Recording and need for amp / speakers

Posted by: Joe Pellizz on 24 October 2017

Hello.

I have been recording some of my vinyl. Thank you to Richard Dane and all the others who have contributed to various threads on the topic of recording vinyl.  I found the posts to be very helpful and practical with good suggestions.  I am using a digital recorder - Marantz PMD661 MKII and a Planar3.  So far, just a bit of difficulty with card formats but one of the two that I tried is working well.  The results have exceeded my expectations and sound fantastic recorded to 24/96 wav.  I use Vinyl Studio to split tracks, add data, and send to iTunes.

My question might be a dumb one, but if I am using a 102 pre-amp powered by a napsc and hicap, do I need to even hook up my 180 amp and speakers?  The Marantz has a headphone jack for monitoring.  It does still work when I simply turn off the amp but wondering if there would be any problem simply disconnecting the speakers and amp - to use elsewhere until my recording project is finished.

Thanks!

Joe

 

 

 

 

Posted on: 24 October 2017 by Richard Dane

Joe, so long as the pre-amp is powered then there's no need to have the power amp powered up or even connected.

Glad to hear the recordings are turning out well.  The Marantz PMD661 is an excellent bit of kit - very easy to use too.

Posted on: 24 October 2017 by Joe Pellizz

Thank you Richard. I agree that the Marantz is very easy to use and didn’t cost much either on the used market.

Joe

Posted on: 24 October 2017 by ChrisSU

Back in the day, I used to record a lot of vinyl to cassette, and I nearly always did it with the power amp turned off, or at least the volume turned right down. Headphones and VU meters were enough. One might speculate that the quality of the recording would be better, with the turntable playing in a vibration (sound) free room.

Posted on: 24 October 2017 by Eloise
ChrisSU posted:

One might speculate that the quality of the recording would be better, with the turntable playing in a vibration (sound) free room.

Having speakers or not could certainly affect the recording quality ... not for the better or worse depends on so many factors best not to speculate.

Anyway to answer the OP: no you don't need the Power Amp and speakers connected ... but you might find the recordings to be "nicer" (rather than better) with them connected.