• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

EAR834p clone with hum. Would appreciate some help

The mods are basically just bypass caps for the electrolytics and minor adjudtments for the riaa curve.
My RIAA curve ....
ear riaa (3).jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I did put mumetal underneath as well, but not on top. I ran out. But if it's a shielding problem, shouldn't moving the amp around reduce hum?

Also, if it's the first tube that is the problem, why did not the hum go away when I removed the first tube, but did go away when I removed the second and also the third?
 
If the hum is gone when you switch it off is coming from the box itself , like I said , AC wires if the transformer is not the cause .
Anyway the compartment with the tubes and input should be shielded from the rest on all sides . Like a box in a box
And do a proper star wiring as we discussed

Just by removing the input tube shield I can hear hum , maybe like in your case from 1,5m It is not the same schematic but the principle is the same. Shielding is a must for RIAA , then we can talk about other causes
RIAA.jpg
 
Last edited:
Yes, you might be right. I will first try to remove the whole PSU, put it far away, and use long DC wires to see what happens. Then I will redo the star ground.

You did not answer my other question though. If the hum is from the first stage, why do the hum stay when I remove the first tube and goes when I remove the second?
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
If only a little top glass of the tube is visible , not the plate itself , is almost shielded by the metal cover from outside noise . But a shielded socket is always recomanded . Maybe using headphones you will hear the difference in hum
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
A question no one has asked, what turntable are you using? The reason I ask is you seem to be having a major issue other folks using this board aren't having. I know with my older technics SL-B2, it SCREAMS hum with the ground wire disconnected and there is a tiny bit of hum with it connected. With my new SL-100C I don't even need to connect the ground wire (might be this new TT has a 3 wire grounded plug?) and it's totally silent.
 
I was getting hum and looking at Stephe's video I used her wiring for the ouput area with the pads for the pot.
Added the jumper and removed a resistor.
It looks like this screenshot from her video now. The levels went up and now there is negligible hum.
Thanks Stephe!
 

Attachments

  • Ear-1.png
    Ear-1.png
    389.5 KB · Views: 58
People get confused by the pad/connections for the optional output pot and install resistors in the wrong place, install resistors that shouldn't be there and some of these come with the wrong resistors installed in them as well. If someone installs 68K across the output vs 220K, that's gonna cause issues.

And yeah I used the jumper wire to move the + and - pads closer together to make connecting a shielded wire easier. Maybe he switched from a 1 conductor with shield to a 2 condustor with shield, with the shield only connected at the board end? That could possibly help with noise.

The other thing I have just discovered, on some of these boards the front ground pad isn't actually connected to anything. There seems to be 2 versions out there now of these black boards, one is glossy and on that one front ground pad is connected to the ground plane of the board same as the rear ground pad. And on another version that is more matt black looking, this front ground point isn't electrically connected to anything.
One last thing I have learned, I switched to using a solid copper 14ga wire for the ground from the board to the chassis/phono ground point, and noticed a slight reduction in noise.
 
Last edited:
Update on this thread: I've built at least a dozen of these and never had an issue then last week finished one, plugged it in and had a nasty hum easily audible from the listening position. I was stumped after looking it over trying to see anything wrong. I had carefully measured all the parts and built it exactly like the others. After looking at the schematic, the only thing I could see in the power path that might do this is the voltage regulation transistor and sure enough, replacing it fixed the hum.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user