Looking for advice into playing vinyl over Sonos

mark66 · 8 Dec 2019 at 19:03

Please bare with me on this one as I have a really vague understanding of HI-FI and what is possible!!

I currently have two Sonos 1 speakers and have been given an Harman Cardon amp, B&W speakers and a turntable. Due to space restrictions I would prefer to do away with the amp and large speakers and find a way of having just a turntable and the Sonos speakers - is this feasible?

I know the Sonos Connect is available for £300 and from what I understand it allows one to play hifi over Sonos. Do others here have a similar setup? Are there any cheaper alternatives?

The turntable isn't great and I would prefer to spend my money on a new turntable and I understand that some come with pre-amps built in - would this help?

Thoughts and suggestions most appreciated!

CapitalOne · 8 Dec 2019 at 22:33

Hi

Not sure this answers your question, but this is how I do this:

Turntable -> pre amp
Pre amp with phono to 3.5mm headphone jack into Sonos 5

Not very elegant but works a treat, and obv. turntable can be played through all the other sonos speakers.

So, cheap 2nd hand gen 1 play 5?

lucid · 9 Dec 2019 at 02:07

Whether the turntable has a built-in pre-amp or you use an external box for this doesn't really matter. You still need a Sonos device with a Line Input feature, and that means a Connect or a Play 5 (Gen 1 or Gen 2) or a Port or a Sonos Amp or Connect Amp. Since you're trying to save space then it seems pointless to buy anything other than a speaker product, so a Play 5 is your answer as @CapitalOne suggests. Where budget is limited then a used Play 5 would do.

The quality of the turntable can't be that bad if it has been playing through an amplifier and B&W speakers, can it?

Turntables with the pre-amp built in are made because it's easy and it gives the manufacturer a bit better control of the output quality and sharing a cabinet and power supply saves money. In the case of companies such as Project, their built-in amps are just as good as their £70 external boxes. For a company such as Audio Technica with their <£100 TTs then I wouldn't expect them to be as good, but still better than the £30 BTech BT26 pre-amp. That's a device that's fine for hobby DJs, but IMO it's not for Hi-Fi use.

RoyMi6 · 9 Dec 2019 at 07:34

Another recommendation for turntable->preamp->Sonos 5.

Suggested this setup to a friend and he loves it.

hornetstinger · 9 Dec 2019 at 14:40

Pretty sure Sonos has one analogue input? If so record deck to phono stage then that into sonos

jpaul · 9 Dec 2019 at 15:38

Another contender is the Yamaha MusicCast WXC-50 , it's not a speaker product, and consequently cheaper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovrS88tddmo.
to me it depends which product can preserve the warmth/attractive sound of vinyl , otherwise, you may as well listen to a streaming service. ?
Personally have not tried comparing some of the newer HD>96Khz streaming services against turntable/rega3

If you need a pre-amp, the combined a2d/pre-amp rega fono, looks interesting, I've ripped some vinyl with an echo usb dac, but haven't invested in a NAS to enable me to store many.

mark66 · 9 Dec 2019 at 22:47

Hi all,

Many thanks for all the replies - really helpful. The Sonos 5 solution sounds perfect, I get the benefit of adding to my existing pair of Sonos 1s and I could have a neat setup at a relatively low cost (~£225) for a 2nd hand Sonos 5.

Whilst the amp and speakers are of I am sure very good quality, they are just too big for the space we have in mind. The turntable I was initially given was some cheapo ION (?) USB one which had been purchased simply to copy vinyl to MP3, but it really isn't great at all.

There many be a chance that I can have the turntable which was initially paired with the Harman amp, which is a Denon DP-51F. A google suggests its probably 35 years old, but it has a great retro look and I assume would have been quite high end in its time - it certainly feels very solid and well built. The question is, if I could keep this, would this be better than a modern £150 turntable, something like an Audio Technica LP3?

Cheers

Mark

lucid · 10 Dec 2019 at 02:59

"Is the DP-51F better than an AT-LP3?" Yes. Massively. But don't get excited just yet.

The Denon is a direct drive (DD) turntable. This means that the platter is connected directly to the high torque motor. There are no belts and pulleys. It's an elegant and simple design, but one that required some very precise engineering to ensure that no motor noise made it through the platter to the cartridge pickup. Also, the motor's speed controller circuits had to work to very fine tolerances.

Fine turntables deserve fine cartridges. For best effect, the DP-51 would have been mated with one of Denon's own moving coil cartridges back in the 80s, probably the Denon DL110 I'm guessing. This is a high-output moving coil cartridge which sells for under £200. The stylus (needle) would last around 500 hours before the whole item needs to be replaced. The Denon DL60 was a far more basic Moving Magnet type and very much a get-you-going type of a deal.

Given the age of the turntable, and the possible condition of the cartridge, I would treat this a bit like a good classic car barn-find. You know it's a nice bit of kit, but before it's safe to turn the key it'll need some TLC and a bunch of money spending on it. In the case of the turntable itself it will need a basic service, probably some recapping of the circuitry, then equipping with a new cartridge before the final calibrations to get the settings and speeds all running right.

For a cartridge, you're not going to spend £200 on a moving coil. It would be OTT for listening through a Play 5. At the same time, a £30-£40 cartridge just won't cut it. You can get something decent without going mad for around £100. The Ortofon 2M Red or Nagaoka MP100 would be good starting points. These are Moving Magnet cartridges. They put out a bit more power and have the advantage that the stylus is replaceable. The service work I'd estimate at around £150, but you really need to find someone who specialises in this type of turntable to get a better idea on price.

jpaul · 11 Dec 2019 at 08:25

another option - I hadn't realised you can stream into the Sonos infrastructure, and it's not locked down,
so in the spirit of vinyl, where, manual intervention is needed, re-purposing an old laptop, to do that with, plus a Rega Fono usb a2d, or similar.

hornetstinger · 11 Dec 2019 at 12:18

This really cheap and nasty record decks destroy records

Ian Cashmore · 15 Dec 2021 at 22:38

mark66 said:
Please bare with me on this one as I have a really vague understanding of HI-FI and what is possible!!

I currently have two Sonos 1 speakers and have been given an Harman Cardon amp, B&W speakers and a turntable. Due to space restrictions I would prefer to do away with the amp and large speakers and find a way of having just a turntable and the Sonos speakers - is this feasible?

I know the Sonos Connect is available for £300 and from what I understand it allows one to play hifi over Sonos. Do others here have a similar setup? Are there any cheaper alternatives?

The turntable isn't great and I would prefer to spend my money on a new turntable and I understand that some come with pre-amps built in - would this help?

Thoughts and suggestions most appreciated!

Ian Cashmore · 15 Dec 2021 at 22:43

Hope this helps, if you have a playbar connected to TV with an optical cable the following works
Buy an analogue to digital optical converter (£13) run optical cable to playbar and buy optical switch box (£16) to switch between tv and turntable. Works great if you can put turntable within 5m of playbar.
If anyone wants pictures and links to bits required get in touch