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Sonos Five and Pro-Ject T1 Phono SB Turntable issues

  • 28 December 2021
  • 9 replies
  • 1763 views
J

Bought the Pro-Ject T1 Phono SB Turntable to Five package from Sonos and am experience a loud buzz/static when trying to play line in from the record player. The Sonos Five sounds fine when playing through Spotify.  I’ve spent a bunch of time reading through related topics but nothing i’ve seen seems to help. 

  • Switch on Pro-Ject T1 SB is set to line out 
  • Source name is set to Turntable
  • Source level is set to level 10
  • Played around with compressed/uncompressed audio
  • I have tried the RCA cable with headphone jack adaptor that came with the system and a separate RCA to 3.5 aux cable 

Still same issue.  I have audio but there is a loud static noise that makes its unlistenable.  Has anyone else experienced anything like this and do you have any advice?  I had a chat with a Spotify rep and he said i should call Sumiko (maker of pro-ject Turntable).   

Appreciate any help.

 

 

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Best answer by Ken_Griffiths 28 December 2021, 01:48

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9 replies

W
Userlevel 2
Badge +3

Hi there. I’m far from super experienced and there are much better voices in this community than me, but, I have a project essential going into a preamp then into a pair of fives and at one point I had noise through the system. 
for me it was interference with other equipment I had in my room. I have my turntable in my office with computer gear, other amplified speakers, power boards etc. 

after I moved some things around, specifically the turntable and the preamp the noise went away. I apologise that is a very simplified response, but have you tried the system somewhere else other than your initial setup space?

cheers,

G
Userlevel 7

Try setting the Source Level lower. I have mine set to Level 5. Also try adjusting the Audio Delay under the Line-In settings for the Five. And make sure the 3.5mm plug has been fully inserted into the line-in port on the Five.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
Ken_Griffiths

Have you tried another audio source connected to the Five line-in port, like an MP3 player or mobile/tablet just to be sure it is the T`T where the issue lies? I would perhaps try that to begin with.

In regards to the turntable I would perhaps check the following;

J

Thanks for the quick replies and suggestions.

I went out and purchased a lightening port to 3.5 audio jack and was able to play line in from my cell phone through the speakers with no buzz so think the issue has to be related to the TT. 

I played around with the source level and have an audible buzz at all levels

I moved the speaker and turn table away from all other electronics but that did not make a difference. 

I will take a look at the turntable specific suggestions and see if I can figure anything out there. 

AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

Hi @jkeetz 

I’m an avid Sonos fan…I bite my tongue to go as far to say I’m a Fanboy…but at my age “boy” is  a real stretch. As good as Sonos is…IMO it has an “Achilles Heel”…that being it’s performance with Vinyl. 

I too have a Pro-Ject turntable. In fact it’s the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon (Sonos Edition). I have an extensive vinyl collection and really enjoy the warmth of vinyl versus CD (as I assume you do). I first connected my TT to a Sonos Play 5 Gen2 stereo pair (now upgraded to Fives). Although the sound was good IMO there was something missing compared to the old days when I used wired speakers powered by an AV receiver with phono input.

To satisfy my curiosity I took advantage of the local BestBuy (BB) 30 day return policy and purchased a Sonos Amp, Sonos Sub and a set of Definitive D7 bookshelf speakers. BTW…the equipment was purchased via the BB in-store Magnolia partner.  Long story short my vinyl took on a new dimension versus what my Fives delivered. 

Point being…The Sonos Five is an excellent speaker in today’s music streaming environment. Great craftsmanship that produce an excellent sound stage in stereo pair. Most notably the best in terms of price point and value for dollars spent….very hard to beat. However, that said IMO a pair of Fives doing vinyl just don’t deliver the cleanness and warmth that can be had with a set of excellent bookshelf wired speakers mated with a Sonos Amp and Sub. As I said…IMO.

I have since added an outboard pre-amp and upgraded the Pro-Ject’s sub-platter with Pro-Jects machined aluminum version that adds weight versus the stock composite sub-platter. I also researched and replaced the Pro-Ject’s standard phono cables with custom cables from a 3rd party including upgraded interconnects between the pre-amp and Sonos Amp. The latter along with a good set of customer 3rd party speaker cables eliminated signal-hum when in standby mode. 

No…I’m not an audiophile…but I do perform my due diligence to properly research products and make what I consider calculated informed wise buying decisions regarding my audio equipment. Granted sometimes wisely can be a bit expensive…but not to the point where I have to take out a second mortgage and/or risk divorce. :sweat_smile:

I’m not suggesting you do as I did nor that by doing so negates any of the excellent advice others have provided. Just sharing my experience. Enjoy your Sonos!

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
J

Couldn’t figure out what was wrong with this so I returned to Sonos and bought a different pro-ject terminal and a pro-ject preamp from Crutchfield.  Not an expert as this is my first record player but my only guess after confirming the cartridge, stylus and tonearm balance looked good is the T1 had a faulty built-in preamp.  Anyway, the carbon evo shows up tomorrow so hopefully the new setup works better.  

Thanks everyone who replied. 

K

Just bought the Pro-Ject T1 turntable. It appears that it was shipped without a drive belt installed. I have looked through all the packaging and cannot find one. Anyone else have this issue or can you tell be how your drive belt was shipped?

Airgetlam

Have you contacted the manufacturer? I would assume that Sonos receives them as sealed boxes, and doesn’t actually do any of the packaging of the product themselves, other than actually shipping. 

Bruce
buzz

 

…I’m not an audiophile…but I do perform my due diligence to properly research products and make what I consider calculated informed wise buying decisions ...

One of the most critical aspects of record play is cartridge alignment. Over the last century relatively little has been written about this. Here is a reasonable entry level presentation. One must be absolutely anal about this. In my opinion, this article does not give enough weight to the contribution of vertical stylus alignment. When viewed from the front, the stylus should be perpendicular to the record surface. One can fine tune this a bit with a test record. A very critical aspect is VTA (Vertical Tracking Angle -- viewed from the side). I wish that there there could be an exact value for this. The best alignment would be to duplicate the master record cutting angle. Unfortunately, each recording engineer has his own idea of “best,” but they are in the range of 20° (top of the diamond leaning forward) and the effective angle varies with instantaneous groove modulation. You’ll need to make this adjustment by tinkering with the cartridge’s parallelism with respect to the record surface and you’ll find that the “best” setting varies with the record. On complex material there is a “magic” moment when you get this angle correct. Unfortunately, this may not be the magic angle for the next record. If you can vary the arm height and assign some numbers to this elevation, you could attach a little sticker to each record, giving the proper setting. It’s very unfortunate, but this will need to be re-done when the stylus is replaced.

I track near the high end of the recommended range. True, high tracking force will cause more record wear, but it is a slow erosion. Tracking too light can cause catastrophic record surface damage during a single play because the stylus might be thrown off the surface and come crashing back -- and  too light sounds harsh because you are hearing the result of poor surface contact.

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