This unit was used to connect an old Sony turntable to a modern A/V receiver that does not have an internal phono preamp.It was fairly terrible back in 2015 when I received it.The gain is very low and the receiver must be turned to a high volume.The hum is very bad.I just hooked up a new Thorens turntable with an Ortofon cartridge and the experience is the same.Sound level is very low.Frequency response is very narrow.Hum is terrible even with the turntable grounded.I've ordered a Pro-Ject box as a replacement. It's $99 but, I'm hoping that a better unit from a respected turntable manufacturer will be better than this loser.

Amazon really needs to stop selling these preamps. After looking through the reviews, at least half (or more) of those who buy these get one that is either dead on arrival, only partially works, or dies after a month of use. I tried to be optimistic and give it a shot, but that was a mistake.Only one channel actually worked when I got. Left side was completely dead. I tried everything, isolated components, tried my setup with different devices-- but nothing. Sent it back, got a refund, and paid a little more for a ART DJ Pro phono preamp. The ART is extremely good for the price, has gain and frequency controls, and sounds great. If you can't afford the ART, maybe gamble with the cheap boss phono preamp instead (I haven't tried it, so I can't recommend). But I beg you not to be stupid like I was and assume that these things simply have lemons shipped out which are a small percentage of the ones that work. Even if this thing worked, it's extremely cheaply built and has absolutely no controls on it. Seriously, buy something better or at least different.And again: Amazon needs to rethink selling this thing. Probably the worst product I've ever bought on this website and I'm an extremely frequent Amazon buyer.

While this device does amplify the signals from my magnetic cartridge to drive my Pioneer home theater receiver there is still a residual "hum" in the audio.I have tried everything that i could think of to properly "ground" the cartridge, but, the "hum" is still present..So, i must give this device a "satisfactory but not perfect" rating.

"Why would you want one of these?"Yes, I still have a turntable. And vinyl. That said, most new receivers don't have an input for a turntable. And that sucks! In case you don't already know this, in order to play a turntable through a receiver that doesn't have a specific input, it will require a preamp. The turntable input on the old school receivers were built with amplification in the circuit, so this came as a surprise to those of us who just took it for granted that you could just plug your turntable into any available input on a new receiver. You can't. The signal level from a turntable is very, very low, so it must be amplified before being sent through your speakers to your waiting ears. Enter the preamp. The idea is simple. Route the cables from the turntable to the inputs of a preamp, then send the output of the preamp to an available channel on your receiver. Ta-da! Music to your ears."Cool. So, how does it work?"It works as simply as described. The big thing with preamps is sound quality. In most cases, you get what you pay for. If you are shopping for a budget preamp, you shouldn't expect it's going to sound like the band is playing for your birthday party in the living room. At the same time, I'm not sure how proportionate the quality and price rise. You could spend $100 more on a preamp, easily. Is there $100 worth of difference? I can't say. I'm sure the marketing teams want you to believe that. I have found that my turntable does not have the same volume as (for example) my CD player. If I turn the CD up to 50% it will be very loud. If I leave the volume set and turn on a record, it will be a comfortable level. Without doing any elaborate testing, I estimate the turntable is 10-15% quieter than the other components. For me, that's tolerable. I don't mind turning up a little louder to enjoy an album. But, I felt it's worth noting, and it does play into my overall star rating. There is a little bit of audible noise that comes from it, as well. Not enough to alter the listening experience of the record, but it is (barely) audible between tracks when it's silent. All things considered, I am pleased with the quality of this preamp. At the price, I consider it a bargain."Yeah, but what if it breaks?"They'll send you a new one. But, not like most places that want you to spend 3 hours on the phone jumping through hoops, only to make up some lame excuse about how their warranty "doesn't cover that." The first preamp I got only lasted about 30 minutes. It literally fizzled out mid-song. After resting, it was good for about another 10 minutes, the following day. I did all the troubleshooting and made sure it wasn't the receiver or turntable. After which, I sent an email, via Amazon, to the seller (SPECIALTY-AV), detailing the problem and the troubleshooting. Then, I waited for the inevitable runaround. What I got instead was almost shocking.I had a very polite reply email within a couple hours, stating they would replace it, no questions asked. They didn't ask me to ship the old one back first so their team of forensic scientists could scour it and somehow stick it to me. Instead, I got this:-------------That is quite unusual for this item as it is typicality a plug and play device without any issues and is a great performer.We will send you a replacement. Upon receiving replacement if you can confirm the first is defective you may discard it. This is very uncommon so our vendor will replace it on our word.Thanks and regards.Mark Watsonspecialty-av--------------A week later, sure enough, it was there in the mail. I hooked it up and haven't had a problem with the new one.Hey, some parts fail. That's life. Some oranges are bitter. Get over it. That doesn't mean they're all bad. But, it's nice to know that if the part does fail, the seller will make it right. Try and find better customer service. I dare you.If I were rating just the performance of the product, I would give it a solid 3 stars. With the exceptional service the seller gives, I adjust my rating accordingly. If this one fails in the future, I will update this review and make my peace with possibly having to spend more money on something else. But, as it stands, I'm very pleased with the product and EXTREMELY pleased with the seller's customer service.Thanks to Mark at SPECIALTY-AV for the help. I can recommend doing business with them without hesitation.

This little pre-amp may not satisfy the most discerning audiophile, but for everyone else it will perform perfectly well - especially for such a bargain-basement price.My reason for purchase is nearly identical to the rest of the reviewers here: I bought a new A/V Receiver (Harman/Kardon AVR2600) that has no dedicated Phono input. I won't re-hash all the details everyone else has already stated, but one "issue" I ran into was easily remedied - but may have some folks scratching their heads.Turn off any audio processing that is applied to the input where this device is connected. (Aside from standard tone/EQ settings) I'm mostly referring to Dolby processing, Virtual surround sound and things like that.When I connected my pre-amp to my new receiver, there was a noticeable low-frequency hum. At first I was irritated - I thought the device was defective. But then I remembered that all the audio settings for that input were set to factory default. After turning off the Dolby processing (which levels the volume on that input) the hum disappeared.Aside from that it has been perfect. The decibel increase it provides is just right for the average home theater unit. I probably wouldn't use this on a $1000 Technics SL-1200 turntable, but for my 20+ year old Technics SL-B270 turntable it's a perfect match.