SL-B3

[NoProblem]

Hello forum members. Just picked up a SL-B3 for $10. It it fully functional and has a Stanton 680 EE on it. I hooked it up and I have to turn my amp to 11 just to get any sort of listening level.

Any ideas on why the output is so low?

[Alec124c41]

I'm guessing that you have a newer amp, with no phono pre-amp in it. You need a phono pre-amp to raise the tiny signal from the cartridge to line level, and to rebalance the tonal spectrum, which has been modified to get all the music into the groove in a readable form.

Cheers,
Alec

[Hepokatti]

Did you plug the turntable in your amplifier's PHONO input? If you don't have a PHONO input in your amplifier, you need a separate PHONO stage/RIAA, for example; http://www.project-audio.com/main.php?p ... es&lang=en

Turntables require PHONO amp to produce normal level sound. I don't have any recommendations as such, as PHONO stages are the better the more you pay. That Pro-ject works and is "okay", pretty much the minimum standard. If you have more buck to spend, then I'd go for Lehmann Black Cube or something.. but this is highly subjective and cartridge dependant issue. Hi-fi dealers will often let you to test these with your own system.

EDIT: Alec was fast

[NoProblem]

Ah-ha. Ya, no phono input. Maybe its time to have the Marantz 2220B fixed. Then I can plug in my. Cerwin Vega 15TRs and be rockin the full old school setup.

Hmm, not sure what what's wrong with the Marantz. I'll have to plug it in and see what or, more to the point, what its not doing. I know I'm missing a fuse cap from one of the CVs.

Thanks for speedy responses. Hopefully I can bring something useful to this forum.

Is there anything you guys can tell me about this Technics? I know its not the best turntable in the world but, for $10, I finally have some sort of turntable. It works perfect. The guy actually had it set up in his house. He did the shutters in my house a couple years ago and we recognized each other right away. He just happened to be having a garage sale on the one day I decide to go with the wife to a few garage sales. I half jokingly asked if he had any turntables for sale and said, "Well, actually ya. My wife just bought my one of those all in one cd/cassette/turntable/radio things and she would love it if I got rid of this old one." I fired it up, it worked perfect, I asked how much, sold. Across the street at another garage sale, I found a bunch of old albums for $ .25 a piece and bought ten of em. Just gotta get that Marantz fired up I guess.

[Hepokatti]

Is there anything you guys can tell me about this Technics? I know its not the best turntable in the world but, for $10, I finally have some sort of turntable. It works perfect. The guy actually had it set up in his house. He did the shutters in my house a couple years ago and we recognized each other right away. He just happened to be having a garage sale on the one day I decide to go with the wife to a few garage sales. I half jokingly asked if he had any turntables for sale and said, "Well, actually ya. My wife just bought my one of those all in one cd/cassette/turntable/radio things and she would love it if I got rid of this old one." I fired it up, it worked perfect, I asked how much, sold. Across the street at another garage sale, I found a bunch of old albums for $ .25 a piece and bought ten of em. Just gotta get that Marantz fired up I guess.

Nice stuff, welcome to the wonderful world of vinyl Your turntable is very decent entry level table IMO and should beat even the cheaper modern "hifi" tables. If in working condition, for 10$ its a real bargain. If you get a good cartridge for it or already have one, you have to spend quite much money in the future to have a real improvement over your Technics.

SL-B3 is a belt driven unit, which means belt replacement at some point.. but if you have stable speed according to the strobe, by adjusting the speed knob, then no need to worry about it. Just a thing to keep in mind with belt drives; fewty dollar belt replacements are inevitable.

http://www.vinylengine.com/library/technics/sl-b3.shtml for more info.