Hello!

I am planning on buying a turntable + new audio setup for Christmas, yeah! Starting from zero.

There are a lot of tutorials and resources out there, but I would love a confirmation to see if I am understanding the full general audio workflow correctly, from the source to the speakers.

Analog would be:

  • Turntable > phono preamp (normalizing the low signal from the tt) > preamp (volume control and other fun stuff) > speakers amp (boosting the signal for the speakers) > speakers

Is that correct ?

And digital would be:

  • Digital source (e.g. PC) > DAC (digital to analog signal) > preamp > speakers amp > speakers

Correct ?

Any setup with less products than these stages means some of these stages are combined into one product, e.g. powered speakers are combining amp+speakers. Correct ?

I am a bit confused about “receivers” and what stages they are handling exactly. I guess it depends and some are combining more parts than others ? When does a product starts to be named “receiver” ? Also I understand some can handle HDMI for example, for multimedia uses.

Last question: starting from scratch, does it make sense to want to find one product per stage, for the fun of understanding all of that and having a cool setup ?

Thanks in advance for the enlightenment!

  • NotEvenWensleydale2@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    There are pros and cons to the approach where you have separate boxes performing one function each, as opposed to multiple function units such as integrated amps and receivers.

    Some people like to upgrade one piece at a time, either for cost reasons or to discern more clearly the effects of each upgrade. An obvious downside to the single purpose boxes approach is that you need a lot of cables and power outlets

  • MellowTones@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    A “receiver” is an integrated amp (so pre-amp plus power-amp, which you seem to be thinking of as “speakers amp”, all in the one box) that includes a radio tuner (i.e. it receives radio signals). Not sure there’s much use for them any more, given you can get radio channels in apps/programs on a mobile, tablet, PC etc and feed them in via a DAC. Thinking of which, some active/powered speakers include the DAC stage too, while some don’t…

  • Flatted7th@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    As an old-school two-channel person to me a receiver is an integrated amplifier with a stereo tuner (i.e., AM/FM radio).

    If I were starting from scratch, I’d get sources to match my media–turntable, CD transport, steamer, etc.–an integrated amp with appropriate inputs, and a very nice pair of speakers.

  • crn3371@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    We can easily answer your general questions, but if it turns into actual equipment recommendations then you really need to give us a budget.