2. analog
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Clearaudio Concept TT subpar sound quality

Hi all,

happy to have joined this great community and I hope you guys can help me.

I have a Concept turntable with concept arm and MM Clearaudio standard cartridge. The basic setup. It is connected to a Pro-Ject Phono Box E BT preamp that goes into a streaming hub (via a 3.5mm aux) and from there to my Buchardt A500 speakers. Lots of things the purists will not like but I am not a hardcore purist, so that’s ok.

My problem: the music coming out from the turntable is way worse than the same music being streamed from Spotify. So much that I am currently listening music only via Spotify. The sound from the turntable lacks in clarity and it seems to “saturate” the speakers.

I have verified the track force of the cartridge which is between 2 and 2.2 (depending where on the platter).

I am thinking the problem could be resolved with a better cartridge and phono preamp but would like to know what you guys think.

Thanks!!

agforte
bubba12's avatar
bubba12
463 posts
 

Personally it took me ALOT more money for my turntable system to sound as good or better than my digital. You aren't going to hear this answer much because the analog only folks will tell you you're deaf.  I'm still not completely sure its worth the trouble. 

 

sandstone
358 posts
 

+1 virtually all  of the above.  You most probably want to feed your Buchard an analog signal via RCA connectors from a conventional phono preamp (imo just about any other phono preamp will be better)  and let any A-to-D conversions happen within the superior dedicated Buchard hub.

Also, the other inputs  to your  hub are probably all superior to that 3.5 mm that your Project box requires.

And if possible, take big-greg's suggestion to dial in the Clearaudio TT with a friend's analog-based components.  

 

jond's avatar
jond
5,992 posts
 

Converting your analog system to digital would seem to be the issue to me.

solypsa's avatar
solypsa
462 posts
 

Can you borrow a pair of analog ’active speakers’ and plug in the 3.5mm jack to try a setup sans the A/D / wireless aspects?

agforte OP
10 posts
 

It is a good suggestion. I can test with a single central active speaker I have but the quality of the speaker is not great so the problem may get “hidden” by the low quality of it. Not sure if I am explaining myself well. In any case I will test it. 

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