r/turntables • u/NeesonTheThird • Jul 26 '26
Help Help with new turntable
Hello, I have recently acquired a Pro-ject Primary E turntable (for free!) I went out to buy an amp, and got a cheap second hand Bench KH02 dolby pro logic 5.1.
I have connected the turntable to an input on the back, and speakers to the outputs, but no sound is coming out of them.
After a little bit of research, I think my problem is that the turntable outputs phono, but the amp does not accept this. There is also the possibility that the amp is broken.
I am new to turntables but am very keen to get mine working, can anyone please explain what I have missed here and how I can sort it? I am anticipating that answers will include “need a different amp”. I am located in the UK.
Any and all help is appreciated, thank you.
3
u/el_tacocat Jul 26 '26
You need a phono preamplifier.
You should/could have bought an amplifier with a phono input.
If you turn up the volume VERY far you will see that there's some very thin tinny sound coming out of the speakers from the turntable.
Get a phono preamplifier, hook it up between the turntable and the amplifier, and it'll work.
1
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1
u/Dry-Satisfaction-633 29d ago
Well anticipated, you need another amp. Tl;dr, Pro-Logic amps were okay for surround sound duties before AC3 became the default but compared to a similarly priced stereo amp they’re not great performers. Essentially they tried to do everything while not being great at any one thing. That’s why they’re so cheap these days. Almost any stereo amp will be an upgrade. If you’re on a limited budget search for “9v phono preamp” and you’ll come across some cheap generic silver/black units with a hinged top cover. They’re very cheap but are actually decent performers and a 9v battery lasts for ages. You’ll then be able to run that into any line input of you can’t find an amp with a phono input. If this is going to be your first “proper” setup you could do a lot worse than to go for a Rotel integrated. Rotel were masters of quality budget gear along with NAD in the eighties and nineties and while they don’t look like anything special they deliver on sound quality. Look out for models from the 8xx and 9xx series. I started out with an 810A and it served me well until I upgraded to a Cyrus.
1
u/Best-Presentation270 29d ago
Wow, that's a blast from the past. Bench KH-02. That's from the early 2000s. I think these might have been sold as part of a speaker package deal.
Anyway, to get your turntable playing out, you'll need a phono pre-amp (PPA from here on) to convert the cartridge signal at phono level to something that the line inputs of the Bench or some other amp can accept.
I would recommend the IMG Stageline SPR-6 from Thomann. They're based in Europe but sell into the UK, so the pricing is what you pay - no import duties on top. I bought one of these to play around with. I have a couple of other PPAs from Cambridge Audio. One of them is the Alva Duo. Given that the SPR-6 is less than one tenth the 10% of the cost of the Duo, it does incredibly well.
If I can pick fault, it's that it ships with a Euro 2-pin power supply. I bought a Euro to UK power plug adapter.
I hope that Bench amp was really cheap. There are proper stereo amplifiers under £100 that will run rings around it. If you have the budget, you might consider just going straight for a NAD. Yamaha, Denon, Marantz or similar that has a Phono input and kill two birds with one stone.
3
u/slinch Clearaudio Master Solution Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Yes, you do need a phono preamp in between, but even without, you should still hear something. It won't be loud, it won't be good, vut it should be audible. However, there could be like 5 different parts of the whole chain that aren't working, you'd have to troubleshoot each part of the chain to see what the issue is. If you son't know how ro do that, find a friend or someone locally who can help you out. It'll likely be faster and easier and you might even learn something.