Regarding your buzz---might want try moving the phono preamp away from the receiver and double check the wiring to the cartridge (make sure it's snug as you made a change there).

Why can’t all wifes be like this???

Love the twang. When you say the word good it sounds to me as goooood. Emotive is a great company. I have three components and I love them all. Stuck with my old AR XB Turntable. I still love that vintage sound.

Hi I had a buzz problem also . Drove me crazy. It Was the phono pre amp ground. Try using copper speaker wire to ground your turntable to your phono pre amp .

What I’m fixed my buzz in my equipment was to take the receiver and turntable off a powerstip. Congratulations on the new purchase

Love the new equipment Melinda! I loved hearing Phillip's thoughts on your new equipment! Hope you guys are enjoying lots of awesome records!

Hello guys ! We are also about to upgrade our set-up. Videos like this helps a lot along the way. Kind of , broadening our spectrum. Now we got some thinking to do. Stay safe and take care. A&R.

Hello Melinda, Love your videos, I ran into humming a few times swapping out equipment and running a ground wire chassis to chassis took care of it. Good Luck

Great picks Melinda. Good choice on the Emotiva and the 2m Blue. A good solid amp. I used to have a 2M Blue and it is a fabulous cartridge for the money. Good speaker upgrades from the Infinity's. The best part is NO MORE GRANDMA's CONSOLE! That gave me the heebie jeebies watching you play records on that beast.

How I wish my wife shared my passion in music and vinyl.

Good video! I've been thinking of getting an amp while I repair my vintage Pioneer receiver. I checked out thier website for prices and it may do the trick with their pre amp. My research will include this combo at $700+ shipping. I sure hope it doesn't sound better because I love the look of my vintage receiver..ha!

Great video. Well done. 😊 The part I love about upgrading my sound system is re-listening to my vinyl and hearing much of it again "for the first time"!

Great video Melinda! I'm happy that you are happy with your purchase of the amp. I recently upgraded to a Cambridge audio integrated amplifier that made me wince at the price but I'm a sucker for that "British sound". I'm sure there are people who will come down on me for saying this but I would suggest you consider a direct drive turntable when you're ready to purchase a new one. Belt turntables have their place but direct drive now has been so refined that the claims of belt drive being superior as far as introducing rumble and vibrations really has been solved. And with a direct drive turntable you can have a quartz lock that makes the speed absolutely spot on. And never wavers. And direct drive turntables tend to be more robust over the years. Just some food for thought. Maybe let us know what kind of speakers you're using!

Really good to hear you supporting your local producers. I live just 5 miles from Linn near Glasgow Scotland. Have had 2 of their iconic Sondek LP12 turntables over the years but now on a Technics 1200GR with Ortofon 2M Black Cart. Still have my Linn Kaber Speakers from 30+ years and counting now doubt I will ever part from them they still sound and perform the same as when I first got them and they are my main speakers for both music and TV.

Hi Melinda. Another great video from you and your hubby. I'm glad you got to upgrade your system. FYI: Last February I upgraded my turntable to a Fluance RT85 which came with an Ortofon 2M Blue that was already setup at their factory. I also picked up an Onkyo TX 8140 Stereo Intergrated Amp for not much money that does a great job. Happy listening & be safe.

Also, I would like to recommend the Fluance RT series turntable. Since you have an ortofon blue already, you can get the RT-84 and just put your blue stylus on that. The RT-82 the 85 are the same units with different platter and stylus options. Made in Canada and awesome turntables.

Hi Melinda Of course now there will have to be another purchase! If you haven’t heard of Magnepan LRS panel speakers yet look them up. Not the greatest for pounding rock but with your new amp setup etc that can run 4 ohm speakers they would amaze on everything else. I’ve had them for a month now. For you in the US I think they’re still just $650/pair and have a 2 month trial period. Made in Minnesota.The audiophiles rave about them & their crazy low price. One thing though, they need to sit 3 feet out from a wall. They are fairly light to move out of the way though.

Hi, Melinda & Phil. 💖 Nothing much to say. Too busy taking notes. Great information. That’s exactly what I want. A brand new listening experience. Thank you. Have a wonderful day.

