Marantz PM6005 amp & Pioneer PL-990 turntable

StevePayne

Hi. I have just changed my amplifier to a Marantz PM6005 and am having issues playing my existing turntable (Pioneer PL-990) through it. I tried plugging the red/white leads from the turntable into the PHONO connections on the amplifier, but the resulting sound is very distorted. When this happened on my previous amplifier (Technics), I used the AUX connection which gave good results regarding sound quality. The Marantz PM6005 does not include AUX inputs, instead it has 'TUNER', 'NETWORK' or 'RECORDER' available. I tried both the 'NETWORK' and 'RECORDER' connections with the turntable, which works (no distortion), but sound quality is not as good as I used to get through the AUX connections on my old amplifier. Do I need to use an external PHONO pre-amp and then use the PHONO inputs on the Marantz?
I'm a bit confused, as the manual for the Marantz PM6005 states "this unit is provided with a PHONO amplifier so that you can directly connect a turntable and play records (only the MM cartridge can be used)".....and according to the turntable manual for the PL-990, it uses a MM cartridge(?)
Many thanks, Steve.

Ugg10

I do not believe you can use this turntable with a phono pre amp or the phono inputs on your Marantz.

                                                https://www.pioneer-audiovisual.eu/sites/default/files/manuals/PL-990_manual_EN_FR_DE_NL_IT_ES_PT_SEpdf.pdf                       
The manual states it has a phono preamp built in and output approx 0,25v and also talk about equalisation. If it did not have a preamp built in the output would be around 1-5mV.

So, it needs to be plugged into tuner/cd/network connections on the Marantz which have an input sensitivity of 0,2V so should be a good match.

                                                https://www.marantz.co.uk/DocumentMaster/master/PM6005N_ENG_CD-ROM_UG_v00.pdf                       
No reason why it should not sound ok if stylus is ok but this is a pretty basic lower end turntable so don’t expect high class sound.

What was your old amp that it sounded good on. Also have you played around with the bass/treble/loudness on the Marantz to see if you can recreate your old amp sound, it may be that your ears have not had time to adjust to the Marantz yet?

StevePayne

Hi, many thanks for your reply. My old amplifier is a Technics A700 MK3.