Hi all, if you could humor a fledgling "audiophile" still learning... can anyone specify how a signal get from a turntable to the speakers? My understanding is that pure analog circuits are for many reasons not common. This means that the signal must first be converted by an ADC (analog to dig convertor). This signal then travels through the amp circuitry and eventually reaches a DAC which then outputs to the speaker. Is this decently accurate?
What a nightmare, please awake.
I know that amps all differ in there capabilities but the basic formula does not change. Analog signal to digital and then back to analog.
If you’re living in a digital world please try to understand the digital wasn’t there when your parents or grandparents enjoyed vinyl, reel to reel to cassettes. How about those amps? Ever heard about tube amps? :)
First digital device appeared on the market in 1982 and it was a CD player.
First class-T (or class D) digital amp invented in 1996, read here. Those class-d are the cheapest amps available today, mostly from China. This is only ONE specific kind of an amp which you can call a digital amp.
The rest of the amps (except for hybrid amps) are 100% analog, not digital.
When purchasing an amp for records... should i basically just purchase for that amps capabilities and nothing else from the input standpoint?
An amp for record is a phono preamp (aka phono stage) with RIAA correction. The rest of the Hi-Fi amps are for line level signal, so you can connect everything direct, except for the MIC.
Now we have many different amps on the market: tube amps, solid state amps, hybrid amps, chip amps aka class-t ...
If you want to enjoy vinyl stay analog (100%), signal picked up by the phono cartridge is analog signal, you don't have to convert it to digital at all. All you need is to reproduce 100% analog signal using a cartridge, tonearm, turntable, phono stage, amp, speakers. They are all analog devices.