I have followed you for quite a while and this is my first comment. I enjoy your record collecting adventures, I have been collecting records since the late 60's and have more than 5000. I own a stereo/home theater store in Pennsylvania. I started in 1973 working for a local chain then in 1983 became a Rep in the business working for Sony, Marantz and other companies for 10 years then opened my own store 28 years ago. Enough about me. When I saw this video about your upgrades I had to contribute my 2 cents ( for free, what a discount! ). My opinion to the what's next question is replace the receiver. A home theater receiver has a processor to decode every input into multichannel of one type or another that compromises the simple goal of passing two channel ( aka Stereo ) signal. I looked at Emotiva's site and I would recommend the BasX PT-100 at $299.00 to replace the receiver. Yes it has a redundant phono preamp but I don't think that is an issue because the built in phono preamp in the PT-100 will be better than the receiver's ( if it had one ) and the preamp built into the Denon but the standalone phono preamp you just got will be best one to use. As a "middle man" I have respect for Emotiva they make a good product and I really like their design look. They are a very good entry level product. As for separates I carry Parasound and Rouge Audio ( tubes ) that are the next level up. When people are in my store asking about the higher end equpiment I usually tell them " it is up to you to decide if you want to make this ( the equipment ) a hobby or just listen to music." From the answer I can go in the direction that suits them.

Love your page . Nice to share the passion with your husband. My family to divided up . But, I am happy with my vinyl records

Congratulations Melissa, I have that Emotiva amp powering my rear channel of my McIntosh stereo, I also have the 250 wpc gen 2 amp from emotiva. I’m very pleased with the sound quality of this Brand. I recently tore my whole basement apart and put new flooring down and had it painted. The biggest job was packing all my music up then putting everything back together.. I was without music for over a month.

Great video! Enjoyed seeing Phillip and his take on y’all’s upgrades! Very nice! Stay warm my friends!

As someone who has repaired audio gear as well as built some, I have a couple of thoughts. The 120 Hz buzz you're hearing is likely a result of power supply noise. Although the line coming into our residence is 60 Hz, the process of changing the AC to DC involves doubling this frequency. I won't bother to explain why, here. What can you do, if anything about this buzz? The power supply section of almost every class of amplifier utilizes large filter capacitors. Those capacitors are usually easy to identify in audio equipment. They appear as large cylinders inside your Yamaha receiver. Those age, and over time they're less effective in filtering. This most often gets noticed as low level buzz in the background. I've purchased old, "vintage audio" equipment and almost every one needs those to be replaced, sometimes along with others, in order to restore it to the best working condition. Also, if you were to purchase a manual turntable, this device as well as others, will pick up the tone arm at the end of the record. www.thequp.com/

Hi Melinda. I’m glad both you and your husband enjoy your Stereo equipment upgrade. Great fun video Melinda. Take care

Great video. I made a huge investment in my sound system last summer, Energy reference speakers, an upgrade to a better cartridge, and a Fluance turntable. Now I'm relistening to my records. What a huge difference. Thank you Melinda, great video. See you later.

You're on the right way, everything affects to sound. My vinyl setup is Emotiva PT-100+ Yamaha M-65+DIY tube phono amp+Technics Sl-1200mk7 (Goldring 1006 cartridge), silver plated rca-cables. The last update was tube RIAA, it really kicks wax off from ears.

Great video as always, Melinda. In the last few months I have upgraded my turntable (which meant the cartridge was also upgraded), pre-amp, RCA cables and speakers. The difference is night and day. I've heard good things about the 2M Blue!

It's funny you support emotiva!! I've been waiting for the E100 stereo amp and your opinion of them really helped,as soon as we get that supposed stimulus check,I'll be in the order line for one ,thank and great review from you and your husband!

Melinda, i used to have a Ortofon 2M Red then Blue on my 1990s Rega Planar 3 turntable but rather than upgrade the turntable i went for another stylus upgrade, from Blue to Bronze, the Bronze and Black stylus use the same cartridge body, there is a noticeable difference between Blue and Bronze, definitely worth going to the Bronze though. X

Great additions to your system Melinda! Love the Chicago(CTA) LP! Always nice to see your best man in your videos!

