About a week or so ago I thought I’d been unfortunate enough to have a Rega Ania cart have an early demise. It’s on an RP6 and goes via a Rega Aria into a SN3.
Anyway, somewhat aggrieved at the cart lasting just under a year I decided to replace it with an AT740ML, having had a great result with the AT540ML on my other TT.
Anyway, since swapping in the new MM and moving everything over to the MM on the Aria into the SN3 I find I have hum when I have the volume turned up and no music playing.
I’ve tried the TT straight into the SN3 and the result is the same.
Previously on an Exact cart via the same config no hum.
So I am now beginning to wonder if the Ania wasn’t at issue, it had suddenly started to sound harsh on vocals and now with the high level of hum on MM I wonder if the TT may have the issue.
I am going to swap in my P3 to provide a comparison but the odd thing is that the TT looks like the common problem and yet nothing (of any note) has changed.
The weird thing here is the turntable suffered no hum issues for years previously.
I am with you with it being the problem it’s the why that is escaping me.
Can eliminate the Aria phono stage as native into the SN3 is the same. To double down on that I’ve changed the power cable, the power cable socket, the interconnects from phono stage and even the power cable to phono-stage. To go totally overboard I even put an Audiolab dc-block in the chain.
So yes, TT, is the one common factor, it’s just the why now all of a sudden.
Swapping in the P3 tomorrow should at least provide a double positive / negative test result, all via the same routes / connections etc.
Have even deployed a new ground cable via the left channel of the Rega Rp6, no difference.
Sorry to hear about your cart and hum issues, these can be very frustrating!
Two questions to make sure I understand fully what you wrote: Is the system on a separate power group from all other things in the house? Is there no hum with other sources connected and the RP6 disconnected?
Indeed lucky that you have a spare Rega P3/Exact to try out, hope that solves it! Then at least you have peace of mind and can have something done about the RP6.
I once had horrible issues with hum and RF interference on a Rega RP3 with PSU. It turned out both the Rega and PSU were bad. They corrected it but managed to destroy my cartridge in the process. I moved on to something else soon thereafter. Never liked it all that much. More recently, I bought the expensive Rega VTF gauge. I am on my third after two warranty replacements. I don’t get much good luck with reliability from Rega.
@JosquinDesPrez i have a Rega P9 without any reliability issues. Interestingly, our P9 was the only part of the Rega system that survived our home (kitchen) renovation. I would have thought the P9 would have been the most delicate component. Our Rega Saturn began to have problems reading CDs long before the renovation started. In fact it was our second Saturn unit to have this problem. The first unit was under warranty and was replaced by Rega (USA). Our declining vision made it difficult to operate the Saturn b/c of its LCD screen, so we did not even explore getting it repaired or replaced. At that point, we decided to move to Naim components b/c we found them easier to operate than Rega components. We kept the P9/Exact. Our Rega speakers took a big hit during the renovation and since they were discontinued, we moved to Spendor A4s for our Naim system. We had no complaints regarding the SQ from our Rega system. However when considering a new system, given our disabilities, our first criteria was ease of operation. The buttons on the Naim components have made things very easy. I wish more bands would use buttons and knobs rather than LCD screens or touch panels. We chose the ND5XS2 for its simplicity and lack of screens.
Hi DC, The system is just connected to a standard circuit in the house, will be plenty of other devices connected elsewhere.
With regard to hum when from other components there is none. To further confirm this, there is only hum when the Aria phono stage is turned on and the input it goes into is selected, it isn’t mechanical hum, say like a power supply, but turntable hum that increases as the volume increases.
The same hum occurs when the turntable is plugged directly into the MM stage of the SN3 and not via the Aria.
So it all points to the TT itself.
Swapping in the P3 will help narrow down the permutations, I can also swap in and out the power supplies from each of the TT’s as I have the Neo on both.
Thinking about it I did have the Neo do its 45 rpm issue that is known about, where very occasionally it engages 45rpm but the stops with the record slowing down. The fix for this is to turn it all off and press the speed button in / out repeatedly and then it all works again.
I’ll actually start with the Neo later today, just to eliminate it but very doubtful it is the cause as hum is there when it isn’t turned on.
I’ve had a bad earth (as opposed to ground) give those sort of symptoms, on two occasions over the years. One was the whole house, one just the socket. A socket tester isn’t too dear. I paid €17 recently (I’m in France) for a simple plug in one.
Ah ha (maybe in an Alan Partridge tone), the value in process of elimination.
I’ve seen written many times on this forum that having a TV in the middle of your speakers is not good but didn’t realise it was so literal. Despite the TV having been there for over a decade it is the cause of the hum.
Removed every other plugged in device that isn’t needed for the replay of vinyl and once the TV (which is in standby mode) was unplugged, blissful silences resumed.
However, just did a double positive test and went to spin a record (mostly to make sure everything was plugged in that was needed) and found a level of hum returned (not as loud) as soon as I powered up the TT from the Neo. I’ve found placing a hand on the Neo reduces the hum still further.
So later on will start to narrow down the sequence of plugged in devices, extension cables etc and build up incrementally.
TV etc hasn’t changed where it has been plugged into for years, so interesting how this came about and once I have it as optimised as possible will have to try my Ania cart again and see if it really was duff or just exhibiting the stress of the hum issue in the high frequencies.
Funny how both Vinyl and Streaming can offer such technical challenges and I really appreciated my CDX2.2 this weekend for the simplicity of placing the disc and pressing play :).
At least there is a path of improvement and an area of cause.
Is the TV connected to your HiFi in any way…? If so, what is the effect of removing that connection? I have seen posts about people resorting to an Optical link to fix issues.
Touching the Rega Neo reducing the hum, is a concern. No idea what to suggest here.
I would still suggest you try you Planar 3 and report back. If its the same, then its not your RP6.
How close is the Aria to the amplifier / Neo power source? The Aria can exhibit very audible hum if placed close to something like that. As I understand the Aria has discrete MM and MC phono sections, so could it be that placement just brings the MM stage in range of interference?
This can easily be tested by moving the Aria away from everything else.
Not sure whether it has been covered in any posts above but I’ve found that the phono cable(s) from Rega turntables can be quite sensitive to noise, so routing them away from any noisy electronics often helps (it certainly did on my former P8). Also, if the Rega phono plugs are the locking type, they can IME be quite sensitive if not fully tigthtened and fully pushed in.
Thanks to all the suggestions, @IanRobertM, did exactly that and the P3 is absolutely silent, only the usual increasing hiss with more volume, the RP6 still exhibits hum, albeit much reduced with the TV unplugged.
Will park it for now, incremental gains had by removing things and repositioning Neo, swapped my other Neo in and its identical, although didn’t use the same power supply, yet another variation to consider.
At least with the P3 I can see what is possibly in absolute terms all via the same equipment, now to build up to that. An interesting test would be to plug the TV back in and see the effect on the P3.
Ok, more variations, certainly the RP6 is more sensitive to the environment than the P3. Putting that to one side I have now moved anything to do with TV onto its own extension block, the TV is old, could be 12 years or so, maybe the power supply is getting noisy with age.
With it being on its own block, if listening to vinyl I’ll simply turn the extension lead off. Interestingly the noise doesn’t vary if the TV is on, off or in standby, plugged in is enough to do it.
I opened up the Neo and at least am aware of how it is earthed, with the earth being held captive by the front to back long screws, this being secured by the left hand screw if looking at the back of the Neo.
Noise floor now way reduced, learnt a bit, still don’t know what the trigger event was and never will, and when I have enough curiosity I will put the Ania MC back in and see if the harshness at the top end was a by product of this issue and the cart is fine.
