Jury rigging a turntable

[piccols8]

Hi all,
Several years ago, I received a phono/tape/radio combo player with built-in audio as a gift. Since then, I have come across a pair of large speakers and an amplifier/receiver. Now, instead of spending money on a new turntable with audio out, I decided to go inside the turntable and remove the wires from the speakers in order to connect them to RCA cables so that I could plug it into my receiver. I have a two way RCA cable (both sides of the cable are male) and cut off one plug of both colors, leaving one plug on each cable and a neutered end. Then, I stripped the cables, using the outer wire as the negative and the inner wire as positive (the inner connects to the center pin and the outer to the circle). With both phono "outputs" now connected to the RCA cables, I plugged it in to the receiver and the both speakers work, kind of. The right one works wonderfully, and while the left is receiving the sound signal, it's also full of static/interference. I know it's not the speakers because I have a different input on the receiver set up and it works perfectly. Any ideas?

 

[americanaudiophile]

You cannot use the wires that were connected to the speakers in the combo unit to feed into the receiver without a speaker to line level adapter to lower the output level. If your receiver has a phono input you can connect the wires to the output of the turntable instead of the speakers. I assume that the turntable worked when it plays in the combo unit. If so then the wiring may be at fault. Swope the left and right connections at the receiver and make sure the that the problem changes to the other speaker. Try another input on the receiver as well.

 

[piccols8]

I should have mentioned that, a few hours later, I solved the problem.

I did wire the turntable output (the wires from the circuit board to the speaker, which I desoldered from the speaker and connected to the RCA cables). As long as I turn the turntables volume on (but not too high!) it works. But, it turns out that it was the phone input on the receiver that was the problem. For kicks, I plugged it into an auxiliary input and it worked. Thanks for the advice though!

 

[piccols8]

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