Question Phono Preamp Largely Distorted

Jan 3, 2020
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I recently got a Victrola Vsc-550bt turntable that I want to connect to my receiver/speakers. The turntable doesn't have a preamp built in so I bought a Rolls phono preamp that I've connected to the turntable and the receiver. When I play music through the receiver/speakers it sounds very distorted with a lot of static mostly coming through the treble.

The turntable has built in speakers and the record sounds fine when played from that. The preamp has a ground which I attempted to ground to the receiver but there was no change in the sound. I've bought new cables to test with and still no difference in the sound. From testing it seems like the problem is coming from the preamp. Are there any other things I've missed to troubleshoot? Have I set the system up correctly?

Thanks for any assistance.
 
You did not need the Rolls phono preamp. The turntable does have a phono preamp built in. It couldn't work without one.
What it doesn't have is a line level audio output. The RCA jacks are an input. If you connected the headphone jack to the Rolls you would get massive distortion.
You can connect the headphone jack directly to the receiver but make sure you keep the volume of the record player all the way down at first. Bring it up slowly. If you have it up to high you will hear distortion again.
The best way to do it would be to connect a speaker to line level converter to the headphone jack. You would need to solder a 3.5mm stereo plug to it or you would splice it onto the wires that connect the internal speakers of the record player. Best to disconnect them it you do that.
 
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Jan 3, 2020
2
0
10
You did not need the Rolls phono preamp. The turntable does have a phono preamp built in. It couldn't work without one.
What it doesn't have is a line level audio output. The RCA jacks are an input. If you connected the headphone jack to the Rolls you would get massive distortion.
You can connect the headphone jack directly to the receiver but make sure you keep the volume of the record player all the way down at first. Bring it up slowly. If you have it up to high you will hear distortion again.
The best way to do it would be to connect a speaker to line level converter to the headphone jack. You would need to solder a 3.5mm stereo plug to it or you would splice it onto the wires that connect the internal speakers of the record player. Best to disconnect them it you do that.

Thank you! Yeah that's exactly the problem, didn't realize the RCA in the back was an input. Overall the record player didn't work well with a lot of records so I switched to an AT-LP60 instead and it has worked perfectly where the latter failed.