Hello all,
A while back, I wrote about a hum problem that I had trouble with. Since I'm still suffering from it, I thought I'd post back. I've copied my first below, with my intial findings.
As suggested by Skylab, I looked at power conditionners, but found none that would make sense from a budget point of view (I paid 300 euros for the TT and can't justifiy paying that again for an accessory now, however useful it might be).
Since first posting, I've taken care to isolate RCA cables from speaker cables and power cords as much as possible, which did seem to attenuate the problem somewhat (hard to be sure), but never solved it.
More significantly perhaps, I've also noted that the TT was liable to hum when unplugged from the Surge Protector. Does this shed new light on my issue ?
Or should I, at this point, give up on Pro-ject altogether and try to send the thing back to Amazon, from whence it came ? I tried contacting Pro-ject (even getting in touch with boss Heinz Lichtenegger) and their French ditributor, and both refuse to honour warranties for Amazon-purchased products.
If I should send it back, could anyone recommend another model, hopefully for less than 700 euros, that would solve my issue ? Would the new Speedbox equipped Carbon Esprit, advertised as having a better power-stage be advisable ?
Much lookign forward for help and suggestions.
I made a short clip illustrating the problem here :
My set-up is as follows :
Pro-ject Carbon Esprit, with Ortofon 2M Red
Rega Fono Mini phono preamp
Atoll In30 integrated amp
Dali Zensor 1 speakers
Nuforce Icon HDP DAC
I use the Pro-ject RCA cables that came with the turntable, which is grounded to the pre-amp.
All this is connected to the same surge protector (Belkin Surgemaster Gold as it's called), as are a PC and a monitor.
The hum shown on video is triggered randomly. Often many times during a single listening session (today, for instance I heard it at 4:08, 4:21, 4:27, 4:38, 4:46, 4:52 and 17:01PM, typically I hear that sound for a few seconds before it stops and eventually starts again), some days not at all. I sometimes get the hum when the turntable is not actually turning (as in teh video). I hear the hum on both channels.
I've used three different turntables : my own Pro-ject Carbon with an Ortofon cartridge, a Rega RP1 with another Ortofon cartridge (an OM5e) and my vintage ERA 444 with a Shure cartridge (not sure what the model, other than it's a p-mount), and get that same hum with both modern-day Ortofon-fitted turntables and not at all with the ERA. I've also used a different pre-amp (a cheap TC-4 pre-amp) and got the hum with it as well.
I've put ferrite chockes on the TT cables, to no avail.
I'd be very grateful for some help with this as the issue's driving me mad.