Nice upgrade!! I just recently purchased a pair of Klipsch Heresy speakers. Now I'm looking at amplifiers - what a timely post!! Definitely looking at Emotiva! To add, the price of vintage stuff has (now) become insanely expensive!!

Those upgrades look great Melinda. I can see they are giving you an even better emotional connection to your music because they make it sound better. Your extensive collection of mobile fidelity records will have the opportunity to really sing on your new equipment. That 30th anniversary Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon is the one I am searching for here in the UK. You always have the best records !

I noticed that you have a ups battery proptection. Is your amplifier hook up to it? Try the amp directly powred for the wall outlet. Almost all ups , tend to choke the sound since it can't supply enough instantaneous power. I think your next upgrade should be the pre-amp. Also they make arm lifters to lift up the arm when it reaches the end for the record for manual turntables. Being an audiophile could me more expensive than being a record collector.

I currently have 2 of these amps in my current setup and enjoy them very much. Just sort of stumbled upon your video but happy you and your husband are happy with the new upgrades. Happy listening 😁

Hi Melinda! Those are great upgrades and I'm glad you really hear the difference. I feel into that upgrade hole some years ago and it cost me a lot of money. My advice for any future upgrades is to always ask yourself "Will this improve the sound by 15 percent, or by 2 percent? And if so, how much does it cost?" Enjoy your new equipment!

Melinda, you will really enjoy the Emotiva gear. I own the XPA-2 Gen 2 power amplifier and the matching XDA-2 Gen 2 DAC and just love them. They are well built pieces which will last a very long time. Now is such a great time in audio where it's possible to be able to purchase some really great gear on a quite manageable budget. Enjoy!

I'm looking at emotiva for a pre amplifier for my turntable, I was looking at the integrated amplifiers but have stayed clear because I haven't found one with tape loops or line outputs because of the way my setup is wired since it has both recording and playback devices.

Hi Melinda & Phillip - I've been into hi-fi and good quality audio for 50 years now (even if I couldn't afford much for many of those years!) It was refreshing to hear you two being enthusiastic about upgrading your system without all of the buzzwords I'm used to. And of course it's a means to an end: being able to enjoy your precious vinyl collection. Your maxim "you don't know what you don't know" is very true: when you're planning to upgrade, take some LPs you know well to the dealer and get him to create a setup similar to what you have at home. You may have a few "aha" moments as the new components turn out to be more revealing than what you're used to. And don't forget that good cables can help reveal much more information that wasn't getting through before. Wishing you many happy hours of listening enjoyment. All the best, Rob

Great video, y'all. I've made some upgrades in the last year or so, too. It's always fun to improve your listening experience and enjoy this hobby.

Very nice! It's always great when gear upgrades make a big difference. Budget gear today performs so well that a power amp like yours will carry you for years until you take the plunge to the next level.

I really enjoyed this video. I have the same Denon turntable, and I have recently upgraded from the in-built pre-amp to an external one, which has made a big difference. I'm currently using powered bookshelf speakers, so my next upgrade will be to an amplifier and passive speakers.

I had the luck of finding a couple of old Cerwin Vega d5s for $20 pair. They had bad woofers and I replaced them two car audio subs and wired them to an 8ohm load. Whoa, huge difference from my previous 10" cabinets that I originally had. Also, found a good deal on a 12" JBL sub($150) and added two 10" subs powered by a Crown amp. With all these additions my cheap system rocks!

This older video but if you still hear buzz you can try using a cheater ac plug. The little plastic ones that use a grounded three prong plug to a two prong plug. File down the larger blade so you can invert it inverting the polarity. I use this all the time with noisy equipment and find that factory polarity isn’t always accurate so by reversing it the sound is cleaner more articulate and true

Great insight. Upgrades can often throw up complex & confusing issues. Thanks for sharing.

