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

Here's one thing that has not been mentioned by anyone yet...... possible that the radio station upped their broadcast wattages?

 

I have used Rega turntables on and off for years. The RP6 was my main table for two years. It was initially a hum and radio station magnet. The only cure, in my experience during the first week I owned it, was to ensure that whatever phono stage was being used was situated well away from other components, and that the turntable was situated well away from both the phono stage and from the Rega TTPSU (or latterly, the NEO PSU for the demo P6 I used for a week). The best turntable location for me has been on a separate rack or a separate piece of furniture. The best phono stage location for me has been at the limit of the turntable’s phono cable and well to the left side (in other words, as far from the tonearm as possible). The best location for the TTPSU or the NEO PSU has been as low down as possible, well below the phono stage and the turntable, and with the power supply’s AC and DC cables separated by at least a few inches from all input and output phono cables.

Silence - dead silence at any sane volume setting - ensues.

Rega engineers and designers have to improve the build quality of the NEO PSU. It’s a lightweight piece of rattling plastic casework around a very good, adjustable power supply. No external shielding because the casework is plastic. I think that’s a bad decision. Worse though, Rega tonearm wiring has been a source of irritation for years because there’s no proper ground connection, the clip quality is basic, and the wire loom inside the tonearm is average and does only the most basic job of rejecting external noise. With a CAN$2000 turntable, the whole notion of even having to consider so much fussing around in such a high percentage of installations in so many different homes to get a quiet vinyl system using anything from a P1 to a P6 system is a direct result of poor choices on Rega’s part.

In basic home installations - a receiver or integrated amp, an external phono stage and a CD player - Rega turntables generally install perfectly and operate silently. In more complicated setups in which a networked component is present along with a DAC, network player, tuner, headphone amp, and so on in some combination or another, far too high a percentage of Rega P1-P6 (and formerly RP3 and RP6 installations in my experience) are/were hum/radio annoyances that require extra effort to sort out.

Fully half the Rega dealers I’ve either spoken to or done business with over the past 6 years or so, now send most of the RB303 (and now the RB330) tonearms directly to Origin Live for a wiring upgrade. For almost every hum/radio station problem, having Origin Live in the UK upgrade the stock RB303 or RB330 arm with a proper wiring loom and clips eliminates the problem. The wiring upgrade turns the superb RB303 arm (and the even superb-ier RB330 arm) into truly wonderul tonearms. Rega gets the low resonance, stiffness, bearings, arm tube, stub and counterweight, finger lift and arm lift perfect, but muck up on the wiring. It’s slightly bizarre.

All turntable/phono stage setups can suffer the same problem. I had the same problem when I first set up my Technics SL1200G, Bryston SUT and Graham Slee Revelation M phono stage. Relocating the SUT and phono stage 8” to the right solved the problem entirely. Some locations in some home listening rooms are unfortunately awful because they seem to act like a radio swamp. The solution for that is to relocate equipment/rack/furniture to a different wall or corner. But Rega turntable models below the RP8 have in my experience been the most problematic. When Mr. Gandy et al decide to put their minds to this problem that is easy to remedy at the factory, Rega tables will be even better than they are now. But for the RP6/P6 and earlier models in the line, Rega has stubbornly stuck with a wiring scheme that is, in my opinion, terrible and poor value.

 

It's not ridiculous to suggest moving the component around but rather to move it specifically lower.

 

Do you have access to another turntable from a friend? If not, you could always get the cheapest possible turntable off of CraigsList or something. I'm sure that's far less than $100 and would be a good test.

 

Not really....moving it up and down rack positions is much easier then moving the whole rack side to side! lol

 

Assuming he's using a rack. I'm not. If the dealer assumed when moving it sideways would theoretically do the same thing, it's a rather ridiculous suggestion. In any case, I'm curious to see how this will ultimately be resolved.

 

If they did, where does that leave me?

 

Not really....movement of gear is generally one of the easier ways to try and pinpoint RFI issues. Swapping gear up and down can, and often will effect the amount of RFI experienced.

I'm still going to guess that since this just all of a sudden popped up a few days ago, something at the radio station changed.

 

I think there might be a miscommunication because I stated numerous times in this thread that moving the component around is a good troubleshooting step. I was specifically stating that if the dealer just told the user without checking if he's using a rack to move the component downward (no matter what) instead of simply stating to move it around (wherever), *that* is a misguided way to try to help the user. You might think I'm splitting hairs here but since I know many people who aren't using racks, a dealer can't just a assume the use of one when suggesting something so specific. So we essentially agree.

It's possible the station changed something on their end but I wouldn't discount the possibility the turntable is at fault. Wires can change positions internally. Who knows what occurred. If the Rega's cables were easy to swap, it would be a place to start but as it is, Mike is in a bad spot. Being faced with the possibility of spending $100 to take a chance on a troubleshooting step by returning the turntable with no real guarantee it'll resolve anything is a tough pill to swallow. I'm hoping he'll be able to borrow a turntable from a friend or family member for a 5 min test.

 

UPDATE: I forgot I had an old Yamaha turntable that was dropped off at Christmas time. My bro/sis-in-law are moving and he was cleaning out his den and thought I might want it. I just hooked it up and it does not even spin, however I decided to connect it to the stage for the heck of it and BINGO the station came in crystal clear. So it is NOT just the Rega. Which is a relief but doesn't really help me.

What about a ferrite ring? i saw that mentioned on the web last night while searching. It may affect sound though?

 

AM RF will get "detected" from poor connections. Not typically FM.

Power change from the station is unlikely. PM me the call letters and I can pretty quickly research and find if there has been any changes in power or transmit location.

One time I had to get FM out of a church organ system. Turned out to be inappropriate interconnection into the PA system.

CJ

 

I'm sure glad you were able to test with another turntable. That saved a lot of time, money, and effort.

Do you know if it's an FM or AM station?

Do you have another amp to plug this through, even if it's a cheap or old one? Again, purely for troubleshooting purposes. Merely asking due to what @Helom reported about the same amp.

 

Just to check.....with the old turntable, you get the channels coming through on both phono stages that you have there?

What happens if you connect the turntable directly to the Cronus?

 

99.9 The Hawk

 

Yes I have a few Home Theater amps and an older Sony 2 channel amp. Will have to try that later.

 

ahhh..I know that station well. If it's that strong by you I have an idea where you live then. Hmmm..they aren't a particularly powerful station but their (and possibly your) location is such that I can see what power they have being concentrated in a way , say..a NYC FM station wouldn't be.

 

Part of me hopes it's not the CMII but doing that is a great troubleshooting step. Please let us know how it goes. We'll get to the bottom of this, Mike.

 

I only tried with the Insight. I'll try it with the BCSEII which is what I have hooked back up now. In fact with the stage portion placed on second shelf in the rack and pointed towards the back wall (so I am looking at the back of the unit and wires) the radio station is gone. It looks like hell in my rack but the station is gone for now. If I move it an inch it comes right back.

 

I'm in the Lehigh Valley. Just outside Allentown.

 

As I suspected. My wife worked in the area for years.

 

Thanks and before I forget I really appreciate everyone who has weighed in and tried to help me here. Very frustrating.

 

Just imagine how much more frustrating it would be if you didn't have a bunch of us doing our best to help you.

 

Appears that's WODE. If so, no recent changes show on applications.

CJ

 

Thanks for checking on that. You seem pretty up on RFI, any thoughts as to why this would have just basically out of the blue started coming through on the OP's system?

From what I understand, this is a FM station.

 

[QUOTE="..... If I lift the Black Cube off the component shelf the station goes away .... [/QUOTE]

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