Finally splashed out for a new turntable to go with my vintage pioneer amp and I guess I should be using the MAG input with the UTurn Basic I got.

Sure seems kind of muddy and flat, right now, but since the receiver and speakers are old as hell, it could be anything I guess.

The UTurn does not come with a ground cable, which was a surprise. Anyone else had a similar experience?

jason from volo wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:13 pm

dontfeartheringo wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:03 pm Finally splashed out for a new turntable to go with my vintage pioneer amp and I guess I should be using the MAG input with the UTurn Basic I got.

Sure seems kind of muddy and flat, right now, but since the receiver and speakers are old as hell, it could be anything I guess.

The UTurn does not come with a ground cable, which was a surprise. Anyone else had a similar experience?

Damn U-Turn table doesn't have a bunch of stuff it should have.

Had a bunch of back-and-forth with their customer service and the best thing that I can conclude is they are trying as best as they can to follow the KISS principle.

I don't want to badmouth it too much. It's a great table for the price. But yeah, at a minimum it's missing ground cable and adjustable anti-skating.

Anyway, they claim that one of the RCA connector shells is the "ground". I forget which (left or right). I took a clamp and connected the outside of whichever connector it was to the largest piece of nearby metal that I could and it got rid of the hum. I didn't really have a good ground nearby.

There's actually a ground connection on the back of my receiver, so guess I'll trash one of my old roach clips, give the feathers to the cat, and clamp it on.

I'm not mad about more info on a response in the tech room. Thank you.

I have an older Orbit Plus, and I've never thought to roach clip the RCA to ground. That might quiet it down at higher volumes.

It's not that unusual for a turntable to not have a ground wire--none of the Rega stuff does.

Our house was built in 1922. It's largely been rewired, but there's still some old janky MC cable in the walls.

dontfeartheringo wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:19 pm

jason from volo wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:13 pm

dontfeartheringo wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:03 pm Finally splashed out for a new turntable to go with my vintage pioneer amp and I guess I should be using the MAG input with the UTurn Basic I got.

Sure seems kind of muddy and flat, right now, but since the receiver and speakers are old as hell, it could be anything I guess.

The UTurn does not come with a ground cable, which was a surprise. Anyone else had a similar experience?

Damn U-Turn table doesn't have a bunch of stuff it should have.

Had a bunch of back-and-forth with their customer service and the best thing that I can conclude is they are trying as best as they can to follow the KISS principle.

I don't want to badmouth it too much. It's a great table for the price. But yeah, at a minimum it's missing ground cable and adjustable anti-skating.

Anyway, they claim that one of the RCA connector shells is the "ground". I forget which (left or right). I took a clamp and connected the outside of whichever connector it was to the largest piece of nearby metal that I could and it got rid of the hum. I didn't really have a good ground nearby.

There's actually a ground connection on the back of my receiver, so guess I'll trash one of my old roach clips, give the feathers to the cat, and clamp it on.

If you need an image for a country song in the vein of Sunday Morning Coming Down, you could do a lot worse than this.

Ringo,

In answer to your original question: Use the magnetic phono input. The Ceramic phono input is (surprise) intended for ceramic phono cartridges which have a much higher output than a MM cartridge.

Your music sounding flat and dull is likely due to several things: the receiver is old and the capacitors are all dried out. old shit is old and caps do age. also, the old 70s sound was kind of rolled off in the highs, and older speakers may be contributing to that. Good tweeters were an emerging technology in the 70s, and I don't know what speakers you have, but it could be the tweeters. Finally, the crossovers in the speakers could be old and dried out, similar to the electronics in the receiver.

I'd also check that both speakers are in phase (+ to + etc) since phase cancellation makes sound suck hard.

matttkkkk wrote: Sun Jun 27, 2021 12:38 am I'd also check that both speakers are in phase (+ to + etc) since phase cancellation makes sound suck hard.

excellent point.

I should also mention, for all you hifi newbies out there - old 70s receivers may look cool but many of them sucked when they were new, and they are going to suck now even more without a lot of work restoring them. If you need a good cheap receiver with a phono input, you cannot go wrong with the Sony STR-DH190,

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_158STDH19 ... l?tp=47041

Plenty of power, phono input, bluetooth input, Headphone jack.
Less than $200.