Input votage various rf sources

[peterlo]

Hi,
Again I find myself asking a newbie type question.
I recently aquired (very cheaply) a Rotel inegrated tuner/amp.
It's a silver metal fronted old design, pre-dating CD's it appears because I see only phono & tape inputs on the rear.
Seems a pity to be able to use only with the tuner (doubt the overall quality worthy of feeding my vinyl collection).
Is there a simple way to allow this unit to accept rf input from a CD player.
Yes or No I'd much appreciate a brief explanation.
Pete

[Conrad Hoffman]

Any conventional CD player has an analog output that should be fine. Plug it into the AUX input (or tuner or tape) and go to town.

[AndrewT]

Hi,
your CD player will have a pair of analogue audio out. It may have a wired digital out and/or an optical digital out.
Ignore the digital outs if fitted (Well almost, you can fit a 75r dummy load to the wired digital out).
Connect the analogue outs to either aux or tape input. The Rotel should be able to play from either of these.

If the phono is really bad or broken then you could short from input RCAs to the selector switch and give yourself an extra input. But test it first, it might play OK from phono.

If you have a piece of gear that accepts digital signals then your CD digital signal could be sent to it direct.

[peterlo]

Thanks for the helpful comment.
I have several CD players, most are more than 5 years old & some may be 10; they were all of only modest quality when new.
The outputs are not marked Digital or Analog.
May I safely assume that in such cases the outputs are Analog?
In which case I will plug into the Rotel "Tape Inputs".
I am a little lost about the comment by Andrew about the phono inputs.
I had always understood phone from mm or cartridge sources operated at substantially different voltages to "Aux & Tape".
So unless I use a 75 Ohm load (as suggested) surely the volume would be well away from optimum?
BTW I happen also to have the "Marantz CD door drive problem" - where the 10 tooth drive pinion disintegrates. Can't believe how weak the plastic has become - not much better thab stiff cheese. Have emailed Philips asking for help but not holding my breath. Any ideas - other than operating the door manually which is what I do now.
Thanks
Pete

[AndrewT]

Originally posted by peterlo
................ I will plug into the Rotel "Tape Inputs".
I am a little lost about the comment by Andrew about the phono inputs.

if the phono is broken then rather than waste a pair of inputs I am suggesting that you could bypass the RIAA stage and take a connection from the RCAs direct to the selector switch. This will convert the phono input to a line input.

Originally posted by peterlo

I had always understood phone from mm or cartridge sources operated at substantially different voltages to "Aux & Tape".

The phono input (from a record deck) will have a much more sensitive circuit to amplify the lower signals that come from the phono cartridge. The phono input also have a RIAA equalisation to mirror image the equalisation built into the recording.

Originally posted by peterlo


So unless I use a 75 Ohm load (as suggested) surely the volume would be well away from optimum?

The 75r dummy load is there to terminate the digtal output rather than leave it open circuit. The analoque outputs from the CD player will get fed into the tuner/amp and then come out as speaker voltages.