Cool subject. All my old stereo equipment from the 70's & 80's has passed on to Heaven lol. Ive got digital everything nowadays but i just feel like the depth is missing from all that. Good to see you find some stuff that is good to your ear. Hello Phillip!!!🤘😎👍🎸🎧🔊🎵🎶🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

I love your channel! You are so knowledgeable and well spoken

Loved this video, Melinda. It was cool to see your gear (and Phillip again). I agree, the 2M Blue is great. I will have to look into Emotiva. Stay well, Frank

You are one of my favourite teachers. Mercy

Informative video. I’ve been looking to upgrade some of my equipment, but I tend to get a little overwhelmed with all the options and some stuff is extremely pricey. I’m just not very knowledgeable on the subject. My husband has been helpful and luckily he sets up my equipment. Great recommendations. I’ve been looking at speakers lately. Happy Spinning.

Emotiva is an awesome company! Schiit Audio has an equalizer that you can add to the chain. Schiit is another great company that has reasonably priced equipment.

I feel a connection to you and your husband, as we seem to be about the same age and have the same taste in music (both classic rock and jazz) and we seem to be on the same path through audiophile evolution. I too had an Emotiva system not too long ago which I was very happy with but after looking a lot at vintage audio pics I decided to just have as a "second' system a vintage receiver and speakers. I bought a Technics SA500 ($600) c.1978 and a pair of Klipsch Heresy 1 speakers ($700) c.1980, both recently serviced. OMG what a difference. That sound I remembered as a teenager all came back full force. The phono stage in the receiver was better than the emotiva. My Emotiva is now in the basement. I have a bigger Technics SA700 and a McIntosh MAC 1900 with Klipsch Fortes and I keep the Heresy as the second pair. Love your Channel.

You did good Melinda. I've owned quite a few pieces of equipment in my time. It took me years to finally get the amp and preamp that I wanted. It cost me quite a bit of money, but I took the plunge and never looked back. Thanks for the videos : )

Check out the Rotel RC1572 stereo preamplifier! I love mine and it was not crazy expensive. Pro-ject turntables sound amazing for the price; I went with the RPM 5 carbon. Helps me stay positive and get through COVID!

Well done Melinda & Phillip lots great reviews on the Emotiva gear and stylus upgrade. haven't seen one of your videos for a while so have a few to catch up on.I recently bought a new pair of speakers direct from a chap here in Australia Osborn loudspeakers felt great to buy local and wow what a difference they made. Hifi is such a wonderful journey. be cool to see more from both of your perspectives once your system really settles in.

My turntable has a pre-amp and my receiver has a phono input. Thinking the Fluance turntable without pre-amp will work better. Then in the future when I upgrade the receiver I may need to add a pre-amp if the receiver does not have the phono input. Gave my Marantz 6300 turntable to my daughter. Thanks for this video. Hurts my brain to sort this all out.

A quick fix for hum is to float ground [cheater plug] not a permanent repair! I very much enjoyed video!

Hi Melinda- Nice upgrade in equipment. Nothing can beat the sound of vinyl on a nice stereo system. I still have a Marantz amplifier that I purchased in college 49 years ago ! The way it's performing I'm afraid it will outlast me !! Take care

Ooh! Even a slight buzz in the audio would drive me crazy! I would definitely try to find the source and either replace, repair, or modify that part of the audio chain ASAP. I am not a technician so I can’t offer technical advice. Hope you can get it fixed or upgraded soon. Other than that, the system looks great.

Glad you updated your stereo equipment!! I will tune in next time. Take Care.🎼🎤🎸🎵🥁

I have heard the integrated emotiva TA 100 basx pairs with the 300 and sound well and you may not get the ground loop issues. That might be better than the av receiver. I am looking to upgrade to this from my vintage Kenwood receiver integrated .

Hello Melinda, yes audio is amazing, you never know until you hear it. It's an endless process (finally, it's the wallet that commands at the end).

Melinda, I am so happy to see that you are finally upgrading your equipment! You are on your way to being an audiophile and with your album collection, that will be a great thing! I do have a suggestion on the subject of the hum problem you’re having. I noticed you have the phono preamp sitting either on top of the amp or the Yamaha receiver. Phono preamps can be sensitive to nearby associated equipment and their power supplies. If possible, move it away from other equipment and see if that helps. Also, if more than one piece of equipment has a 3 prong plug, ungrounding one with a simple 3 prong plug adapter can break a ground loop if that is the problem. Good luck and keep looking for better sound!

if you take a tour of the emotiva facilities,ask them why they discontinued the production of their large preamp that had many inputs.and btw,they also make a really good cd player.

