Help....local radio station coming through my phonotstage!

Correct, nothing special about them at all. The ones you have are fine. And yes, just one adapter, on one piece of equipment, at a time.

 

I'm so curious to find out how this ends. A real mystery, this one...

 

Same here. Rooting for the OP!

 

I was beat last night and the wife wanted to watch TV so I am going to try that as soon as I get home from work.

Decade is inbound for tomorrow. I am PSYCHED!!!

 

I don't believe using the Decade will change the end result but I sure hope I'm wrong.

 

So do I ;-)

I do have 2 things to try tonight, unplug the Cat 5 cable and add that cheater plug.

 

Well, at the very least, at the end of all this you will be able to give some GREAT comparisons between three phono preamps I have been eyeing up - the Decade, BC SE II, and the Insight.

Maybe between songs from the radio station you can compare these amps and give a quick synopsis in a separate thread! Not many of us have the opportunity to have all those three stages in one place for such a comparison!!!

 

I was meaning to ground the table, amp and phono stage to an outside ground. Sometimes you can ground to the screw in the center of the outlet cover. Otherwise you would have to run a ground wire to the outside cable/phone ground rod.

Just for kicks if you have a cable box in the room unplug the power and cable in. Had a major hum problem and traced it to that. Could be acting like a several mile long antenna. This certainly won't hurt anything. Good luck!

 

I can do better than that, add the Rega Fono and Aria to the mix. I will certainly create a thread for the 5 stages, the Decade arrives tomorrow, so give me some time to allow the break in and I will happily compare them.

 

UPDATE:

I tried the cheater plug (3 prong to 2 prong) and that did not make a difference at all, I'm still grateful for the advice -it could have been the ticket!
I also unplugged the Cat5 cable that runs behind my audio rack and into the computer that sits off to the side of it. Did not make a difference either -again thanks for the tip though, never know!
I might borrow some high end cables form the The Cable Store and see if they help. I'm not sure I have any other options right now. Tonight the station is dead quiet when I place the SEII facing the back corner, but as SOON as I touch the Rega arm to place it down on a record the station comes in the loudest I ever heard it. Crystal clear and loud!

 

The Aria is one I was always curious about - two separate inputs for MM, MC, all analog discrete amp with no digital circuity.... sometimes I scratch my head and wonder why this one is not reviewed and owned by more....

A first blush, do you have any obvious likes or dislikes with the Aria?

Wait, that's OT... so OK if you want to wait on that... but ultimately your thread!

 

Now you can get rid of your tuner and buy something else. Win Win.

 

Might've already been mentioned and tried above, but if not you could try some of the clip-on/clamp-on/snap-on type ferrite cores on the phono cables, you can get a set of them in various sizes for pretty cheap. RFI is one of the things they are made to suppress.

 

Honestly I think this thread is about wrapped up. I'm going to contact The Cable Shop tomorrow and see if they can recommend something. Another member sent me an IM stating that is what worked for him.

So the Aria....it's a heck of a unit. Of the 4 stages I have had the pleasure of playing with over the last several weeks (Decade not here yet), none can touch the Aria when it comes to slam. I thought my Focal 726's were a bit bass shy...oh my no.....that is not the case at all. I had no idea a phono stage could make so much of a difference. It creates a tight, really tight, bass that you feel in your body. I loved it for that (and I am about as far a bass head as one can get) and none of these other stages has been able to hit that mark. I'm hoping the Decade captures that back for me. This hobby really has so many variables....the table, the arm, the cart, the stage, the amp, the specific tubes, the speakers, cables....each one can have an effect on the overall sound you ultimately hear. My problem was I never knew the phono stage had the most dramatic effect (in my humble opinion) on the overall sound. So the first thing I noticed when turning on the Aria was the way my music sounded and staged. It had always been a reverse T shape in terms of staging. Picture a line across my room in between the two speakers and then the center point where the vocalist would stand would go back in a very straight line. The Aria takes that center line and blows it out to the left and right. The three dimensional picture it paints of the musicians is SO very cool. I had NO IDEA a stage could do that. Had no idea what I had been missing with cheaper stages. The Rega Fono MC is a nice sounding stage but misses on this big time and for 1/3 the price it should right? I ultimately sent the Aria back because I feel it is not quite neutral enough for my tastes and the highs roll off a bit. I'd give it a 8.75 out of 10 and could have been very happy with it. But for the price I knew I could get closer to what I prefer in my music, which is neutral and loads of detail. I'll save the rest for that review thread.

