Close to giving up (Buzz/Hum problem)

It does, but without internally rewiring, can you find a grounding spot on the receiver and take that to ground with another wire?

 

Is there any chance the leads to your phono cartridge are compromised? Does the buzz happen equally on both channels? Any use in trying to take a close look at the ground lead to your cartridge?

Those are just some thoughts that may not solve the problem since you seem to have some voodoo TT weirdness happening there that affects things without power. Which isn't totally out there since your cartridge is only grounded and not powered (correct me if I'm wrong there).

Maybe the HiFi shop would let you take another TT home to try?

 

I wouldn't be so quick to jump on a Power Conditioner. I've rarely seen people purchasing them stating that resolved their issue. Quite recently, a member experiencing RFI was recommended one which he bought but didn't make any difference whatsoever. They have their place but the suggestion of buying one is thrown around very very often with little success in addressing whatever issue it was supposed to fix.

 

A cheater plug removes/isolates the ground from a connection and though I have never had any problems using one ~ I don't condone using this as a long term solution, but it's helpful in isolating the problem and they are fairly cheap. They can most likely be bought at any electrical/hardware store. In the USA it looks like this:


The component's 3 prong power cord (with ground) gets plugged into the 3 slots and the 2 slots get plugged into the wall outlet. This removes the ground from working ~ it is not considered a safe long term solution, but as mentioned it's really cheap and "if it works" most likely an isolation transformer (which is a good and safe long term solution) can then be used to remove the hum and provide a long term solution.

 

NO! I did that and not only did it do nothing to resolve it, a number of people here told me to return it. I got the sense those things are kinda snake oil, at least for that purpose. At least buy it where it can be returned. I'm lazy and kept mine, it looks great in my system but I'm not sure it's doing a darn thing for me. I paid $550 for mine.

This type of problem is very frustrating but I got a ton of help here and it's down to where I can tolerate it. Instead of a loud annoying buzz it's been reduced to a bit of a hum but it doesn't seem intrusive to the music. Mine was also worse when having my hand near the arm. As others have said, start by disconnecting your table. If it's dead quiet you have isolated it to the table. Keep trying suggestions given here and then update the results. People better than me at this will keep giving you ideas based on your feedback and you will almost certainly solve your issue. Unless you have to get a different brand table, which it seems others have had to do with your brand. Most of my issue ended up being a defective ground part in my new table, but it took a lot of effort before I figured it out with some help here. Eventually you will get it isolated...it can only be so many things. Good luck and keep at it!

 

I just saw your post...wonder who that member was...lol!

 

But why? We already know its a ground problem with the player. Its not like you can play records with a custom attached tonearm wire.

 

This is exactly what I did but I used a piece of metal/foil furnace tape. For me the best place on the table was the metal brace, which is not included on the Planar 1 and 2 models. If I were you, looking at the picture of the bottom of your table, I would try attaching the wire to the metal main bearing and see if that helps. Next try the motor mount.

 

Yeah, but I heard people fixed their buzzing with their Pro-jects by taking a single strand of copper wire and attaching it to the ground screw at the end of the tonearm and then wrapping it around the arm and then through the back of the arm. Inelegant for sure, but if it works?

 

Wrapping anything around the tonearm sounds to me like compromising bearring smoothness. If there was a grounding post sure, but there is none.

 

Sounds to me like the issue is with the wiring in the OP's house. He says it has "poor isolation".

Someone suggested looking for a dimmer switch on the same circuit as the turntable's plug. A ceiling fan or other motor can also introduce hum.

$599 for a power conditioner is ridiculous. The one I suggested is 80 bucks. I plug all my gear into one and it's quiet as a mouse. If it doesn't help, return it, no biggie.

 

Did it solve anything for you or did you just get it because why not?

 

Yup, it works. I use it at our rehearsal studio. It filters out ground noise from cheap wiring.

 

If you read the post again you will see it was a troubleshooting post not a permanent fix. Do you think I was recommending taping a wire to the tonearm and playing it that way? The tape just allows you to quickly move the wire around the TT to troubleshoot. The OP does not know where the buzz is coming from but noted no grounding plugs on his gear and no grounding wire on the Rega.

 

I'm glad I got rid of TT grounding issues when I permanently disconnected my TT many years ago. Have still had some hum/buzz issues with other components over the years, but have been able to solve them relatively easily. As a mastering engineer now in the digital age (I also mastered professionally in the 1970s before CDs or anything digital existed, other than 2-track mixdown machines), I do not partake in the resurgence of vinyl. I just can't stand the ticks, pops, noises, and inexorable degradation of the medium as one continues to play them.

 

I have albums over 45 years old that sound as good as the day I bought. Records played on a turntable that is properly set up and using a good cartridge will last a lifetime. A good RCM is a must own for anyone who is serious about collecting and playing records. But, to each their own. I enjoy listening to CDs, SACDs, and cassettes too so I'm for all formats.

 

I want to thank everyone again for all the effort being put into this. You have all been amazing and I can't thank you enough. If you ever visit Porto, let me know and I'll buy you a few beers

I tried this with a speaker wire. One tip attached to the ground screw on my receiver and I moved the other around every corner of the tonearm, screws and motor. It helped reduce the buzz no more than 5%.