Hello Malinda, after watching this video a few days ago and I then started listening to some vinyl. It sounded terrible . Distortion in the vocals and sax etc. I thought what's going on and remembered about you getting a stylus. I took my old stylus out and it was so worn I'm surprised I got any sound at all. Went out and bought a new on. Nothing fancy just a generic replacement and wow I'm music heaven, unbelievable. Think I need to replace every year without fail Cheers for prompting me to get it sorted. Cheers from New Zealand 😎👍

I think I've reached a plateau where I only see smaller changes in my hi-fi. I had a local dealer "tweak" my 1986 phono & add a Sumiko Moonstone cartridge, which is a definite improvement, but no earthquake occurred! My biggest changes? Getting a new DAC about 6 years ago (musical instruments popped out of mixes that were more like a "wall of sound" before), buying a tube headphone amp (so-o-o rich, like a good vanilla malt for my ears but true to the music at the same time), & buying a tube power amplifier for my front room (wide, wrap around soundstage). Who am I kidding? My "front room" is pretty much my only room when I'm not sleeping! (California is kind of expensive these days.) Music listening is fun... thanks for the post, MM.

Great video the 2m blue is amazing

Some fantastic new gear there, great albums sounding even greater is never a bad thing- and well done to Phillip for setting it up- enjoy!👍

I had to learn this lesson the hard way. I had the itch to get into vinyl before the resurgence and amateur me not knowing anything thought I could get one of those crosley suitcase turntables and be fine. I hated how it sounded and thought it was the format and I wound up getting rid of everything. It wasn’t until I started seeing videos on KZfaq that I started to learn more and I gave it another shot, and I went all in. I bought focal speakers, emotiva basx ta1 and also a Yamaha rx z1 receiver. As for the turntable I bought a music hall mm1.5 and bought an audio technica microline stylus and now I am in heaven. I wish I had found all this out sooner because like I said I was buying records before they became popular again. I remember buying a pristine copy of billy Joel greatest hits at my local cd shop for 5 bucks. I paid more than 6 times that to replace when I had to buy it again 😒😒. Oh well live and learn!

You guys are so cool, I hope to visit Tennessee in the summer May or June. I have never been to the south I love to meet you guys

You might want to check out Sleeve City. Their inner sleeves are $11.49 for 50 v $9.92 for 25, and sometimes they have sales.

Hey Melinda! I enjoyed hearing about the upgrades you made. It's cool you can support a company that's fairly close to you. Also, Phillip is a champ for hooking everything up for you! :) I hope you are staying warm!

I have lots of Emotiva gear! A-300 was one of my early purchase of their gear. Now running DR1 monoblocks

Welcome to the pursuit of Absolute Sound. Speaker placement, room treatments, vibration control especially under the turntable. Good luck.

Another nice video! Noticed that Denon deck... I had one of those and ran a 2M Blue on that (which I loved!). I'm now on a modest Technics SL-1200GR with an Ortofon 2M Bronze. I had the black but opted to stay with the bronze... it was better for me. I also went in on Emotiva and have the XSP-1 pre-amp, BasX A150 amp for my smaller "zone 2" and BasX A300 for my primary zone. My towers are Emotiva T2 and my subs (2) are Airmotiv S10. Subwoofers when tuned in can make a huge difference. Every upgrade has been great. There's a tape deck in that mix too (Yamaha KX-W952). Having so much fun with tapes as well!!! The best advice I ever received from a true audiophile was that you should invest in gear as a priority when you desire more. Finding slightly better pressings only goes so far... the gear is #1 as long as it is matched to your space well. And it looks and sounds like you folks have some nice audio space in your home. Thanks for another video and take care - the both of you!

Hi Melinda I love watching your channel and just wanted to make a comment on your equipment as I have had problems with that same buzzing sound and have found that anytime I hook anything digital to older receivers I get this . If you have anything with HDMI or optical take it out of the system and your buzzing will go away. Hope that helps

Thank you so much Melinda and Phillip. I trust your reviews and will be making the same Emotiva upgrade. I noticed your turntable stand. Line Phone? Great stand.

