Help needed for a complete newbie

[halfahead]

I've just bought a Pioneer PL-516. I have literally no idea what I'm doing. What else do I need to listen to my records. I will mostly be using headphones.
I'm a guitar player so I'm quite experienced with tube amps but have no idea what I'm doing with a turntable.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Regards.

[duficity]

you will need a cartridge on the end of the tonearm to play a record. You will need to plug the turntable into a phono preamp, a full preamp with phono capabilities, an integrated amp or receiver with phono. you will then need to plug your headphones into one of those.

The phono preamp is needed to boost the cartridge signal to a level the preamp can use, plus supply the RIAA equalization that almost all albums are recorded with. You can't just plug into the aux input on a receiver.

[megatrends]

You'll need something for the turntable to play through whether you use a stereo receiver with a PHONO input, the PHONO input is important. If you plan on using a receiver and it does not have a PHONO imput then opt for a separate pre-amp before running it to your stereo.

I'm also a guitar player ... the turntable will need to be grounded much like your guitar wiring is so it won't hum and buzz like a badly grounded guitar does. The "needle" stuff in the cartridge does the same thing a guitar pickup does by the way.

At least mine does, it has a ground wire I ground to the receiver ground made for it.

[halfahead]

Ok, so I can just buy a hi-fi with a phono input and that will be cool?

Sorry for being such a philistine.

[megatrends]

Ok, so I can just buy a hi-fi with a phono input and that will be cool?

Sorry for being such a philistine.

Yes if it has the "phono" setting on the selctor you should be good to go. I don;t know the tech aspects ( sure someone will explain it) but the Aux (Auxillary) input isn't the same as a turntable output as far as signal strength or whatever. Like I said I don't know the tech details of that other than it doesn't work well so don't do it lol.

First thing I would do is replace the stylus "just because" unless you have a microscope to physically look at its condition for wear. A worn stylus will ruin the grooves in a record and make them unlistenable from distortions in sound on the high end like vocals and guitar solos etc.

I don;t have a microscope but others here do and they do see the condition so if you are not sure just replace the stylus "needle". The stylus usually lasts around 1000 hours of use, that varies I suppose depending on the needle type but I replace mine around then "just because". They don't really cost too much in comparison to replacing ruined records.

[analogaudio]

You need a preamp, a power amp and two speakers. The preamp and power amp can be combined ibnto a single unit known as a reciever because it has a radio receiver built in as well. These are very simple to use and are not expensive, there is a Yamaha model that looks very promising, has the necessary phono input, includes remote volume control and tone controls, check out Yamaha RX397. The thing that makes the biggest difference to the sound quality is the speakers, the choice is so wide it is mind boggling. You want something 8 Ohm, two-way, that handles at least 25 Watts from the power amp/receiver.

Ted