Anticipated volume level of turntable through B&O Century

Hello,

I've just purchased a used non-B&O turntable and pre-amplifier to listen to LPs through our B&O Century.  Everything's working and it sounds pretty decent but it's not very loud.  We have the default volume level set to 28 for CDs; when listening to a record the volume level needs to be increased to 40 to be of an equivalent level.

Could somebody with a B&O Century and (non-)B&O turntable comment on how the volume level compares to CDs please?

At this point I don't know if this is perfectly normal or if the pre-amplifier that I purchased isn't amplifying the signal as much as it should.

Many thanks in advance for any input.

Jason.

Hi,

i think you might want to check the output specs for the cartridge on your turntable.  It may be a very low output that needs a step up transformer to make it match the input characteristics of your preamp.  Once you have these two matched correctly it should work just fine.

 

good luck,

Bill

May also be low specs/gain of the pre-amp which if combined with the cartridge issue raised will reduce potential output considerably. What turntable, cartridge and pre-amp are you using?

Dave.

Hi Bill & Dave,

Thank you for your responses.  Here are the items I just purchased:

Preamplifier 

Stylus

If you're able to review the specs on these and advise if I'd be better off replacing either or both that would be great.  And if you have any specific recommendations that would be wonderful.

Thank you again,

Jason.

That's a Shure moving magnet cartridge, shouldn't be particularly low output, Pretty standard. However, mismatches were and are common in volume between sources.

I use the following and can recommend it:

High Gain Phono Preamp

Same company as your preamp, but higher gain. Very useful for B&O cartridges, which have very low output, I've been able using it to match level between my Beogram/MMC2 setup and my BS9000. I'd suggest this is your best approach, change to this preamp and give it a try.

Thanks, Jeff.

I sent a note to the preamp seller to see if I can exchange.  Fingers crossed the desired one has the desired effect.

Thanks again,

Jason.