Practical tips and tools for the phono preamplifier.
When CD technology took hold of the music recording industry, it eventually replaced all production of vinyl records, to the regret of many collectors and enthusiasts. Today, it has become easy for just about anyone to create his own CDs using a computer and a CD burner. This is the time when the idea of eternalizing (or at least conserving them for the �half-life period� of a CD blank ...) your old vinyl treasures has become most interesting. Even the restoration software available on the market today has become more affordable and easier to use. How, however, do you get the phono recordings into the computer? First of all, turntables do not provide a signal that is directly usable with audio cards (and other line devices). Second, many of today's commercial hi-fi amplifiers do not even come integrated with the special phono-input preamplifier required for use with turntables. Of course, you can always set up your (turntable-compatible) hi-fi amplifier directly next to your PC - that is, if you don't mind having to move all your nicely connected equipment all the time. That is precisely why TerraTec came up with the concept of the phono PreAmp in the PHASE 26 USB system. The phonoPreAmp amplifies the output signal of the turntable and turns it into a high-quality, usable signal for the A/D audio converter. For those interested in the details of the good old phonograph technology, the following is for you. How was that again? The audio signal is stored on a record as a pattern in the record's groove. This pattern is picked up mechanically by the turntable's stylus, which converts the �audio data� pressed into the vinyl into a weak electrical signal. There are two different pickup systems: Moving Coil (MC) and Moving Magnet (MM or MD for magnetodynamic). In MM systems a permanent magnet is moved; in MC systems the coil follows the movement of the record's groove. The advantage of MC systems is their lower moving mass, but they have the disadvantage of an output signal which is lower than that of MM systems by a factor of 10, making it more difficult to achieve a good S/N ratio. Both MM and MC systems are capable of outstanding musical reproduction, but in practice the first system is the more common one. RIAA filtering. Perhaps you've accidentally connected your turntable to the wrong input of your hi-fi amplifier at one time or another. You probably noticed that the signal was not only very quiet, but also distorted. The reason: as the deflection of the needle is limited to specific range, high frequencies (= low amplitude) are amplified and low frequencies (= high amplitude) are weakened on
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