Examining the hardware

In next couple of tutorials we are going to examine our audio hardware and see how to adjust some parameters and fix some issues.

The gramophone

The model in question is TTUSB05B KL. It's $90 worth of light plastic semi-automatic quality hardware. The name TTUSB represents a turntable (a gramophone, or phonograph) that can be connected to a computer through universal serial bus (USB) port.

Parts and characteristics

USB port
Analog to digital converter (ADC) will send digital signal through this port. The characteristic of this signal is 44,1 kHz and 16-bit resolution.

RCA Audio output cables
These cables can be plugged to a CD or auxiliary LINE input. This audio output signal can be connected to your receiver, home stereo, other speaker system, or sound card of your computer.

Tonearm
This tonearm with cartridge and needle can be raised or lowered by pushing the button. It is used to start spinning the motor.

Platter
Motor will rotate the platter with two possible speeds, 33,3 rpm (rotations per minute) used for long play records (LPs) or 45 rpm used for singles.