Why is turntable quiet

MC cartridges output a much lower signal than MM cartridges and need even more amplification to reach line level. And need a phono preamp that is set to MC. It is often a switch on the preamp that selects between MC and MM. One way to do this is to increase the strength of the electrical music signal before it reaches the speakers. The reason being that when we successfully increase the signal strength early in the music signal chain, we also improve the signal-to-noise ratio of our stereo system.

And when playing vinyl records, a good signal-to-noise ratio is very desirable. As we all want as little noise and hum coming from our vinyl records as possible. Hence, it is advised to start looking at the cartridge on the turntable to see if it is possible to replace it with one that outputs a stronger signal.

Moving Magnet MM cartridges that are found on most turntables typically outputs from 2. So if you have a cartridge that outputs 3mV and you replace it with to one that outputs 6mV, the music signal that is applied to your speakers is suddenly twice as big.

Which will give a noticeable increase in music volume. I recently experienced this my self. A changed the cartridge on my Rega Planar 2 from a Rega Carbon 2. So it really works. To investigate the output levels of different cartridges, Needle Doctor is a good place to start.

You can also check out the websites of the biggest cartridge manufacturers. Like Audio-Technica and Ortofon. The next place to look to increase the signal strength is the phono preamp.

Different phono preamps have different gain output level. These players will last you much longer than the cheap ones and will never give you a hard time. A cheap quality record player can negatively affect your sound in the long run. A tonearm is a long arm that supports the cartridge to run smoothly and stop the record disc.

It has to maintain that perfect angle and height with accurate pressure to process its function. It is an essential element of a record player, which usually contains the most problems. Some of the problems that you may face with tonearms include:.

A line output is much more powerful than a phono output. To get the same quality sound, you will have to install a phono preamp to transfer phono level signal to line-level signal. The phono preamp is already installed in a turntable that contains LINE output, whereas if you have a PHONO output, the preamp can be fixed with the help of a receiver. So, you have to choose either of the two options —. In the first situation, you can connect the turntable with a receiver that already has a built-in Preamp.

The turntable can easily produce high-quality sound when connected with a receiver emitting PHONO input. Now, if both your turntable and receiver do not have a pre-installed preamp, then connecting to a standalone box is your rescue option. Even after installing a phono preamp, your turntable cannot produce a satisfactory level of sound; it can because of a clash between MM and MC.

MC cartridge produces a lower signal than MM cartridge, so it requires more amplification to work together. So, you would require a preamp that can work on MC. These cases mostly arise with very expensive turntables bought by enthusiasts who are keenly interested in this type of music.

Adopting this method will instantly boost your turntable quality and give you a much louder voice than before. If you already have installed the phono preamp but still want a louder voice, the next step should be updating the existing preamp with a higher output level. The photo preamp with a higher gain will adversely affect the quality of the sound.

The updated preamp uses advanced technology to filter out songs in a more refined manner, making them very clear and loud. There are two types of phonograph preamp, one is already pre-installed in your phonograph, and another can be attached using external cords.

If the preamp is pre-installed, its output and gain level are always quite low. Putting the needle back on is almost just as fast and is just the opposite of the way you took it off. Needles are relatively inexpensive for most players so this is one of the first things that you should replace if you are having sound quality or volume issues.

The tonearm is the long arm that holds the needle and cartridge on to the record itself. Sometimes the tonearm will be manual and other times it will automatically start and stop when the record is done playing. The main issue that you might have with the tonearm is that it is not balanced properly. This is a little more technical of a process so rather than me explain it here I will let you watch the videos below on how to balance the tonearm properly.

Normally if you had loud sound and now it is softer than one of the issues above would be what is causing the problem. The speakers whether inside the player or seperate can certainly go bad and stop working.

This is especially true if they are cheaper speakers or built in to a cheap record player. If your speakers are built into your player there should also be a line out plug that you can use to test the audio using a seperate set of speakers.

Assuming your player has this option this is a great way to check and see if the speakers are the issue. Re: My record player is playing my records very quiet Post by E. Man » 08 Feb Recently? Was it playing ok before? Re: My record player is playing my records very quiet Post by pivot » 08 Feb What did you plug the turntable into. EXACT brand and model of amp, please.

The guess is you do not have the turntable plugged into a phono pre-amp, but into a line level input. Hamlet Act 1. Re: My record player is playing my records very quiet Post by levman » 08 Feb This is usually caused by a bad channel in the cartridge or a loose connection between the cartridge and it's needle. The cartridge has a separate needle component that attaches to the cartridge.

If this is loose or even broken usually only a single channel will be heard. So you have several options. You can replace the cartridge with a new cheap one to see if that's it. Normally, I would have test the phono stage first but you have done that just as long as your sure you hooked it up correctly on a different phono stage.