Any electronic wizzes here?

[strumntheguitar]

Before I start, it should be known that I know close to nothing about stereo electronics and stuff like that... so pardon any ignorant comments I may make...

So I'm moving into a new apartment soon and I decided I'm tired of just listening to my turntable from it's built in speakers and I want to get a nice pair of good speakers to hook up to it in my new place. I'm not looking to spend a lot of money, and think I've settled on a nice set of JBL speakers my brother recommended to me off this website that sells them for pretty cheap. I've been going around town to various electronic stores and everyone is telling me that I need to get a receiver as well if I want to hook up my record player. I can't figure out if all these stores are just trying to get me to spend more money at their place, because I was under the impression that I don't need a receiver because my turntable has a pre-amp built into it. I'm not planning on hooking anything else up to these speakers for a while, so I don't see the point in buying a receiver as well as the speakers until later when I want to plug a bunch of stuff into them... am I right in this assumption or is getting a receiver going to make a big difference and worth the money?

Thanks in advance...

[chefchick]

I am by no means an electronic whiz, but I too like to rock out to my records from time to time. I've got my turntable hooked up to a 200W receiver. You may be able to use the speakers with just the preamp, but it's gonna sound much, much better with a good receiver. And it doesn't have to set you back a lot of money. Check out your local thrift stores. Those places are goldmines for stereo equipment. You may even be able to find some speakers too. I got my Pioneer receiver along with a tape deck (doesn't get much use), a decent turntable, and two speakers for $40 at a thrift shop. I also picked up a Technics 5 speaker home theater set for $24 at another store. It may take some looking but it's out there. And if you've got the receiver you can always add more components down the road.

[CCRGMac]

A pre-amp is just what it says, an amplifier to use before the main amplifier. I learned all my hi-fi knowledge in the UK so terminology might be different over here but:

- an amplifier takes your signal (froma turntable, cassette deck, CD etc) and boosts its power
- a tuner receives radio signals
- a receiver is a tuner and amplifier together with inputs for other devices to use the amplifier also.

So what you need is either an amplifier (if you don't want radio) or a receiver (if you do), but not both.

[strumntheguitar]

Thanks for the advice guys, I think I'm heading out to a thrift store tomorrow to check out the receiver selection to see if I can get a good one for pretty cheap. I guess I also need to go around town and see if I can find speaker wire somewhere too...