Help! Can't get audio out of speaker

Tacitus · 1 Jul 2024 at 22:04

Hi guys

I got my partner a Sony PS-LX310BT turntable for Christmas last year and just recent got her a JBL 305p mkii speaker to upgrade the output quality.

I can't for the life of me get it to work however. The output on the turntable is RCA and I'm using an RCA to 1/4" adapter to plug it into the speaker. I'm connecting both the red and the white cable to the adapter and have tried both "line" and "phono" settings on the turntable. I had understood that the speaker was powered and so shouldn't need any extra kit.

What am I missing?

Any help greatly appreciated!

Chris

tom_nieto · 1 Jul 2024 at 23:36

Tacitus said:
Hi guys

I got my partner a Sony PS-LX310BT turntable for Christmas last year and just recent got her a JBL 305p mkii speaker to upgrade the output quality.

I can't for the life of me get it to work however. The output on the turntable is RCA and I'm using an RCA to 1/4" adapter to plug it into the speaker. I'm connecting both the red and the white cable to the adapter and have tried both "line" and "phono" settings on the turntable. I had understood that the speaker was powered and so shouldn't need any extra kit.

What am I missing?

Any help greatly appreciated!

Chris

The speaker input is mono rather than stereo if that makes any difference? You’re right, it should work!

Does the speaker work with any other inputs that you’ve tried?

rids57 · 2 Jul 2024 at 03:41

The output isn't switched to phono instead of Line is it? Hopefully you bought a pair of JBL 305p's for left and right.

marl · 2 Jul 2024 at 20:38

Is the output of the cartridge high enough to drive speakers without the need for an amp?

Are the cartridge leads correctly connected and not loose?

Gray2233 · 2 Jul 2024 at 20:43

marl said:
Is the output of the cartridge high enough to drive speakers without the need for an amp?

Are the cartridge leads correctly connected and not loose?

They're active speakers so that shouldn't be a problem.

Tacitus · 9 Jul 2024 at 05:17

Thanks everyone

Nothing I've tried has worked - I have 1 speaker, the only output from the turntable is 2* RCA. I've tried using a 2* RCA - 1/4" adapter, as well as RCA - XLR to no avail. The turntable is set to line rather than phono. I just simply can't get it to work.

tom_nieto · 9 Jul 2024 at 12:32

Did you test the speaker with any other sources?

Ryan-3 · 9 Jul 2024 at 13:11

tom_nieto said:
Did you test the speaker with any other sources?

I was thinking this also. Do you have anything else to plug the turntable into to make sure there is a signal coming out of it? Something like a line in port on the PC

visibleman · 9 Jul 2024 at 14:38

Tacitus said:
Thanks everyone

Nothing I've tried has worked - I have 1 speaker, the only output from the turntable is 2* RCA. I've tried using a 2* RCA - 1/4" adapter, as well as RCA - XLR to no avail. The turntable is set to line rather than phono. I just simply can't get it to work.

As others have said, you need to test the monitor(/speaker) with another source just to rule that out. And ideally you would test the turntable too if you can.

But you'll need a RCA to 2-pole 1/4" jack (pos/hot to pos/hot/jack tip; ground/cold to ground/cold/jack barrel) as it's an unbalanced signal from each RCA rather than balanced (where you have hot, hot-180-deg-out-phase, cold; same with XLR) - your JBL monitor won't do stereo-to-mono conversion.
If you had a pair of the JBL's, then left RCA would go to one monitor, right to the other etc.

Edit - you want something like this -

You don't want this -