Help!
I received my new Audio Technica AT440MLa in the mail yesterday. I spent the evening mounting and adjusting. Sounds wonderful! I got excited and started to re-organize my vinyl collection this morning.

So there I was, on the floor pawing through my collection with tone-arm lifted above the end of a spinning record (too involved in my sorting efforts to change the record), when after a few minutes, it dawned on me. The system is humming!

I traced the hum it to the cartridge its self. How did I do this you ask?

There is no hum if:
  • I remove the headshell/cart. from the S-arm entirely.
  • I swap it with a different headshell/cart.

There continues to be a hum when
  • I swap out the little leads b/t cart and headshell
  • I mount the 440 on a different headshell
  • I remove the stylus from the cart body

The hum gets louder when
  • I turn the TT motor on. (It a direst drive Pioneer, photos here and here)
  • I swing the tonearm closer the my amp.


I searched the archives and seems that hum is something that happens. What am I to do? Did I get a defective cartridge?
Any thought would be appreciated.
Thanks, Brett