Phono Pre Amp Hummmmmm

[cod]

Hi guys

I used to have the wonderful Audiolab 8000C, ina triamped setup and I loved it , it had a great phono stage for my rega planar 3, but due to unlucky circumstances had to get rid of it and downsized to no less a slack sonically for the money, a Rotel RA971 mrk 2. Now this doesnt have a phono stage so lat july i bought a home madeish phono stage off the internet that came from a trusted seller. Problem was it hummed so bad I meant to post it to him, and never did, he was going to exchange. Now Im wanting to play my Vinyl again, and it makes me think. Will i have to put up with excessive hum with whatever decent budget phono stage i get, I have 2 options that are around the £50 mark, i cant go any higher, The Goldring PA1, and the NAd PP2. The only concern i have is that the Rega planar 3 doesnt have an earth wire and i wonder if that made a difference, although on the Audiolab twas not a problem. im just worried i wont get a relatively quiet phono stage, and wether anyone has had any experiences with these type of budget Preamps?

Thanks
Andy

[risabet]

Hi guys

I used to have the wonderful Audiolab 8000C, ina triamped setup and I loved it , it had a great phono stage for my rega planar 3, but due to unlucky circumstances had to get rid of it and downsized to no less a slack sonically for the money, a Rotel RA971 mrk 2. Now this doesnt have a phono stage so lat july i bought a home madeish phono stage off the internet that came from a trusted seller. Problem was it hummed so bad I meant to post it to him, and never did, he was going to exchange. Now Im wanting to play my Vinyl again, and it makes me think. Will i have to put up with excessive hum with whatever decent budget phono stage i get, I have 2 options that are around the £50 mark, i cant go any higher, The Goldring PA1, and the NAd PP2. The only concern i have is that the Rega planar 3 doesnt have an earth wire and i wonder if that made a difference, although on the Audiolab twas not a problem. im just worried i wont get a relatively quiet phono stage, and wether anyone has had any experiences with these type of budget Preamps?

Thanks
Andy

Try changing the ground attachments. TT to Rotel directly, TT ungrounded, phono grounded to TT only, phono to Rotel only, etc. Try floating the ground to the Rotel. Make sure to keep only 1 ground in the whole system. You may have a ground loop.

[cod]

This would seem a practical and very intelligent solution, only Im not too hot on electronics, and dont really know where the ground attachments are. thing is the box only has 2 phonos for input, TT, and another 2 for output,AMP. No Earth wire is on the Rega. Is the ground looping something akin to acoustic feedback?

Thanks for your time

[royphil345]

Sounds to me like that phono stage is to blame. I've used a few lower-priced phono stages and had no problems with hum. Right now I'm using a Rotel RQ-970BX which sounds great and runs dead silent. Might be a nice match for your Rotel integrated if you could find one used.

[dean_martin]

I don't own a Rega turntable. I have owned 4 turntables and all have had a ground/earth wire for the user to secure to the ground/earth connection on a preamp or receiver which is located near the phono inputs. The Rega P3 "manual" which is more like a 1 page user sheet says: "The arm earth (or ground) is automatically connected through the arm cable screening. No other earthing should be necessary." You might want to have this checked out to see if it's come loose or something.

However, I agree that the phono amp you were using was probably the culprit. I've read that the NAD PP2 is an improvement over the PP1 at the same price. NAD used to include reasonably good phono amps in their integrateds and stereo receivers. Maybe their stand-a-lone is getting back to that quality.

[risabet]

This would seem a practical and very intelligent solution, only Im not too hot on electronics, and dont really know where the ground attachments are. thing is the box only has 2 phonos for input, TT, and another 2 for output,AMP. No Earth wire is on the Rega. Is the ground looping something akin to acoustic feedback?

Thanks for your time

It's like electrical feedback through the ground. Other post describe the Rega as lacking a separate ground wire. Try using a 3 to 2 cheater plug that might help.

Good Luck

[cod]

Thanks for your advice guys, most helpful, I have narrowed all the noise down to the cheap phono stage I bought. So luckily now I have a budget of £120, roughly $240 dollars to lash out on a nice phono stage with not too much hum, and something that will play my long neglected album collection. The one that seems to be cropping up with exceptional reviews pound for pound, is the Project phonobox SE, also on the look out for a second hand Musical Fidelity XLPs, and the Creek OBh8. The Rotel RQ-970BX is a bit Aloof at the moment.

[cod]

Yipideeeeedoodaaaaaa I did a search on google and found a VGC Audiolab 8000C, for £150, ($300), only £30 more than the phono stage i was going to get, it not only gives me a whole Amp i love and the phono stage that was excellent, I have the chance to upgrade to a power amp in time, YES!!.

No more worry about hum, i just plug the Rega PLAN 3 into the Audiolab then put the pre outs of the AL to the Rotels tape inputs and have myself a classy Phono amp. Also in the future a wonderful basis for getting a decent power amp, Chuf- fed

[GlenNewdick]

A grownd wire can be added to your Rega that may fix your probelm, also try pluging the TT in the same outlet as you preamp and if it already is change it. do the same with you preamp.