A newbee to audiokarma, here.

Can anyone recommend a decent phono preamp for a home studio setup?

I should mention that I'm not looking for an all-in-one tuner/amp/etc. model--just a good phono amp with RCA or 1/4" outs. The purpose is to patch the phono into my home recording studio setup and convert some of my more vintage and damaged vinyl to digital, clean out some of the noise, etc. I need something decent to bring the signal up to line level as cleanly as possible before it hits the mixer and the A/D converter. FWIW, the phono is a Technics SL-B200 (I've had this little guy forever).

Welcome to AK composergal!!

Do a forum search on this subject (phono preamp) and you will find this has been ask and answered several times before.

Welcome to AK, glad you are here.

There are a lot of 'pre-owned' options in the ~$100 range, from many manufacturers. Creek, Rotel, NAD, Parasound, to name a few. If you bump up, to about $200, the choices multiply, including some tube-powered phono stages, among them, the Bellari and ASL. The easiest thing to do, if this is a temporary change, is to get your hands on a low-powered receiver, Marantz/Yamaha/name your favourite brand, and use the phono stage in that, via the 'Tape Out', to your board. If you have nothing lying about, maybe a cousin could lend you a piece that would be suitable.

Or you could check the AK classifieds.

Help my cousin out guys if you can :D

I used to have an NAD preamp lying around, but I forgot who ended up with it. Anyone have one to spare?

Best bang for the buck (though you've got to build it) must be the Hagerman Bugle. The full kit is $159.

http://www.hagtech.com/bugle.html

Review of "cheap" phono preamps (lauding the aforementioned Bugle):
http://www.audioxpress.com/reviews/media/403hansen2090.pdf

The other moderately priced phono pre (assembled) that's getting some good buzz (so to speak) is the new Bellari with a single 12AX7. It's up to $250 now, though.
http://www.audioadvisor.com/store/mfglisting.asp?hdnMfg=Bellari&MFGID=290

I like and use the Bottlehead Seduction. It sounds great, but it's even a little bit more expensive, and it's a point to point wired, tube audio kit (a bit harder to build than the little Bugle, plus high voltage circuitry to think about).

The biggest factors in choosing one will be your budget and which cartridge your table is using. For example if your using a standard MM cartridge and looking at 100 bucks or under the NAD PP1 will do the job nicely.

By the way Welcome aboard :)

If you are handy, the Hagtech Bugle and if you're not the Bellari.

Assuming that 2nd hand is OK and you don't mind getting the phono as part of a preamp, integrated or receiver, you have a lot of choices.
Living in NY I would search "Craigslist New York" trying a few different keywords eg "phono" "amplifier" "preamp" "receiver" You may well find that its less costly to get a more comprehensive unit. You can often connect them to use the phono section to transfer something to the computer and simultaneously use the amp for something else. Once you have a few prospects, you can list them and ask for specific comments.

David

I think Audio Advisor had a demo Parasound unit for a reduced price. I like the Parasound unit because it's small and SS.

For someone more technical than me, are there issues regarding the impedence of the phono-pre outputs and the computer card's inputs? I would guess not, but dunno.

I used an old Integrated amp that had blown outputs to do mine...I just pluged the turntable into the turntable jacks on the amp.... and then came out from the tape 'REC' jacks on the amp..... to a cable that had 'RCA to 1/8"' ends ...... then plugged that into the 'line in' jack on the back of my computer. worked beautifully...

I guess you could do the same with a receiver that you might already own, That would save you a lot of money. unless its one of those newfangled 'all-in-one' units that don't have 'phono' on it. Then theres always the 'pawn shop' or 'thrift store' where you could get a small receiver on the cheap, that would do the trick.

I am just a poor soul that has to work with what I have laying around, so I find alternative ways of getting things done without spending money.

Welcome to Audiokarma!

Thanks for the advice, guys (and howdy, cousin! :).

Here's another question--am I being too picky?

We actually already have two combo units--one is the ancient Technics that I've run this phono with for years, the other is my husband's Onkyo. I'm not crazy about the sound from either (iffy mids and lows from the Technics, too much boom from the Onkyo). I'd rather not have to EQ the daylights out of every sound from the phono once it hits the board--that's too much "garbage in" for my tastes. But would I have to with a dedicated phono amp anyway?

I can't help but think that I could do better with a phono-only amp--but, then again, I'm coming from a music studio world where one quickly learns to be suspicious of just about any piece of gear outside of the mixer that is built to perform more than one function.

