You are here

Log in or register to post comments
TheMattman
TheMattman's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 5 months ago
Joined: May 30 2020 - 11:29am
Phono Hum Problem Affected By Cartridge Vicinity

Hi,

My system has a phono hum in it that is particularly annoying when listening to quieter music on Vinyl.

The turntables ground lug is firmly attached to my integrated's ground screw, though I do notice the hum gets MUCH worse when I detach it from the ground screw. Everything is plugged into the same surge protector.

The most interesting thing to me is that the severity of the hum lessens the further my phono cartridge gets from my integrated amplifier. My turntable sits to the left of my amplifier and is on the same surface. Moving the cartridge away from the amp lessens the hum a great deal. Therefore, the hum is worse at the beginning of record sides than at the end.

Has anybody experienced a hum like this before? Is there anything I can do to get rid of it without buying new furniture and rearranging so my turntable doesn't sit next to my amp?

Thanks,

Matt

Old Audiophile
Old Audiophile's picture
Offline
Last seen: 1 month 9 hours ago
Joined: Jun 15 2017 - 7:34pm
Hello, Mattman!

I remembered your post and think I may have a solution for you if you are still struggling with this. I know this is late in the game but better late than never.

I just recently cured a very similar, if not the same exact problem. Assuming what you were hearing was a 60 cycle hum (60 Hz), here's what I would recommend and what I did to get rid of that annoying hum. Make certain all the connections to all your components are wired correctly and secure (i.e. no lose or dangling connections). Make sure the AC connection and the connections to your surge protector are secure, as well. Then, make sure your power cables aren't right on top of one another or on top of your surge protector. Put as much space between them, as possible. Do the same with all your other cabling & wiring (i.e. interconnects; speaker cables; etc.), as well. The idea is to put as much space or breathing room between all your cables & wires as possible. If that doesn't do the trick, put as much space between your turntable and amp as possible. The idea here is to put as much space between the cartridge and the location of the power supply in your amp as possible. Depending upon your components, you might be able to achieve this by just swapping the positions of the amp and turntable. If this doesn't do the trick then I'd have to ask if, perchance, you might have other components on your rack that might be causing the feedback. For example, a satellite TV receiver or two? I recently terminated my DirecTV service and got rid of 2 satellite receivers (one for regular TV and one for 4K ultra high definition TV) that were located on the shelf of my rack just below the amp. I can't be absolutely certain of this but I suspect those satellite receivers had everything to do with my turntable hum problem.

Good Luck! Just out of curiosity, please let me know how you make out with all of this. Always curious.

  • X