Getting the best from a turntable can be tricky, but I don't get the sparkle from anything like vinyl.

A fun fact! Did you know -Bob Carver, LLC engages in the design and manufacture of amplifiers and speakers. It sells its products through a network of dealers in the United States and Canada. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Nicholasville, Kentucky. As of June 19, 2013, Bob Carver, LLC operates as a subsidiary of Emotiva Audio Corporation. If you don't know who Bob Carver is, search out Carver Audio systems from the early 80's. Very highly respected!

Also make sure you have good low capacitance phono cables, and decent speaker cable, this can make a big difference.

Hey Melinda, great video, Glad you are enjoying your upgrades. Im sometimes amazed at some of these vinyl channels that have thousands of dollars invested in the Vinyls themselves yet seem to have forgot to invest in the audio gear to play them on. Collecting is fun, but playing them back on a great sounding system is even better and with all these direct to consumer companies you can get great performance and value. keep the videos coming, also enjoy when your husband is on and nice curls on the hair!

Hi Melinda. I also have Emotiva amps. I tried Macintosh tube amp that sells for $3500 and the Emotiva amps that I purchased new for $600, eight years ago sounded better. Maybe because they are rated at 400 watts into 4 ohms while the Mac tubes were only 75 watts. Sound quality wise there was no difference at all, not warmer, brighter or colored. The Emotiva amps were just able to go way way louder. Emotiva sound way way better than my collection on vintage 70s silver face receivers that go for over 1 thousand on Ebay. Your next upgrade may be a cartridge in the $1200 range like a Sumiko Black Bird or a Clear Audio Virtuoso. The sound difference is like taking a wet blanket off the speakers. The midrange on jazz records will melt your heart.

I love that you both did before and after listening. So fun. Perhaps you'll find a turntable you can equip with the 2M Blue you already own. Some models are available without a cartridge.

Good video! I may look into an Emotiva Amplifier as an upgrade to my vintage Denon. I did buy a new turntable, a few years ago, that I am very happy with. Its a Clearaudio Concept. It came with a very nice Clearaudio MM cartridge. Its a belt drive but uses a DC motor with a feedback loop (very accurate and consistent speeds). The DC motor, as well as being super quiet, also offers three speeds at the turn of a selector. Handy if you have a lot of 45's in your collection as well as LP's. The turntable came with their standard "magnetic bearing" tone arm for excellent isolation. I have heard reviewers refer to its low noise as "black background" (no audible background noise) and I have to agree. The turntable did stretch my budget a bit but was definitely worth it. I hope you have good luck with your upgrades. Sounds like your electrical interference issue will go away when you get rid of your surround amp. I am no expert on the electrical side but some of your commenters mentioned a possible ground loop issue. Ground loops can be caused if you have a shielded cable that is grounded at both ends (stray current flows through the shield causing interference with the low level signal). Shields should only be grounded at the supply side as I understand it. Thanks for the video!

You may enjoy staying with the same brand pre-amp. The Emotiva PT-100 seems to check your boxes. I enjoy the videos. Happy listening!

I also found a great value in the upgrade from the Red to the Blue. I'm on the other side of the country, but I love Emotiva, too. I use a XPA-3 for my front soundstage in my home theater, that I also use for two channel listening. Good choices! I envy your MFSL collection! I have a few, but am humbled by your collection.

I'm happy to see you upgrading your rig as you've been going with more audiophile pressings. There is a GREAT system in every budget, but as you mentioned, there are a lot of details that go missed on lesser equipment. Enjoy!

I’ve had my Acoustic Research AR-11’s and Sony PSX-5 turntable since 1977. Recently upgraded to the MarantzPM8006 integrated amp. Been listening to vinyl for over 50yrs.listen to Steely Dan for really clean sound. Their album Gaucho and Aja (pronounced Asia) are really great!

