yeah - the symptoms sound like that but the record player does have a pre-amp
and the amplifier has a phono input.
a few years ago i asked on this thread for advice and made sure i got something
with a pre-amp after being told what that was.
the turntable is an Audio Technica AT-LP120 it's a copy of the Technics SL 1200.
maybe the pre-amp isn't much good in these ?
but fifteen minutes later...
Well i googled if the turntable pre-amp was any good and could an external one be used.
so i found out a switch on the back of the turntable labeled PHONO turns on/off the
pre-amp...
and voila ! everything sounds very good now - problem solved. simple as that.
i suppose the situation was :
there was a pre-.amp in my old stereo so this never was turned on before.
also a second older turntable also sounded crap with new amp as it
doesn't have a pre-amp.
if both sounded bad i figured the problem was elsewhere.
if i had asked some else to look at this a second head would have sorted both my problems in twenty minutes but i tried to do all on my own...
special thanks to Coru Ammonis and also thanks to Pete, Hydromancer and Shaney
for helping me get to this point - Y'all are (record) players.
listening party round nuke's gaff listening to steely dan vinyls