How to Connect a Turntable to a Receiver

A receiver is the easiest thing to connect a turntable to, provided it has a PHONO input, and the most confusing when it does not. This page is the receiver-specific version of our connection guide: stereo receivers and AV receivers, the PHONO socket, the switch on the back of the deck, the ground screw, and the receivers we cover that have no phono input at all.

Step 1: find out whether the receiver has a PHONO input

Look at the back panel for a pair of RCA sockets labeled PHONO, usually with a small screw terminal marked GND or SIGNAL GND beside them. That socket contains a phono stage: it expects the cartridge’s few millivolts and applies the RIAA curve. Among the receivers we cover, the Denon AVR-X1800H publishes an MM phono input at 2.5 mV sensitivity with a ± 1 dB RIAA deviation figure, the Yamaha RX-V6A publishes MM at 3.5 mV / 47 kΩ, the Denon AVR-S670H publishes MM at 2.5 mV, the Onkyo TX-NR6100 publishes MM at 3.5 mV / 47 kΩ, and the Marantz Cinema 70s publishes MM at 2.5 mV with a ± 1 dB RIAA figure. The Sony STR-DH190 stereo receiver has one, though Sony publishes no figures we can read.

The Yamaha RX-V4A publishes its phono input as N/A — it does not have one. The Yamaha RX300A and RX-V385 and the Denon AVR-S570BT list no phono input in their specification tables at all, and a receiver without a documented PHONO input should be treated as a receiver without one until the manual says otherwise. Those receivers are not ruled out; they need step 4.

Step 2: set the switch on the turntable

If the turntable has a PHONO/LINE switch on the back, it has a built-in phono stage, and the switch decides whether that stage is in the signal path. The rule is that exactly one phono stage should be on. Into a PHONO input, set the deck to PHONO (stage off); into any other input, set it to LINE (stage on). Get it wrong one way and the sound is faint, thin and bass-light — no stage at all. Get it wrong the other way and it is loud, distorted and boomy — two stages. Both mistakes are fixed by the switch. Our built-in-preamp roundup lists which of our decks have the switch; the Fluance RT82 and RT85 and the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon EVO do not, and must go to a PHONO input or an external stage.

Step 3: connect the ground wire

The thin wire with a spade or bare end that comes out of most turntables goes under the GND screw next to the PHONO input. It does not carry signal; it ties the deck’s metal parts to the receiver’s chassis so that the two are at the same potential. Leave it off and the usual result is a steady low hum, loudest when nothing is playing. If you are using the deck’s built-in stage into a LINE input and the receiver has no GND screw, most decks still hum less with the wire attached to any chassis screw. Our connection guide has the troubleshooting list for the hums that remain.

Step 4: when the receiver has no PHONO input

Two routes. If the turntable has a built-in stage, set it to LINE and use any line input on the receiver — CD, AUX, or an unused analog input. If the turntable has no stage, add an external one between the deck and a line input: the Schiit Mani 2 publishes four gain settings and a subsonic filter, and the Fluance PA10 publishes 38 dB of gain for moving-magnet cartridges. The ground wire then goes to the external stage’s GND terminal, not to the receiver. Either way, the receiver’s line input expects roughly 200 mV — the Denon AVR-X1800H publishes exactly that figure — and a 36 dB stage on a 4 mV cartridge delivers about 252 mV, so the level lands where the receiver wants it.

AV receivers: three settings that catch people

Sound mode. An AV receiver will happily upmix a record into seven channels. For a stereo source, the direct or pure-direct mode plays the two channels as they are, and on most models it also bypasses the tone controls and, on some, the room correction. Our room-correction guide explains what the correction is doing and why you may want it on for a record anyway.

Subwoofer.If the receiver runs a subwoofer and the mains are set to small, low bass from the record goes to the sub. That is fine, and it is also the route by which a warped record or footfall reaches a driver designed to move a lot of air. A subsonic filter on an external stage — the Mani 2 and PA10 both publish one — is the fix; no receiver we cover publishes one on its phono input.

Input naming. On a receiver with a PHONO input, the input is usually fixed to the phono stage and cannot be reassigned. On one without, the input you choose for a LINE-level deck is just another analog input, and it can be renamed in the menu so the remote says TURNTABLE. Small, but it is the difference between a system the household uses and one only you can operate.

Which receivers we would pick for a turntable

The four products above are the ones this page is about. The Denon AVR-X1800H because it is the only receiver here publishing its phono stage’s RIAA accuracy and signal-to-noise. The Yamaha RX-V6A because it publishes a phono input and front pre-outs on the cheapest chassis that does both at the prices live when this was written. The Sony STR-DH190 because a stereo receiver with a PHONO input is the least expensive receiver route we cover, with the standing caveat that Sony publishes no specifications we can cite. And the Schiit Mani 2 because it is the external stage for every receiver in step 4. The music-receiver roundup ranks the AV receivers on phono parameters in detail, and the integrated-versus-receiver page is honest about when a stereo integrated is the better purchase for a turntable in the first place.