Hi Melinda & Phillip, great video on a topic i think a lot of your followers relate to and important to enjoy your ever growing vinyl music collection. Soundstaging improvements must have been incredibly better with the Emotiva and the dedicated phone pre-amp. Btw, what are the floor standing speakers you have brought into your system? Also, i think you are spot on with your feelings about Chicago Transit Authority. It is still my favorite album by Chicago and I have an original 1st pressing which still blows me away especially on Beginnings. Keep on putting together these videos. I enjoy them a lot.

Been thinking about upgrading to better equipment. Thank you for doing this video. You and your husband did a great job of reviewing and explaining about this. Much appreciated!

Hi Melinda, I am thrilled for you and your husband. Music has always been a huge part of my life since I was a small boy. and I was never so thrilled when I bought my Technics stereo system. All individual components, back in 1989, and I still have them and I was blown away from the sound in the showroom, So I understand how you feel. Denon is a very good turntable. Any idea what brand turntable you want to upgrade too in the future? Well, that is awesome, Enjoy your updated system

Love watching your videos, Melinda. I have a Kenwood KM-992 amp paired with a Yamaha C-45 preamp with a pair of B.I.C. America rtr-ev15 speakers. Turntable is a Audio Technica AT-LP 120 with a cork slipmat and several different headshell combos. Power is excellent.

Great video. System upgrades are part of the journey. If you are going to upgrade to a better turntable I can highly recommend the Rega Planar 3. It's a great sounding turntable from a company that's been making turntables since the early 70s. You might want to look at a different cartridge. I had an ortofon 2m blue on my turntable for a couple of years but upgraded to a Nagaoka MP-150. All I can say is WOW. The Nagaoka has a more natural sound (to my ears). Anyway, happy listening!

Aloha Melinda, Thank you for a great review. It's so great to have someone who has technical knowledge like your husband who could set up your stereo for you too. Wow! A 1/2 speed master of Chicago transit authority debut album., I finally ordered myself a Carole King tapestry half speed master from acoustic sounds it's on back order hopefully I get it. I really look forward to watching your Videos. Looking forward to the next one. Mahalo ed.

Nice system! Congratulations. I'm glad you and your husband are enjoying it.

I have the same Pink Floyd album that you have. The Chicago album I had on 8 track back in the 70s. I don’t know much about stereo equipment but like your new stereo. Have a great rest of the week and enjoy your new stereo 🎸

Don't overlook the benefits of vibration control too. There are a lot of reasonably priced devices that you can use to isolate your turntable from vibrations. I would also recommend upgrading your interconnect, speaker and power cables. Concur with the other person who recommended moving your phono preamp from on top of your integrated amplifier. That could be the source of your hum. (or maybe try moving the cables) Did you hook up the ground wire from the turntable to the phono preamp? I spent the past 5 years fine tuning my system to get it where I wanted it sonically. I also made a considerable investment in new equipment, but was able to save quite a bit by buying used. Have fun with it!

The great thing about upgrading any audio system is one has the opportunity to rediscover one's favourite tunes and albums. With decent equipment, one can hear additional nuances or qualities to the voices of the artists or the instrumentation used and that rediscovery is so much fun. :)

Could return the Emotiva A300 and go with the Emotiva TA-100. Its got everything in one box for yea so you can toss the old Yamaha theater receiver and save some space as well.

Aloha Melinda, I finally purchased a turntable that would protect my record albums. Jest got it in on the 23 of March, I set it up yesterday the 25th. Now I understand why you tend to buy new lps, I enjoy this turntable but this Stylus and cartridge is very unforgiving, It brings out the great sound from the vinyl But it also brings out the background noise if it's a old vinyl, Even if it's in pristine condition. My FLUANCE RT-85 has the same stylus as your turntable the blue one 💙, now I need to buy another Stylus cartridge and head shell, that is much more forgiving so I can play more of my used record albums that I enjoy. Mahalo ed.

Cool video Melinda. Congrats on the new equipment! You should do an update review in a year or so. Longevity is a big selling point. I am pretty happy with my stylus on my new turntable. I did watch a few videos talking about higher end stylus being cut to capture better sound but also saying they damage or wear down the vinyl faster because of the way they are cut they dig into the grooves, but who really knows. You should be rocking out now! Stay warm and cheers to Phillip!