jshep Posted September 26, 2002 Share Posted September 26, 2002 I am confused about the whole turntable pre-amp thing. My brother has given me a gemini turntable with a mm cartridge. I have heard that a pre-phono amp is needed to make the turntable work with the 3802. Is this only if it has the mc cartridge? The manual does not mention anything about a phono pre-amp. It does mention not to use a mc cartridge. Can anyone clarify this for me? Thank you. Klipsch RF3II Denon 3802 Denon POA-2800 Surrounds Center, surrounds and Sub will be next!! ---------------- Old Onkyo Klipsch SB-1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougdrake Posted September 26, 2002 Share Posted September 26, 2002 See page 6 of your owner's manual. There is a diagram of the connections, and a text box with info about this connection. Since you have a magnetic cartridge, you can connect it directly to the Denon without a separate pre-amp. That is only needed for a ceramic cartridge (MC). Happy listening! DD ------------------ My System Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Lindsey Posted September 27, 2002 Share Posted September 27, 2002 You can use it but I don't think you will be happy with the phono on the Denon 3802. I know I was not with my Denon 4800. I ended up buying a tube phono stage (AES PH-1) used oof of Audiogon and it made a huge difference over the phono in the Denon. If you do this, you would plug the external phono stage into one of your line inputs on the Denon (I used AUX). I think you will find this to be a much better alternative, but it will set you back a couple of hundred which is well worth it imho... Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jshep Posted September 28, 2002 Author Share Posted September 28, 2002 I'll be trying it out today. If it sounds terrible I'll try the phono amp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hwatkins Posted September 29, 2002 Share Posted September 29, 2002 An FYI - I found that this is a great time to get an older amp/tuner/reciever that has a Phono input to use as a pre for the Denon 3802. Folks use to know how to handle turntables and you can use the record out (or similar output) to feed analog input on the Denon. Sound wise? Mine worked very well and there was not a noticable (to my ear) sound quality difference. This is with a Beogram 1700 TT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jshep Posted September 30, 2002 Author Share Posted September 30, 2002 I have learned alot about turtables, difference cartridges, and difference output levels of different turntables in the last couple of days. Heres what I found. The better turntables require the inline phono amplifier b/c of the low voltage levels. If a turntable with the low voltage output is plugged into the denon, it will sound terrible......weak. Based on this, I purchased a cheaper turntable b/c of my budget.....and it sounds great. No phono amp needed. I made my purchasing decision based on budget. Go with cheaper turntable that will work with denon, or go with more expensive that will require a external phono amp. Thanks for all the input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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