Perhaps. The guys from Pioneer think it's two bad turntables. Not sure I want to go to the time to see.
Try a MM cartridge. AT MC do produce slight hum even when earthing is optimised. Easy trick is remove head shell with cartridge and see if hum disappears. There is insufficient shielding on the power transformer on these but hum should be at a tolerable level and inaudible while music playing.
I have two cartridges on headshells (MY AT )C/9II and my Adcom High Output MC Crosscoil. Both hummed but when I disconnected them the hum went away totally. What soes that mean? Should I have kept the PLX-1000? Will the Denon VL12 I just ordered likely have the same problem. You should know. I have a 1983 AR The Turntable on which I had my original OC/9 it never had the slightest hum. I remounted my Adacom cartirge in its headshell and plugged it in to the eaxact same system as the humming PLXs and it was dark absolute silence. So ig my MC cartridges tend to hum how come they were silent in my AR? Just wondering. Thank you for your input.
I told you above the cause of the hum. There is a frame transformer on the main control board that puts out a magnetic field that interacts with MCs. No problem if you use a MM cartridge. This is a problem with all but the best DD turntables.
What is tolerable hum? How can hum be inaudible while the music is palying? Hum is unwanted noise and it will cover up wanted signal especially the low level detail that makes the OC9/MLII resolve more detail that its MM siblings. Not willing to give up my MC benies for the sake of poor shielding I guess. Hoepfully the Denon VL12 will not hum as they tout better S/N ratio. Perhaps it's a belt drive for me. Thank you for your knowledge and insights and sharing. I appreciate it. It confirms my returning the PLXs. Too bad Pioneer couldn't have told me this in the first place. It would have saved much wasted time and needless efforts.
I'm a working musician. My wife and I have put out 6 albums. If the recording studio told me I can't use a Neuman Condensor Vocal Mic because it will hum with our poorly shielded preamps, we wouldn't record there. No hum at all from my AT/MC in my AR TT even with the volume cranked to where we'd be deafened if we played an LP. I've owned several top AT MMs and know them as quite fine cartridges, but there is something in the ATMC that they didn't quite have.
Again I'm am sorry for my egregious spelling. I was in a hurry. Trying to head for a walk with our dog pining by the door. I so appreciate the help & advice I've gotten from you all.
With correct earthing hum level is low and may only hear it with volume well up and no needle in the groove. It may be dependent on how revealing your system is? I got it to an acceptable level but there is none with MM on the PLX1000 or with belt drives where power supplies are generally external. One of the main SL1200 upgrades was to move the power supply off board. The new Technics decks use an on board switch mode supply to eliminate this hum problem but switch modes have other issues with mains pollution.
In fact I have seen other posts on this and otherPLX-1000 forums who have used the very same AT OC/9II in a Jelco HS-20 headshell and have not mentioned anything about turnon thumps or any hum. I remember in the old days folks using all kinds of Mu Metal to shield against hums. Couldn't one perhaps use? Mu to shield the humming DD motors at home? Thanks again I am reviewing old rusted info, and learning quite a bit new. This has all been quite interesting, and enlightening no matter the frustration.
System quite revealing TT ,AQ Viper RCAs, Van Alstine Vision Q Phono Pre, AQ KIng Cobra RCAs, Benchmark DAC 1 USB, Adcom GFP-750 AQ Viper XLRs, Adcom GFA-5802, Monster BiWire SPK Wire, KEF Reference 3.2s. Thanks for thoughts & insights. Again not even slightest hum with AR TT.
VL-12? I wouldn't if I were you. That one is made by Hanpin as well as the plx 1000. It is a lower quality turntable though. Denon doesn't make their own turntables anymore. The VL-12 is the same super oem turntable that all the other brands are slapping their name on, all made by Hanpin. Check out other Dj decks and see how they're identical. It's a possibility you won't have the manufacturing defects like the last two pioneers you swapped, but the sound won't be any better. It's a cheap Dj turntable. Hanpin has been using that same cheap tone arm since the early 90s. I would guess many of the other parts have been the same since the 90s as well. I would sooner take my chances on swapping out a few more plx's. Or find a used technics 1200. The prices have gone down on eBay some since the new ones popped up. (But a new one would be oh so sweet-never have to buy again after that) The Stanton st150/audio technics lp1240 is the best of the Hanpin line if you want to go that route. Doesn't get much batter than that.
