arm- cartridge grounding

[phowell1]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone here can help with what I believe is a
cartridge or arm grounding problem.

The arm is a Syrinx PU-2, and the cartridge is a Benz Micro MC Gold.
I noticed that sometime during a five hour listening stint on Saturday, the left channel started humming badly with the volume on my Rotel 980 bx at 9:00.

Switching the leads caused the hum to come from the right channel, so the problem is definately the turntable.

Does anyone have an idea about how to isolate the various components in the tuntable so I can figure out exactly what is wrong?

I should preface this by saying that although I have been reading threads for some time now, I have very little understanding of electronics.

If anyone has any ideas that can be put in simple terms, I'm all ears. (Or eyes!!)

Help!!

 

[Mark25]

i would start by cleaning all the connections thoroughly. does your TT setup have a seperate earthing lead, ie not just earthed by the signal leads/phono plugs?
Mark

 

[phowell1]

Thanks for replying, Mark25.

The table is only grounded through the output leads.


When you say, "Clean all the connections" do you mean all of the joints, ie cartrige to tonearm wire, tonearm wire to output leads,etc?

 

[Mark25]

Yes, all of them really. You can probably see which one's at fault if you examine tham all carefully, failing that, twist/move them all while the hum is there and see what makes it dissapear. Twist the phonos into the amp first, i had them same fault there on someones system recently, cheap phonos on a cheap intergrated amp.
Good Luck.
Mark.

 

[fdegrove]

Hi,

Probably a faulty (intermittent) earth connection.
Either at the catridge end or the phono leads.

If you have a DVM, set it to measure resistance and check continuity on both channels.

Cheers,

 

[phowell1]

Thank you guys for the help. I don't hav time to check it tonight but I will this weekend.

I don't have a DVM. I will start by fiddling with all of the connections while listening to the hum. If I can't solve it that way, I may consider buying a meter.(I am assuming that's what a DVM is)

If I do buy a DVM, and it really is a meter, I hope you don't mind talking me through the process of dialing it in and poking around.(I tried to put a smiley here but it aint workin)

One problem is that even if I were to find the faulty connnection, I don't know how to solder. I suppose the alternative is crimping, though I don't know if that is feasible with tonearm wire.

I'll let you guys know how I made out once I have followed your suggestions.

 

[Mark25]

go easy on the arm/cartridge wires if you don't like soldering, they're quite fragile! start looking somewheres else first, then maybe you don't need to touch them at all.
Good Luck
Mark

 

[phowell1]

Hi fdegrove and mark25

I haven't had a chance to look at the turntable and I won't for some time.

I think I'm going to wimp out and take it to a shop.

Thanks for your input, this site truly is a great resource and at some point I aim to learnenough to build something on my own

Take care!