new sound system
(what does CD/cassette/MP3/radio). But it sounds shite,
like a 78 RPM really poor bandwidth.
Is this something to do with RIAA compensation?

Absolutely. You need to either plug into the phono input which will have
RIAA compensation plus some gain or use an external phono amp.

 

[Pete]

It appears that the Lenoxx TT500 turntable has a ceramic cartridge,
which means that you don't need a preamp or equalisation.

http://www.phonopreamps.com/faq.html says this:

Ceramic cartridges are the cheap, primitive type found on school, kiddy
and fold-up record players, as well as the console stereos which were
common before component stereo came along. Usually they have a
"flip-over" needle (often LP on one side, 78 on the other) and
horrendous fidelity. Ceramic cartridge tables generally do not connect
to a component stereo as they usually have built-in amplifiers and
speakers, or are part of a console or compact (today's compacts often
are designed to look like component stereo equipment, and are referred
to as minisystems). If you do own a component type ceramic turntable
(likely a record changer made in the sixties), it should be connected to
a line input such as AUX, not to a mag phono input. Do not try to use
one of these with a phono preamp; the result will be overdriving and
distortion. Most of the "nostalgia" record players found online and on
the home shopping channels use ceramic cartridges; not only do they
provide the look and the sound quality of the '50s, they give you the
record wear too! One play with a ceramic cartridge will ruin a record
for good, so never lend your LPs out...

Regards, Peter

 

[swanny]

On 7/06/2011 10:21 AM, Pete wrote:

It appears that the Lenoxx TT500 turntable has a ceramic cartridge,
which means that you don't need a preamp or equalisation.

Nonsense.
The source material is eq'd in mastering for vinyl, so you need the
reverse eq to reproduce it. This is what RIAA eq is used for.

The output of the ceramic cartridge is higher than that of the MC/MM
types, so you may need to use an attenuator to attach it to a phono
input. Try a 20dB pad and see if that helps.

http://www.phonopreamps.com/faq.html says this:

Ceramic cartridges are the cheap, primitive type found on school, kiddy
and fold-up record players, as well as the console stereos which were
common before component stereo came along. Usually they have a
"flip-over" needle (often LP on one side, 78 on the other) and
horrendous fidelity. Ceramic cartridge tables generally do not connect
to a component stereo as they usually have built-in amplifiers and
speakers, or are part of a console or compact (today's compacts often
are designed to look like component stereo equipment, and are referred
to as minisystems). If you do own a component type ceramic turntable
(likely a record changer made in the sixties), it should be connected to
a line input such as AUX, not to a mag phono input. Do not try to use
one of these with a phono preamp; the result will be overdriving and
distortion. Most of the "nostalgia" record players found online and on
the home shopping channels use ceramic cartridges; not only do they
provide the look and the sound quality of the '50s, they give you the
record wear too! One play with a ceramic cartridge will ruin a record
for good, so never lend your LPs out...

Regards, Peter

 

[Pete]

swanny wrote:

It appears that the Lenoxx TT500 turntable has a ceramic cartridge,
which means that you don't need a preamp or equalisation.

Nonsense.

The response of a ceramic cartridge approximates the RIAA curve,
provided it has a high impedance load. Fed into a lower impedance load,
bass response will be lost. However, RIAA equalisation is not required,
because that would also affect the high frequency response.

Peter