Santa gave me an Audio Technica AT-LPW30 Wood Turntable for Christmas
I've had a right game, mostly my own fault. I forgot that you need an Amp for a turntable, my original plan was just to run it off my speakers.
I already own some Audioengine A5+ Powered Speakers which I planned to run a fairly long phono cable to. It gets complicated now so bear with me: I bought a couple of Y cables (RCA) to run two feeds into the speakers, one from my Computer and one from the record deck. (I know, I know. I don't intend to use the computer and the deck together.) Now I will say I was under the impression the speakers had amplifiers in them; however, as I found out, they don't.
To be fair, it kind of worked. I cranked up the volume on the speakers to maximum, and the sound volume was "Meh, I can hear it." but the quality was terrible, very 'tinny' and I could have done with a bit more volume as well. It was then that the penny dropped: "Hang on, I need Bass and Treble controls!" smacking myself up the back of the head it dawned on me that I needed an amp (Or so I thought) I jumped back on Amazon and bought a crappy little Amp for £41.00 I just wanted something to get me going. Little did I know I was just digging myself into a deeper hole.
The following day the Amp arrived. Excited I ripped the box open "Where's the power supply? And these fittings on the back don't unscrew? Oh, for Pete's sake! I need banana connectors" totally fed up with the project I decided to just forget about it until I could get to a shop. I knew there was a music shop in Walsall the sort of place @steevc would get excited about.
While I knew TR Music sold guitars and drums along with lots of other musical instruments I hoped, given they sold speakers and mixer desks, they would have the cables and a power supply I needed.
I think I got off to a bad start with the shop keeper, I was outside the shop, and I saw it was not due to open for another fifteen minutes. While I was struggling to put my facemask on, it started to snow, and the shopkeeper opened up early for me, which I don't think he was that happy about strangely. I explained that I needed a 12V power supply and showed him the Amp: "You sure?" he said. "Well it says 12V on the back, but I don't know the Amps?" I replied. He seemed miffed at my response for some reason? "OK, I was only asking if you were sure. Seems a lot for that little thing." Stunned that he seemed annoyed, I resolved to say as little as possible. Sadly, I was to aggravate him some more when I asked for a couple of banana connectors, especially when I said the sound was going into some powered speakers. "That's not the way you do it!" He said "I know, I just want to get it going and I need Bass and Treble controls" I replied. "You just need a small mixer" he said. Bugger! I have one of those from my Podcasting days I thought. "Or better still, a graphic equalizer." he continued. Damn, damn and double damn. Of course, a graphic equalizer. I nodded and said I would get one later on, but for now, I just wanted a 'lash-up' to get me going. To be honest, there was more faffing around and sniping about making up cables etc. Finally, he placed everything I needed on the counter and then, can you believe it, only charged me £10!
This morning, I climbed into the loft and retrieved all our LP's and singles. I'd already bought a couple of LP cases, and I may have to buy something for the singles as those 70's boxes are looking very sorry for themselves. We've had fun this morning listening to just a few records, some of which probably haven't been played for forty years or more. I must have been a good teenager as they all seem in pretty good condition.
I'm so glad I came across this single, we were having a discussion about XTC on Mastodon the other week. You don't see that nowadays: PLAY VERY LOUD
My actual name is Pete
Find out Here why I have the username dick_turpin.
Find me on Social Media
 |
https://mastodon.org.uk/@dick_turpin |
|
https://twitter.com/dick_turpin |
 |
https://www.facebook.com/peter.cannon3 |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
License explained: Examples
Create your license: Choose
Podcaster. FOSS, Linux & Creative Commons Advocate.
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
Pleased you got there in the end. That is a lovely looking turntable - I love the wood.
Hahahaha, that was a big adventure and possible 'pain' to go through. But a mixer? Is the shopkeeper stupid? Yes, a mixer would do well when you would have two turntables and you like to mix records or want pitch control. And yes, a mixer can do the equaliser stuff, but the normal (none-DJ) like the setup is with a HIFI amplifier and that's it. Or did I miss something in my 5 decades of existence on planet earth?
BTW, nice looking vinyl deck! Technics, they are still awesome... But what do I know, I don't own any vinyl, never had (and therefore never owned a vinyl player), though I come from the vinyl era. {LOL}
I thought a lot of current turntables came with an preamp as less people will have an amplifier with a preamp in it these days. I know some do USB too. Our old Technics has neither.
That does look like my kind of shop. You were lucky to get out having spent so little. I imagine it was something like this.
Congratulations @dickturpin! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPDo not miss the last post from @hivebuzz: