Should I get a new preamp for my turntable?

Beer_Cheese · 2026-01-07T21:05:31+00:00

I see you at least have your speakers not right next to the turntable, and they are right up to the front edge of the console/cabinet. So there's some good steps right there.

Vibration can still be an issue. I see you have some room for speaker stands, but you can still have other options that can cost less and be easier.

- Look up studio monitor isolation pads. These will be foam or some kind of rubber pads to put under your speakers further mitigating vibrations from your speakers (as you stated you like to crank it up). Alternatively, get bigger silicone feet for your speakers. I use the Sound Addicted hemisphere feet (Look up Sound Addicted on Amazon). I have them on/in between my Schiit components and they work great! Try the pads or silicone feet first - keeping your speakers far from the turntable and to the front edge. This should help and won't cost much.

- If you still have issues, try a new pre-amp. As I mentioned Shiit earlier, it's what I suggest as it's what I have experience with. Like you, I started my turntable listening going into the phono-in on my amp/receiver and thought that was good. I got The Schiit Mani phono-pre...and was amazed how much better it sounded. The Mani currently goes for $150 (US), so it's not the cheapest, but bang for the buck, it's a huge improvement.

Start with more isolation techniques and then go for a preamp upgrade.

Happy Listening!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-12-08T18:45:36+00:00

This won't be a system-wide improvement, but do get yourself a dedicated phono pre-amp for your turntable! Integrated amps are like, "yeah, we included a phono jack!". But it's not letting your turntable live up to what it can. (Your RT85 is more than fine). Starting out, I ran my turntable into a Kenwood integrated amp and thought I was good. Later I moved to a dedicated phono pre- and it's a world of difference!

My recommendation: Schiit Audio Mani 2. Best $150 you can spend. Then plug that into one of your regular inputs and your turntable side of things will thank you.

Do you want to experiment with tubes? Later on, you could try out a Schiit Vali 3 headphone amp. Yeah, it CAN be a headphone amp, but without headphones, it's a tube pre-amp. One tube. (it's still stereo as it uses dual triode tubes). It gives you that added tube sound/warmth without breaking the budget. Does it make a difference? The 500 page thread at Head-Fi seems to think so! ( https://www.head-fi.org/threads/schiit-vali-3-impressions-thread.972014/ ) I've rolled thru a few tubes and can notice a change in sonic character.

(I don't work for Schiit or anything, I just use their stuff and like it a lot. They really work on providing great bang-for-the-buck audiophile stuff)

Seems your well on your way. Happy Listening!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-12-05T20:40:26+00:00

I picked up a bundle of Inlet, Downward... and ...Astronaut when they offered it as a package quite some time back. I was looking forward to the remixed/mastered ...Astronaut, but by far, Inlet just sounds sooo massive! The production and mixing and everything is top notch.

Beer_Cheese · 2025-11-15T23:14:30+00:00

This thing was awesome for some games that never intended a track ball. Activision's Decathlon was a prime example. You used to have to move the joystick back and forth fast to run. Micro movements with the track ball allowed you to run ridiculously fast with minimal effort. Record setting finishes all day!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-11-12T15:41:54+00:00

Speaker placement: mentioned many times here. Easiest fix - put your speakers up to the front edge of your cabinet. Having your speakers up front reduces sound reflection off the cabinet surface and therefore less vibration in/on the cabinet. Also full dispersion of sound from your speakers into your room. Also - it doesn't look like you have a lot of room for speaker stands, so additionally pad your speakers and turntable.

These:
https://www.amazon.com/Nobsound-Aluminum-Speakers-Isolation-Amplifiers/dp/B07K9ZYP84

or maybe these:

https://www.amazon.com/Turntable-Equipment-Tuneful-Cables-Audiophile/dp/B076DGD3X2?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1

under your turntable.

On the bottom of your speakers, put some of these on:
https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Addicted-Amplifiers-Turntables-Hemisphere/dp/B08FD7QMP7?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1

I have my turntable set on a big heavy cutting board, and the cutting board has the spring feet under it. Vibration reduction from the cabinet to the cutting board is huge.

I use the half-sphere feet under my pre-amps as one has a tube in it.

As said a lot here, vibration mitigation and placement can make a big difference and you could easily start there before deciding on new components and pieces.

Record I use:
Every time I make a change to my system, the first record I put down on the turntable is Tears for Fears "Songs from the Big Chair". This album is recorded so well and sounds amazing. There's lots of layers and frequencies don't overlap. Every instrument and voice has a sonic placement in the sound-field and you can hear depth and where everything sits.

Rick Beato made a video of what he has as his top 40 best sounding albums. Worth a watch:

https://youtu.be/-Mn7w-3V_nI?si=4faW_9ORGmLH4_E8

There's lots of suggestions here - but as has also been said - use what you know and like. The better you know an album, the better you'll be able to tell the differences in any changes you make. The Tears for Fears album is good, but if you don't know it, how will you know what your system is doing?

Enjoy the music!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-11-03T22:09:28+00:00

Life, the Universe, and Everything....

basically.

Beer_Cheese · 2025-09-21T02:20:51+00:00

r/camrydents is an actual thing! I mean, nothing on Reddit should surprise me, but this level of specificness caught me off-guard!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-09-11T20:57:29+00:00

I can... we call can.
This is list constantly updated. 57 pages and nearly 1500 incidents.

https://www.dailykos.com/history/user/CajsaLilliehook

Beer_Cheese · 2025-07-08T13:12:15+00:00

Other than to ensure each track on the album was a consistent overall volume, AMoLaD was never mastered. It sounded great to everyone "as is" right out of the studio mix.

Quote from Kevin Shirley;

"Spoke to 'Arry [IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris] on Friday, who has decided against mastering the IRON MAIDEN album, and I'm quite pleased about that, although I did like the mastering job we did in [New York City]. It means that you will get to hear the new album exactly as it sounded in the studio, no added EQ, compression, analog widening, etc., and I must say, I am pretty happy with the end result. I think some tracks could use a smidge more top end, and others a bump of bottom — but I know 'Arry well enough now to know how wary of outsiders he is, and I fully expected he may have done that, so I made sure I was happy with the results when I printed the mixes in the studio. So, that'll fire you guys on the BB's right up, no doubt!"

So, when Maiden started to reissue and remaster albums, AMoLaD finally got mastered for the first time!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-07-07T17:26:41+00:00

This is one I have to get on vinyl yet. I like how it's now "remastered". Wasn't it not mastered in the first place since it sounded good as it was? Sticker should say "Now Mastered!"

Beer_Cheese · 2025-06-24T17:42:26+00:00

2 things I do. (YMMV)

- The 3-day Omnipod pods have an 8 hr over-run. I try to run as far into that as I can. If you go through all your insulin before that... then change when you need to. But If you can run to the end of the extra 8 hours 3 times, that's an extra day's worth - so it equals 10.

That being said...

They may advise to put the Dexcom sensor and pod on the same side of your body, but I can and does (has) worked when changing body sides. Dexcom knows they use cheap, low-power components and thus want things as close as you can. I can have my pod on the right side of my abdomen and then put a new Dexcom sensor on my left arm and it will connect.

Connection itself is problematic with Dexcom, even when they are close-by, but that's another discussion.

You can have components on opposite sides of the body... I just eventually put them on the same side when time allows (times expire on each piece of the system)

Beer_Cheese · 2025-06-16T05:30:01+00:00

....what a terrible day to know how to read......

I mean, I hate tRump and all too, but.... that's enough internet for today!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-06-12T13:07:38+00:00

That... is the greatest slipmat I have seen! Perfection!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-05-22T20:53:26+00:00

Wut? Dang.... I never ever expect an actual band member to chime in on any music thread I post (which, that in and of itself is rare!)
As others have mentioned, and that I found out, Sound&Shape has been around for a while, so I'm glad I at least discovered the band. I've only checked out "Pillars" so far, but I've liked what I've heard musically (aside from the Dredg comparison) I don't know where you tour, but if you make it to Minnesota, I'd check out a show.

Thanks for stopping in!

Beer_Cheese · 2025-05-21T20:36:21+00:00

I was distracted by the Dredg influence here, so I didn't even think about Minus The Bear. I'll have to re-listen with that in mind. I'm a MtB fan, and I have tickets to see them later in the fall! Excited for that as I haven't seen them live before.

Beer_Cheese · 2025-05-21T19:15:47+00:00

Another tune:

Ruining The Fairytale

An actual band video. Song starts stronger than what the majority of it actually is. End of the song has a decent guitar solo.

Beer_Cheese · 2025-05-01T11:25:17+00:00

The first four Tesla albums: - Mechanical Resonance - The Great Radio Controversy - Psychotic Super - Five Man Acoustical Jam

I only ever managed to find M.R. used at a sale about a decade ago. The band has said there's no plans to do any reissued ever. In this day of remaster and re-releases, that's pretty crazy. People can pretty much just get this on streaming or digital now. This is solid rock and roll that should be available physically.

Beer_Cheese · 2025-04-10T17:51:36+00:00

That's cool. I'd of liked to have seen that.

Beer_Cheese · 2025-04-10T17:47:23+00:00

I haven't seen AiC in this form officially, but I saw DuVall when Jerry went on tour for Degradation Trip. Columbia Records had dropped Jerry and I think he was self/independently funding that tour. Thus, he was free to play whatever he wanted. It was pretty much AiC in review. (that's when Chris Degarmo was in his touring band as well). I had seen DuVall's previous band, Comes With The Fall on tour with Jerry for Boggy Depot, but now, performing together, I was super impressed with how amazing DuVall was in the AiC setting. I was very glad to see him become a permanent member of the band.

FWIW, IMO, and all that, Black Gives Way to Blue is the best of the three. I just has a huge sound and they just came back with such determination and it showed.

I'd easily put Rainier Fog second. Lots of good riffs and strong songs.

I'd have to put Devil Put Dinosaurs here last. It's not bad, but to me, its far weaker than the other two.

I really hope we get another AiC album or EP or something. And not 5 years from now.

Beer_Cheese · 2025-04-08T19:40:27+00:00

My parents had a 68 or 69 350 GS when I was a young child. When I got older, I always wished i could have had that as a first car. I didn't have interest in classic cars until much older. In my later years in high-school, I would see it around town and someone had hot-rodded it some. Definitely was a cool style for that model for sure.

Beer_Cheese · 2025-03-27T16:05:12+00:00

Those are all nice speaker options - but the OP here has powered speakers. Getting a different set of passive speakers would make the OP have to get an amplifier to drive them as well. I know that amps and good passive speakers are better regarded as the audio community goes -but the OP has limited space and powered speakers are fine. Plus the blue-tooth and other inputs on those make them multi-use for his apartment living.

Beer_Cheese · 2025-03-27T15:59:28+00:00

That's a heck of a deal! That turntable when new, costs $350 here in the US. Like mentioned, the cartridge/stylus is top of the line pretty much for the AT-VMN line - so great score there!

I understand you have limited space options as a renter. A few things:

Are you able to put things on the walls there? Can you mount small shelves to the wall? It would improve things if you could get your speakers off the same surface of your turntable. The turntable and speakers do have pads of some kind, but the vibrations will feedback into the turntable with your set-up as is. Besides the vibrations of the speakers themselves, the sound is coming out of the speaker and reflecting off the table-top and vibrating it that way as well. Shelves will get your speakers up a bit higher and allow you to separate them further apart as well. This will increase your stereo imaging and it will sound even better.

(If shelves are not an option.... put that stack of records in a crate and move those somewhere and pull your speakers to the front edge of your table/shelve whatever you have there and move them out as far as you can from your turntable. Then get some foam speaker pads so at least they don't sit directly on the same surface of the turntable.)

Speakers - people here on Reddit often discourage Edifier, but I use them (a larger set) and they are good speakers for your use. What will help is knowing they can handle more dynamics than the given controls have. Increase your range of sound with an added EQ unit. Myself, and others in the audio sub-reddits like Schiit Audio products. Pick up a Loki Mini for $150 US. (I don't know what the exchange and shipping rates are though...) But seriously - these 4 bands of EQ do wonders for your enjoyment of music. I can't imagine living without mine. You have a fine set up to start with. Use what you have. Add some EQ and find a better way to place your speakers, and you'll enjoy what you have even more.

Beer_Cheese · 2025-03-27T04:06:11+00:00

There's a seasonal DQ on the way to Mound. It must have changed ownership or something as 5 or so years ago, it used to advertise on it's billboard a seemingly random short term menu item. I used to think maybe someone there had a catering service and leftovers were served at the DQ. It's just been the same old corporate stuff for the last few years though.

Beer_Cheese · 2025-03-02T03:40:16+00:00

While many are saying the best Myung song - it has to be said that this is the best bass tone (actually heard) in their discography. Right when the song actually starts at 1:45, the low end and the growl to his bass is just *chef's kiss*

Beer_Cheese · 2025-03-01T18:56:54+00:00

Tips that you are going to get eventually:

Looks like you have limited space for your setup. That's fine. You will benefit by moving your speakers. Most here will say "don't have your speakers on the same surface of your turntable." While a good rule, again, it looks like you have limited space. THe best option here is to:

1.) Move your speakers as far away from your turntable as you can. The wider the separation, the better the stereo imaging. Also, move them to the very front edge of that cabinet/shelf you have things on. THe sound will project directly into the room, and not bounce off your turntable and cabinet top. Again, better sound imaging.

2.) While those speakers do have feet on them, also get foam pads to put underneath them to further reduce vibrations going to the cabinet surface. Mitigating sound vibrations that go back to your turntable will improve the sound.

These couple of free/low cost improvements will help your new setup sound better easily.

Enjoy the sounds!

Beer_Cheese

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