A phono stage is a deceptively sophisticated piece of hardware. However, this basically need not concern you when choosing a phono preamp; all you want it to do is get the best possible sound from your vinyl. That is what the phono amp is designed to do, and you need to make sure that you choose the right model for your individual requirements. In order to get the result and the sound you wish for from your vinyl, a heap of experience of listening inevitably comes in very handy. You can try out different items to see what is best for your system.

As with most other specialist products, you can always consult the experts for the technical information if you are not already well versed in it. And as always a little background knowledge goes a long way. The reason that there is a need for phono preamps is because of the way that music media have changed since the time when almost all recorded music was played on vinyl. In those days the larger part of stereos were, obviously, designed entirely with LPs in mind. This means that they would feature a phono input, which on many modern stereo systems has been omitted. You could still play your vinyl through these systems, through the AUX input, or CD input, perhaps. The problem with this is that the levels will come out all wrong from your speakers. Why is this? Because vinyl recording levels have very particular features, and are different from those used for more contemporary types of recording.

In order for a mastered vinyl to work smoothly on a turntable, the mastered version needs all of its lowest frequency sounds – that is, all frequencies below 1KHz – to be attenuated. Otherwise, the needle can end up falling back into the previous groove, leading to the repetition of a small part of the record; the ‘broken record’ phenomenon. Also, higher frequencies are promoted in order to counteract noise from the surface of the disc.

As a result, vinyl levels are totally unsuitable to modern stereo inputs. That is where the phono preamp comes in. Unless your stereo has a phono input, you will need to get a phono amp. The phono stage operates as a translator: rectifying the low frequencies and cutting back the low frequencies back to their original levels, and sending the signal back to your stereo.

Please visit http://www.whestaudio.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.whestaudio.co.uk/

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