Integrated phono stage?

[fish_conspiracy]

Hello, i'm looking for a bit of help with a turntable system i'm putting together for a birthday present. I've just purchased a Rega RP1 turntable and was about to buy a second hand Yamaha pre-amp and amplifier to go along with it. I know the Yamaha pre-amp has a phono stage but I was reading the Rega manual when I noticed it said the amplifier must have an integrated phono stage otherwise I will require an external phono stage. My understanding of this stuff is quite limited and I was hoping for help with two questions:

Firstly, what is an integrated phono stage as opposed to a regular phono stage? I've noticed there's no earth cable thingy with the turntable only the red and black cables so my guess is it's something to do with that?

Secondly, would the turntable work with the yamaha pre-amp even though it only has a regular phono stage instead of an integrated one?

Cheers

 

[reubensm]

Hello, i'm looking for a bit of help with a turntable system i'm putting together for a birthday present. I've just purchased a Rega RP1 turntable and was about to buy a second hand Yamaha pre-amp and amplifier to go along with it. I know the Yamaha pre-amp has a phono stage but I was reading the Rega manual when I noticed it said the amplifier must have an integrated phono stage otherwise I will require an external phono stage. My understanding of this stuff is quite limited and I was hoping for help with two questions:

Firstly, what is an integrated phono stage as opposed to a regular phono stage? I've noticed there's no earth cable thingy with the turntable only the red and black cables so my guess is it's something to do with that?

Secondly, would the turntable work with the yamaha pre-amp even though it only has a regular phono stage instead of an integrated one?

Cheers

In order to play your records, your turntable needs a special preamplification stage known as a phonostage. Most older integrated amplifiers and stand alone preamplifiers had inbuilt phonostages and had phono inputs on the rear panel. As vinyl fell out of favour in the early 1990s, manufacturers discontinued selling integrated amps and and in some cases, dedicated preamps with phonostages and hence, these modern pieces of equipment may not have phono inputs. If your preaamp/integrated amp does not have a designated phono input, then you'd need to buy an external phonostage like the NAD PP2 and connect your turntable to it, and the phonostage to your preamp/integrated amp.

The bottom line is if your preamp/integrated amp has a phono input, just connect your turntable to it and start listening to music.

Some lower end turntables have inbuilt phonostages which are switchable. These turntables can be used with amps with or without phono inputs, by just turning it on or off, as appropriate.

 

[fish_conspiracy]

Thank you, I freaked out at the word integrated and my brain farted. I'll see myself out..

 

[jls001]

On the Yamaha preamp, look for "Phono" among one of the inputs at the rear panel and also on the source selector knob on the front panel. If you can find "Phono" it means your preamp does have a phono input.

Now, there are two types of cartridges - magnetic cartrdiges which usually have high output of the order 4-5 mVolts, and moving coil cartridges which have may be a tenth of the output of the magnetic.

Unless specifically marked, the Phono input on your Yamaha preamp would likely be for magnetic.

So you need to match your cartridge to the phono preamp (whether integrated or standalone).