Your right, few turntables (except for some brand new ones) have a pre-amp in them. Some older receivers that specifically have a PHONO input that will power the signal. I ran into this problem when I got a new receiver and found out that my records were really really quit. I had to buy a Phono Pre Amp. It was about $20 at the local electronics store. For some reason I think Radio Shack said they stopped carrying them in store when I was looking but its worth checking out It was something like this here (I found froogling phone pre amp): http://store.teptronics.com/pp999.html?zma...amp;zmap=