Radio frequencies picked up by phono stage.


I a while ago started picking up radio signals through my phono stage(I isolated it to that component) which is coming through my speakers. I have looked at every possibility in my apartment from reading exhaustedly on the subject here(even asking others for advice) and throughtout the internet. I have tried every possible solution offered. Nothing has helped. One expert told me that radio waves are coming in from outside my apartment which makes the most sense. He also told me to put the phonostage in a box wrapped in tin foil which did not help.

I live in a dense city area and I assume somebody put up an antenna which is interferring with my system because it initially sounded perfect. Complete silence. Digital is fine.

I've been told to simply accept it and get rid of analog and throw in my lot entirely with digital. I would hate to as I love analog so much. And comparing same recordings on analog and digital analog comes in some cases jaw-droppingly on top.

A strange thing as well one channel is much louder with the frequencies than the other. One is quiet enough that the music would cover the sound but the other is much too loud. I tried moving around speaker cables and same thing.  I have had two analog experts over though not engineers and neither was able to help me. 

Has anybody had this problem or known anybody with it? Were they able to solve it or did they have to give it up? I have tried both tube and solid state and same problem.

Thanks for any thoughts or advice you may have.

 

roxy1927

The cart is the antenna. It's the only place that grounded foil wrap might make a difference. Maybe not.

A strange thing as well one channel is much louder with the frequencies than the other. One is quiet enough that the music would cover the sound but the other is much too loud.

Big clue here, hinting the problem is a connection or routing and not shielding, and that at the very least you should be able to bring the level of the noisy one down to the level of the quiet channel.

Have you tried listening while moving wires, wiggling connections, moving components? Move one wire at a time, starting with the noisy one. Start where it goes into the phono stage. Listen while wiggling the RCA. Twist it. Slowly unplug it part way. Listen the whole time. Then listen while moving the interconnect. Work your way like this all the way back to the cartridge pins. Do the same with them. I recommend tweezers.

Cartridge clips by the way, if they are loose- pull and crimp. Very important- use a round toothpick to avoid crushing! 

Was tracking this down with a friend one time, he picked up the phono stage to move it I said, "Freeze! Right there!" Turned out all he had to do was stand there holding it, I could hear music just fine. Seriously. It sounded real good. For some reason he kept on going looking for a better solution. Never could figure that one out. All he had to do was stand there holding it, I could hear just fine!

I tried moving around speaker cables and same thing. 

No idea what this means. Your problem is somewhere between the cartridge and the phono stage output. Unless your turntable is on speaker cables I doubt they have anything to do with it.

Change your phono cable first (if you have another), make sure it's shielded phono cable. I hope some of your audio friends can give you another phono cable. If you have broken soldering joint in one of your RCA or DIN connector you need another cable to make sure. 

Swap RCAs left to right, see if it follows the cable or the channel. Because the cables are ran so close together if one is noiser that could be a shielding issue if one cables shielding (left or right) was NOT working correctly... Possible broken or poor connection just on the sheilding.. I can see that being the issue..

 

You do have things routed it's not a rats nest.. 1" between cables and cross at 90 degrees and 1" between crossings.. A cable will normally yo yo as you raise it up or down. 

 

Clean ALL the connection and make sure they are plugged all the way in..

 

Regards

Any one or more of the above suggestions might help. I can only add a question , was the tinfoil grounded when you wrapped your phono stage in tinfoil?