Receivers are packed with ports, and the main reason I picked mine up was to listen to music. However, it’s probably not in the way you’d expect. At the time, I was interested in Apple Music getting Dolby Atmos, and that meant I needed a receiver and a set of speakers that would really let me experience Atmos mixes with music. I have since ditched Apple Music, mainly because I didn’t want to pay for yet another subscription, but it doesn’t mean that I’ve left music behind completely.
Like many people, I’ve gotten into vinyl records as of late. I picked up a turntable, and while I could use a Bluetooth speaker, I decided to hook it up to my receiver. Since my receiver is filled with ports, it wasn’t abundantly clear to me at first how to do this, and that’s what eventually led me to the Phono port. This port is key for record players, and if you have one, you must get it plugged into this port.
The Phono port is your player’s best friend
Enjoy your upgraded sound
The Phono input on your receiver is used to connect your record player to a set of speakers, and it’s an interesting process. If you listen to a record when it’s not connected to anything, you can hear some faint noise coming from the needle itself moving along the vinyl surface. Obviously, that’s not nearly enough to enjoy the music, so that’s why you need to connect the player to a receiver. The receiver, through the Phono port, amplifies the sound and turns it into something you can actually listen to.
Phono ports are generally just for turntables, and if you plug something else into the port, such as a CD player, it’s not going to be anything you’d want to listen to. You might also notice a bit of static if you’re listening closely, and that’s something the Phono input helps eliminate. In most cases, you’ll have a grounding screw next to the port that’s dedicated to this job.
A Bluetooth speaker gets rid of these same things, but it compresses it in a way that cuts out a lot of what made vinyl so loved in the first place. Many people love the imperfections of the format, and the Phono port takes that uncompressed signal and sends it to the speakers. I suppose it comes down to personal preference, but I like using the Phono port instead of Bluetooth. Of course, it helps that I have a receiver that would otherwise have nothing plugged into its Phono port, so I might as well get some use out of it.
Make sure you change the switch on your turntable
You should have a setting
My turntable has a toggle on the back that I have to hit to flip it over to Phono. This is important to do because your audio won’t sound right if you don’t do this. Similarly, you have to make sure your record player matches the RPM of your record, so keep an eye out for that too if this is your first foray into the world of vinyl.
I certainly had to go through a learning curve when I first started picking up records. My number one piece of advice is to skip over those suitcase record players and go for something a lot more stable. Those suitcase record players are super appealing, but many records are far too big for them, and it means they’ll be wobbling around while you’re playing music. That might not be a problem in the short term, but you’re bound to damage your record or skip ahead on a track eventually, so it’s not worth the trouble. If you like listening to records, you’ll probably upgrade sooner rather than later, so I’d rather save my $50 and save up for a little bit longer.
Records have sort of become a collector’s item of sorts, and that means they aren’t cheap. It’s not surprising to see a new release cost $40 at launch, so you’d better take good care of it by using a quality player to go along with it. The last thing I would want is a scratched record, so minimize those problems where you can.
