Turntable Preamp Fix for Low Bluetooth Volume: Set the Phono/Line Switch to Line

I went to a client’s house in London to look at a PROSUCO record player he had recently bought, and the very low Bluetooth volume came down to the PHONO/LINE switch on the back being set to PHONO, which left the turntable’s built-in preamp switched off.

He had connected the turntable to his studio monitors with an RCA to mini-jack cable, and what came out was quiet and distorted, with hum and a lot of static and other noise. He described it to me as static, noise and ground loop problems, and asked me to have a look and try to resolve it.

Trying the cables first

When I arrived I powered on all the gear, checked the cables and connections by hand, and played a record to hear what it sounded like. I could hear the distortion coming from the record player straight away. I then tried a few different ways of connecting it.

Connected the turntable to a preamp first.
Connected it to a different mini amplifier.
Changed the cables.

I had found a problem with the physical cables, but the noise and static stayed with all of these. I also tried the cable connection with the switch on the back set to line, and the noise was still there.

Switching to Bluetooth

I noticed the record player had Bluetooth built in, and so did his speakers, so I suggested it might be better not to connect the two physically at all. He told me he had already tried it and got it to connect, but the volume was incredibly low. We went through the pairing together and I heard the same thing he had.

The selector on the back of the record player was set to phono. In that position the record player’s internal preamp isn’t activated, so the volume over Bluetooth is very low.

I moved the switch to line and we had a strong signal through Bluetooth. The record sounded good at a sensible volume, with little or no static, and he was able to listen to his music without the cable at all.

If a turntable with a built-in preamp sounds very quiet over Bluetooth, look on the back for a phono/line switch and try it on line.

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Trying the cables first

Switching to Bluetooth

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