New RP3 - noises galore. Help!

Got back into vinyl in August. My father-in-law heard my setup and loved it enough that he wanted to head back into vinyl as well. Since my VPI was out of his price range, I suggested a Rega RP3. Managed to find one at a great price.

Unfortunately, it exhibits a ton (and I mean a *ton*) of noises. Thumps, random rumbling distortion, crackle, etc. I've created a video. Please listen to it with headphones to better hear the noises in the video.



I'm open to all reasonable and constructive suggestions. If exchanging the turntable is the only option, I'll need to ship it back which is annoying so that's why I want to try what I can first to fix it.

 

Couple things here:

1. About the ground wire. Rega ties the ground of the tonearm to the signal ground in the tonearm wires. You can add a ground wire (I did it to mine) but it is a bit tricky. It involves removing the stub on the arm pillar and doing a bit of surgery.
2. Tapping the arm. Sounds like there's a loose connection in there to be honest. It's normal to hear a bit of noise when you tap the arm because the cables (all cables) are microphonic to some extent. However, it sounds way beyond normal in your video and makes me think the wiring might be shagged.
3. The noise/hum coming from the speakers. Bit trickier that one. Doesn't sound like the noise you'd get from a grounding issue, although its hard to tell on the video to be honest. Either way-- not right.

I don't imagine you're going to want to experiment much with the tonearm wiring. What you could do is clean the tags as well as the lugs of the cartridge-tonearm interface. Use some isopropyl and a cotton swap. Could be a poor connection between the tonearm wires and the cart.

You could also try moving the turntable somewhere else in the room, and with a different power source, i.e., another wall socket. Perhaps there's some kind of electrical interaction going on in the room.

Beyond that I wish I could help you more! Definitely not right whatever is going on. Good luck!

 

It certainly sounds like a tonearm wiring harness anomaly. Ground and negative leads (which are one and the same) most likely. Check the wiring binding at the bottom and back of the plinth held by screws and a plastic clip -make sure that you don't see any obvious physical indications. I've come across is before, creating noise problems but not to this extent.
I bet this would be solved by a complete rewire of the TA (which sounds better anyway). It's probably not something you're interested in doing since you indicated what this TTs purpose is.
God luck and keep us posted.

 

Did you buy that new, factory sealed new, or used?

 

Send it back.

 

Just return the TT.

 

Rega ground through the shield of one of the signal cables. Sounds like an internal problem with the arm earthing. Difficult to fix. Could be grounding point inside arm has become detached? I would send it back.

 

Sounds like a loose toneram lead — assuming you checked all the connections thoroughly?

 

Just aft of the headshell where the leads come out of the arm to the cart there is some grey/black foam material help to hold the wires in place. The leads are cold soldered to the tonearm wires just behind the foam. It's possible there's a soldering problem - it can be fixed.

 

Thank you all for your help. I'm not good with a soldering iron and am not willing to start dismantling it as I'd be out of my depth. I've checked all connections and there's no way to ground it that I was able to find so I've contacted the dealer and now hope an exchange will be a painless affair.

In truth, this is Rega refurbished unit, hence the great price. The dealer has an "all sales final" policy so I'll cross my fingers that they'll gladly take it back and hand me another one.

 

FYI, in case you can't return it, work out something with the dealer to have him fix it. Should not cost more than $20. In my case I paid to ship but the dealer fixed it and paid for the return shipping. Also, a local audio repair person should be able to do the job for you at little cost if the dealer won't budge. Good luck.

 

According to emails from the dealer prior to purchasing, I'm covered by Rega for 3 years. Worst-case scenario, I'll contact them but I sure would appreciate the immediacy of driving to the dealer to perform an exchange right then and there as opposed to going through all of that red tape.

I'm just glad I'm dealing with this as best I can instead of my poor father-in-law who'd be completely overwhelmed.

 

UPDATE...

Got an email back from the president of the company with whom I had been in contact since the beginning and he agreed about the possibility of some defective tonearm wiring and suggested we perform an exchange...which is a load off my mind!

Hopefully, I won't have any of these issues with the next one. It's a 1h drive each way but it'll speed up the exchange process to do it that way. I'll make sure to update this thread once I get the next turntable up and running.

 

Not related to your noise issue, but is that a Rega cartridge mounted on the tonearm. If so it looks like it is set way too far back in the headshell for proper alignment.

 

It does look like its WAY back dosent it..

 

I think in the video he said it was an Ortofon 2M... either way, good catch. It doesn't look right at all.

 

I was using the protractor which came with the turntable which is a piece of paper with a cross and some lines. That is how I needed to set the 2M Blue so that it was dead-on.

Regardless, that wouldn't account for the noise issues I've been experiencing. If there's a better cheap protractor I could use, please let me know as I'm only familiar with VPIs.

 

No, definitely nothing to do with the noise issues. But a cause for concern nonetheless as you're definitely not going to get optimal performance and will likely risk premature wear on the vinyl/stylus.

As for which protractor to use I would visit this page: Free Cartridge Alignment Protractors - Vinyl Engine and choose either the "Rega Baerwald" or "Rega Stevenson" protractors. Just control+F and search for those and you'll find them right away. Make sure they are printed to scale properly, and follow the instructions.

Even with a universal protractor like what you describe it still looks wrong. I suspect you missed a step somewhere and got the overhang wrong. No biggie, it happens. Use the ones above and follow the directions and you'll be set.

 

My new RP3 is dead quiet..utterly noise free....also have a Lounge preamp.

Your unit is a dud.

For what it is worth I never ever buy used or refurbished I just don't trust people.

 

It's one provided by Rega and I followed the directions to the letter but yes, I agree, it looked horrible but was dead-on in every way according to that protractor.

The ones you linked to seem a lot more thorough which is great, so thank you very much for that! I look forward to setting things up on a turntable without those issues.

 

A quick way to check is to swing the stylus over to the spindle and see if the overhang is 15 mm.

 

Sure, but if you wind up with the stylus aligned to the grid at both of the two points on the universal protractor, the overhang and offset will be correct for that tonearm mounting position and alignment type, be it Stevenson, or Baerwald, or Lofgren, or whatever. You have to go back and forth a few times, adjusting both parameters as you go, and people generally find it easier to use an arc protractor so that the two parameters are separated, but the end result should be the same if done correctly (that last word being the key).

 

OP made reference to using the protractor provided by Rega. If you've done it right, using the Rega protractor should result in the Rega overhang dimension. Someone up there questioned whether the overhang is wrong and my point is you can verify that in 2 seconds if you know what the overhang was supposed to be and you know this is what overhang means.

 

While you are at the dealer swapping out tables, get him to take a look at the cart alignment on the replacement table. As mentioned above, the cartridge is too far back on the arm. For the most part, 2m carts line up close to the contour edge of a Rega arm (like in the pictures on the links below):

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3306/3228548240_e53b0eca14_m.jpg

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nHmpNIRmArs/hqdefault.jpg

https://www.lowbeats.de/site/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/2015-10-RegaRP1-Ortofon.jpg

 

It's Fubar. Someone has broken the arm; you can't fix this. Get a proper exchange or if that is problematic, get a refund and shop somewhere else. It's always best to buy turntables in person when possible. You'll also need to align whatever cartridge comes on it as it is apparent that they cannot. It should also have a spacer under the tonearm for that cartridge.
-Bill