This article is a complete guide on whether to buy a receiver for your turntable or not. Here you’ll see all the pros and cons of this purchase and discover why people actually tend to recommend having a receiver.

More and more people in 2021 decide on listening to vinyl music. Analog fans are often credited with the “warmth” for this pure analog sound. Thus this sound is actually the result of analog.

First, answer the question: do you really need it for your turntables?. If the answer is yes — the next stage for vinyl lovers is to find the best receiver for vinyl.

We are accustomed to advertising to choose what has the greatest possible set of functions. Naturally, in the future, we will not use half of them, but at the selection stage, we vote with the wallet for extensive opportunities.

What is the Receiver for?

So, you need the AV receiver. What is, in essence, this very receiver? If you are not techy, then, in fact, it is also an amplifier, just not stereo, but multichannel. Moreover, you won’t be able to connect a turntable to speakers without a receiver, if your turntable doesn’t have a built-in preamp or your speakers don’t have a built-in amplifier.

In general, the receiver is several instruments at once: a power amplifier (the speakers are connected to it), a tuner (terrestrial and Internet radio), a preamplifier (signal switch), and an AV processor (processes audio and video).

If there is no tuner in the device, then this is already an AV amplifier. Also, modern devices have a built-in ability to decompose the sound of zones (rooms), i.e., the simplest multiroom.

Traditionally, it has at least five channels of amplification. And along with them in the same device are the switching system, decoding, processing.
This device is more complicated by default than a stereo amplifier. And, having some strictly defined amount of money for the purchase, the average buyer chooses something with more functions. At the same time completely ignoring their true needs.

And the choice is very simple. If you plan to listen to music most of the time, it is better to pay attention to a stereo amplifier. And if you are an avid movie fan, and music is either an occasional activity for you, or as background, in which case you will need an AV receiver.

Do I Need a Receiver to Listen to Music?

Why should a music lover not buy a receiver for a turntable? It’s all about the features of its design. As we already mentioned above, at the same cost, we can buy either a simple amplifier or a more complex AV device. However, in the receiver, we have more functions, which means that somewhere we are waiting for a compromise.

From here you can make a logical conclusion that we will buy either two high-quality stereo channels or five slightly less good ones. Let’s not forget that this price also includes a processor, a set of decoders and a lot of switching electronics.

The technique must be used strictly according to its main purpose. That is, if you like movies, then choose an AV receiver. However, if you are a music lover, then forget about all the additional features and multichannel sound. Anyway, you will not use them regularly. Better pay this money for higher sound quality.