Would one of the machines I already have do about as well as a phono-only amp?

http://206.225.95.32/forums/showthread.php?t=39376

Here is a thread about some inexpensive ones, including a link to some reviews.

Kyle has a spare one of the Radio Shack ones. He offered to send it to me. Probably he'd still be willing to part with it.

I just picked up the Pyle. I am not an expert to go into details on its tonal qualities, but it has a very strong signal and with its case grounded to the turntable it is dead black silent in terms of hiss and hum.

If you can find a used Creek OBH-8 (Creek went to a new model a year or so ago), the 37 dB gain is closer to 'line' than most of the built-into-the-preamp versions produce. Nice, slightly on the warm side sound.

BTW, are you confident that your cartridge/stylus is OK?

Bob

Thanks for the advice, guys (and howdy, cousin! :).

Here's another question--am I being too picky?

We actually already have two combo units--one is the ancient Technics that I've run this phono with for years, the other is my husband's Onkyo. I'm not crazy about the sound from either (iffy mids and lows from the Technics, too much boom from the Onkyo). I'd rather not have to EQ the daylights out of every sound from the phono once it hits the board--that's too much "garbage in" for my tastes. But would I have to with a dedicated phono amp anyway?

I can't help but think that I could do better with a phono-only amp--but, then again, I'm coming from a music studio world where one quickly learns to be suspicious of just about any piece of gear outside of the mixer that is built to perform more than one function.

Would one of the machines I already have do about as well as a phono-only amp?Think your problem is likely that you simply don't have a particularly 'nice sounding' piece of gear. Getting a separate phono-stage will do nothing much to improve the sound as the amp is not that great. My suggestion is that you purchase a Yamaha CA-XXX or CA-XXXX (more Xs means more power) integrated amp. They have excellent phono stages and the overall sound is balanced and smooth. The smallest I would recommend is a CA-600 @ 35wpc and they go up to the 120wpc CA-2010. The two largest (CA-1010/2010) have a Class A selector switch. You can purchase one of these starting at under $100 and up to about $300 for the largest. A very nice series of integrated amps. A nice one to start with would be either the CA-610 II or CA-810. If you like them and want more power, you can then move up to the CA-1010 or -2010. Do a search on these amps in the 'Vintage Forum' and see what the owners think of them. You can always add a separate FM tuner if you listen to radio. Will be a huge step up from your current receivers.

Thanks for the advice, guys (and howdy, cousin! :).

Here's another question--am I being too picky?

We actually already have two combo units--one is the ancient Technics that I've run this phono with for years, the other is my husband's Onkyo. I'm not crazy about the sound from either (iffy mids and lows from the Technics, too much boom from the Onkyo). I'd rather not have to EQ the daylights out of every sound from the phono once it hits the board--that's too much "garbage in" for my tastes. But would I have to with a dedicated phono amp anyway?

I can't help but think that I could do better with a phono-only amp--but, then again, I'm coming from a music studio world where one quickly learns to be suspicious of just about any piece of gear outside of the mixer that is built to perform more than one function.

Would one of the machines I already have do about as well as a phono-only amp?

The very best phono sections are generally stand alone and are extremely expensive.

When you are trying to do things for relatively little money, it will generally be less expensive to pick up something that was mass produced in the days when phono was all important. It is not hard to get an amp or receiver from the 70's or 80's for under $150 that originally cost over $1000 in todays $ and includes a phono stage that will beat anything that you can buy under $250 or in a new assembled standalone phono stage. If you wait and are lucky, you may do it for $30 or less.

Here is a NAD 7240. Its one example of something that might work for you. Its not high end nor is it the cheapest but its a reasonable deal and is probably a fair bit better than what you have right now.
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/ele/136796500.html

Here is the brochure on it from the NAD web site
http://207.228.230.231/info/NAD_7240.pdf

I see that it has separate pre-outs so it probably has separate power in and if you want, you could use the phono stage to record to the computer while playing somthing else on the computer back through the power amp.

If you go for something like this, make sure to test everything before you buy. If it doesn't sound and work perfectly, either don't buy or get a big discount.

Problems on older equipment are often due to oxidised switch and control contacts that cause: static when you move a control, loss of signal, poor sound or subtle degredation of sound quality. If this is all that it is, and you are handy, you have a good chance of fixing it yourself with a can off Deoxit and some advice from this web site.

Regards

David

Here is another possibility for $30. I would ask about the advent speakers also!
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/ele/136839810.html

David