Bought an old sony turntable after years of letting my vinyl collect dust and rot away. Excitement turned to frustration when I realized I need a preamp. So I finally got a pre amp and hooked it up, still very faint sound. I've heard that I may have to ground my turntable to my stereo (I'm just using a little aiwa mini system), but I'm not exactly clear on what that involves. My player does not have a ground lead nor does my stereo. I managed to connect a ground to the stereo, but I'm fuzzy on what to do with the player. Any help you guys could offer would absolutely make my day. Thanks!!! Tony
Grounding may be necessary to eliminate hum, but will not increase the volume. The pre-amp needs a "phono" input; the signal from a pick-up cartridge is much smaller than that from other, modern sources (CD player, tuner etc.). There is also a difference between the input from a moving-magnetic cartridge and a moving-coil cartridge. The latter is even smaller. Then, both types of phono pre-amp have the same filter to compensate for the frequency balance in the record groove: it comes out very bass-light if no filter is applied.