According to this article from NAMM the Denon is definitely NOT a Hanpin design. I think it looks really interesting, I'd be very curious to hear how it sounds. NAMM 2016: Denon DJ's VL12 turntable | DJWORX
The big give away for me is Denon's sister company who use hanpin - Numark's new NXT1000 which is identicle to the DENON VL12, when I saw the marketing photos the VL12 looked well made, until I saw a video on youtube, i wasn't too impressed. I thought the PLX-1000 was a great sounding turntable, except when i touched the platter during a mix, it was very bad, and also the build quality of the tonearm and i'm no longer keen on mixing with digital pitches...i went back to a pair of nice Technics 1210s which i've had new Neutrik Van Damme rca cables fitted, new grounds, new tonearms, new mint platters and serviced/cleaned/callibrated, with new plates and isonoe feet and cups, new pitch felts and lids, plus Neutrik XLR cables into my new Adam monitors, using a XONE 43c mixer....all I can say is wow I don't think I would go back to another Hanpin...i even tried one 1210 next to the PLX-1000 and the difference was very clear. I'm a bit annoyed as was excited about the Pioneers, lost money selling them, so that's the end of that chapter. also using the ortofon s120 cartridge, which is my favourite so far
Thank you. The VL12 is on the way. Will try it. If that doesn't work I'll either refurb my AR or get something like a Music Hall MMF7.3 or Clear Audio Concept. 35 (maybe 40) years ago I had a Technics SL-110 (Armless SL-1100) with AT arm. It was great (i mean audiophile great) hard to go backwards to a SL-1200 or these others. But I was trying to keep my price well under $1000.00 BTW There are those out there that say the VL12 is a better sounding table than the PLX-1000. We shall see.
Will let you know. BTW here is a VL12 Thread from the same Lymbo woh raves about his PLX-1000, a couple years back, on this thread here: Initial Impressions of the New Denon DJ VL12 Prime Turntable
In your situation, I would avoid the DD turntables all together unless your intention is to do some mixing. I know the appeal of a good DD is speed stability, but I think you'd likely be happier long term with a good belt-drive. It's purely subjective, but I have yet to hear a DD table that sounds as "musical" as a good belt-drive. I had a PLX for some time, and while it performed well in all the usual metrics, it was just a bit cold and uninvolving. It reminded me of digital. This was with a number of different carts. I kept wanting to return to my old Thorens. You might consider saving a little to get into something like a used VPI Traveler mkII, Rega P3, or VN Thorens. Being that you're a musician, I think you might miss the organic presentation of a belt drive. Like I said, purely subjective on my part, and this is not to evoke a DD vs belt-drive conflict, but there's some good belt drives that keep stable speed and perform just as well as the PLX, they just cost a bit more.
BTW I personally have notheing against the Hanpins. Technics has made some real crap, probably in China or Malaria where they pay the help even less. The PLX was a fine TT if it didn't hum on my cartridge of choice I'd be listening to incredably realistic portryals of humans making music in my living room right now. I really liked the look too. I am saddened it had to go. To be fair I even got a note from the same person at Pioneer DJ Form, who I've been trading comments with for over a week. He is going to see if the tech/design folks at Pioneer Japan have any answers.
i bet both the PLX and VL12 will be amazing audio tables, i thought the mixes I did on the PLX-1000 sounded excellent, and the sound on some of my new LPs such as Thurston Moore's new album was amazing, but i really need that tank like feeling of the 1210, and the analogue pitch just sent me over the edge, also wasn't keen on the tonearm gimball on the PLX, platter was solid for torque, but something just not quite right... I suppose the materials, and components really do make that little bit of difference when you want a clean recording sound. I too was looking at the VL12 and still have not tried it so have absolutely no grounds to not like it, it has had great feedback from the little i've seen, because it hasn't had a proper review...but being a dj, the digital pitches just won't cut it on any of these tunrtables, plus being able to swap out everything locally by a local engineer is great for my technics getting them serviced once a year, without sending them off and spending twice as much on parts.
i too noticed that sound when playing the plx next to my technics 1210, the 1210 just sounded a bit more rounded and honest
Hanpins are great turntables and make up over 90% of the DJ tables available on the market, the motors are excellent, the digital pitches are nice too, but just not as accurate for me as analogue, plus most technics copies i've had over the past 30 years have failed on me some way or another
I don't know how to describe it other than to say that to my ears, belt-drives sound less analytical. The sound is more natural, similar to a live recording compared to a heavily mixed studio recording, but not nearly as obvious. The belt-drives make me want to keep listening, record after record. With DD's, after one record, I'm content with switching over to streaming.