 

I'm a ham radio geek and have been running 1200 watts on HF freq at my house for a long time. All of my gear is grounded together as to not cause RF at my neighbor's homes that live around me. One thing, I live on 5 acers so we are not really close together. This sounds like it could be a ground problem. I found a link from a site in Australia that might give you more a little more info on what might be the cause. Yes, it talks about CB (Children's Band as we call it) but RF is RF. I hope this helps. Eliminating interference in stereo or audio equipment | ACMA

 

Very interesting. When I look at the specs of the Aria, look at the architecture, etc - I always go out to the internet and wonder why I don't see more reviews. I was VERY curious how it would stack up against the BC SE II, Sutherland offerings,etc. Now I am VERY curious as to what you think about the Aria vs the Decade!

Thanks Mike for this initial view of the Aria...

 

A couple of things here. One, having the extra gain on the phono-pre, will amplify the hum or RF, whatever unwanted signal, more than with the lower gain necessary for a MM cart.

Two, I would ground your TT. Try this, run a ground wire from your phono-pre and hold it by the its insulation in one hand while you touch different parts of the TT with your other hand, to see what does or what does not result in receiving the FM signal.

Also, try doing this with the TT unplugged, I bet that you will still be hearing the FM noise.

Then do the same thing, while touching different parts of your TT to the bare wire end of the ground wire, that you are holding. See if you can make that FM signal go away.

If it does, then support your TT by using three quart size paint cans, covered with washcloths, turning the TT over and resting on the wash cloths. If there is a bottom plate, remove it to gain access to the bottom inside of the TT.

Then put a small spade lug on the end of the ground wire. Loosen a nut a bit, slide the ground wire lug under the nut and tighten the nut back down, that should make a big difference.

 

UPDATE:

Decade arrived. I hooked it up and first impression, it sounds really good, but close to the BCSEII. I'm sure break in is required. However the main point is the radio station is still here and inf act came in even clearer. Funny thing too, I though the BCSEII was defective since the left channel went out on me and would only come back when I moved the unit. Well guess what...the Decade did the same damn thing. Left channel went out on me for apparently no good reason. I moved the unit a few inches and it's back. The plot thickens.

 

I suspect your turntable wiring.

 

WOW that really sux

 

have a trichord dino for 12 yrs and I can't have it close to my TT or else it gets a lot of statice , so it stays on the lower shelf...this is from thier website..for MC cartridges
:
The capacitance loading of either 100pf or 1,000pF can be best determined by experimentation as there are no real hard and fast rules here, but generally speaking the lower the capacitance value the better.

The higher setting of 1,000pF will tend to reduce the extreme high frequencies and/or reduce radio frequency noise.

Remember that the arm lead cables have their own capacitance which needs to be taken into account.

See the specifications for the recommended loading of your cartridge.

 

Wow that is strange. Do you know what station it is? How far it the transmitter from you house?

 

Are you back to using the AQ Cinnamon cables?

 

yes but the second pair, not the pair that I was using when this first started. Honestly they both are doing the same thing. Funny thing is when I touch the Decade with my right hand, the station stops, dead in its tracks, but if I touch it with my left hand the station stays right there. ???

 

This IS some pretty strange **** going on here, Jackson! Do you have any pins in your left arm from prior surgeries? Anyone playing with a Tesla Death Ray in your area?

This is one of those times where having multiple TT's and HT setups comes in handy, I would be swapping things out wholesale to different amps, TT's, outlets and locations in the house for kicks an giggles. There is something strange going on here, and I realize that might be the most obvious statement that could be possibly made at this point.

This may have already been covered - but was any of this happening with the Rega phono preamp? And if not, what else has changed in the system?