Thank you for your kind words! Yes, born and raised in Portugal. We have english classes since we're 10 and, in my case, up until university, so that's why we're usually ok with english. I'm glad you enjoyed Portugal, I always enjoy hearing that. Great food, great weather, great people and it's beautiful. We've got it all eheh. Did you visit Porto?

I'm not sure about your question. Right now, that's what I've done. I have a speaker cable connected to the ground screw on the receiver and the other tip of the cable is connected to one of the grounding metal parts of one of my outlets. It reduced the buzz significantly, but IsIlike to get rid of it 100%. It's still not on an acceptable level while listening using headphones.

That's the next step. I'll remove the cables from the cartridge, maybe close the pins just a little bit and reconnect, making sure everything is into place and there are no loose wires. If that works, great! If it doesn't, I'll try another cartridge.

The cartridge is grounded using another method. Take a look at this picture.



The black wire is the internal grounding wire. It's bridged with the left channel wire and soldered to that metal strip that helps with grounding. This works most of the time, but it's not ideal and it doesn't work with a lot of people. Not enough for them to do something about it, apparently.

What I can do is remove the bridge and add an external ground wire like it should have been done in the first place. But I'd lose warranty on a month old TT.

Thank you for the explanation. Unfortunately, in Europe we already have two prong plugs that do not connect to the grounding part of the outlets. And both my receiver and TT use those. So they're already not grounded which I also think is part of the problem. Thing is, there's not much I can do about that.

Thank you! I'll keep looking and trying different things until I get it solved. I'll keep the power conditioner option on the list, I can always return it if it doesn't work.

Poor sound isolation. The electrical installation is good AFAIK. I'll probably have an electrician look at it anyway. There is one dimmer but nothing else. I also turned everything off on the circuit breaker (besides the room where the audio gear is in) and the issue was still there. Also, don't forget I tried my equipment at my friend's house and the issue was still there.

Well, I guess some of us like the inconvenience of vinyl records.

I'll keep you all updated about how the cartridge swapping goes. Again, thank you so much everyone.

 

Because there is no grounding wire. And sure, do the test, but to me at this point its beyond doubt that its anything other than a grounding problem.

 

There seems to be some confusion in this thread about what's being grounded in a typical turntable grounding-wire scheme. The grounding wire in a turntable grounds the tonearm tube and bearings, in large part so that the arm acts as a shield for the unsheilded wires running through it. Typically also the phono cart -- commonly by virtue of contact between the mounting screws and the arm -- is connected to this ground connection so that whatever sheilding scheme is built into the cart body is also connected to system ground. And if you're using something with a two prong vs. a separate chassis ground three prong plug, it shouldn't matter. The chassis and system grounds are still almost certainly tied together in the electronics.

It's possible that you have a broken ground connection between the tonearm and the RCA ground sleeve and/or between the cartridge ground and the arm. Do you have a multimeter? If you do you can check for continuity between the ground sleeve of your RCA plugs on your tonearm wires and any part of the tonearm where you can contact the metal directly (ie, where there's no finish, if you're trying to make the connection through the tonearm finish, it's not going to work). If there's no continuity, then you need to return the arm and have it replaced with one that's properly wired. If there's continuity between the ground the problem may be with the cart grounding scheme.

Sounds very frustrating.

 

He did take it to the dealer where there was no hum though. So it cant be completely broken internally right?

 

Probably not, but it's possible that at the store there was no meaningful source of induced hum vs. at the OP's home, so the problem might not show up or might be much much lower in level. It also might not have to be completely broken, just a poor connection. It does seem to me like if it's a persistent problem only relating to this table all over this person's home, but other tables in the same home are able to reject whatever the source of hum is, that the most likely culprit is in the arm and/or cart's shielding scheme. I do think the OP hasn't tried a different cart yet either (although worth checking can be the cart tag solder joints).

It's not a ground loop or anything related to the turntable's motor or the receiver's wiring, since the issue is persistent with different electronics and since the phono cart is not connected to the AC line, but is a passive generator. So all this business with power conditioning and cheater plugs and all that is barking up the wrong tree.

 

Well considering I have a Rega too with the same problem Im not sure if it has to be "broken" necessarily. I always just thought Rega had grounding problems in general, considering the choice to not use a wire for it.
I changed carts and the problem persisted as well, I was thinking of buying conditioners and power strips to try but people seem to think thats a waste of time here. The problem was never solved on my old thread either though so Ill be happy if it is here.

 

having a separate wire for the arm ground, or connecting the arm ground to a ground connection on the signal wire/RCA ought not to make a difference if it's a good, solid, low-resistance connection. But obviously there's something mysterious going on. That's why one thing I'd check is continuity. But it's just a guess. Hard to troubleshoot hum from afar.

 

Well yes, I have no doubt that Regas system with grounding can work great. But it seems to be a problem for a lot of users and people often report switching tables and not having any more grounding problems, those having a separate grounding wire. So either Rega is just extremely picky about house wiring or the tonearm wiring itself tends to be connected badly.

 

I'm fairly sure I can solve this for you.
Keep your grounding cable that is connected to the ground on your Marantz receiver above the phono inputs just where it is. Connect the other end to one of the screws on the back of the turntable Power supply. Try different screws on the back of the power supply until you find which one gets you the quietest.