Serious turntable popping problem finally solved!!


Well, for the past few years I have experienced a huge sonic pop going thru my system that has baffled everyone who has kindly offered to help. It has been strong enough to blow out fuses on the power amp and short phono stages. Basically, it's rendered my better turntable worthless. 

A little insight, the problem only occurs when playing a turntable through a higher end phono stage. Through a lower end (heavily shielded) phono amp - no issue. Hence, my Shinola Runwell (a gift from a very kind friend) with built-in phono had no issue. 

Today, finally, I figured out the problem!! It turns out it was the cellphone backup radio connected to my home alarm system.

Big shout out here to Carl from Apex Audio here in Denver who has gone so far above and beyond in pushing me not to give up and has helped me isolate the issue down to an airborne RFI. From there I was able to figure out the longstanding culprit. He has also worked on grounding issues, new cables, loaning amps etc even extension cables to run my system off my neighbor's house power whilst killing my house power. 

Long story short, the cell phone radio backup has a back up battery making it the last possible culprit - even when my house power was shut down. 

Now I can finally enjoy the Vivid B1 speakers I purchased from Harry, an Audiogoner who has been such a pleasure to know via email. And also my new Aesthetix Janus preamp, and compete Tara Labs package courtesy of Carl. Btw, Jim from Aesthetix was also incredibly helpful with tips and his willingness to help find a solution.

Now I can truly focus on listening to beautiful music through my 35 yr old Linn LP12 and get back to the real point of being an Audiophile: Critical obsession of everything that is wrong with my perfectly good system so I can upgrade!!! 😂😂😂

Thanks to all who have helped,  especially Carl and a mention also of the good folks over at Crescendo Audio and other friends who have put up with my frustration over the past few years. 

Gotta go, got new vinyl to hit...... 

denjer1
Hi @pgaulke60. It seems to me that the level of interference will depend on proximity to the system of the antenna. It's literally just a cell phone signal connected to the alarm. It provides a secondary communication to back up the phone line. Very commonplace. A little surprised this hasn't affected other people on AG. Btw, no issue at all with digital or heavily shielded, more budget level phono. 
OMG!  What a horror story.   I couldn't imagine shutting down the power in my house to resolve that.  I too once had a horrible pop in my system.   It was so long ago I don't remember what it was.
Congrats on solving your problem.

The amount of RFI power at play here reminds me to say to everyone- keep your cellphone away from your head. A few medical professionals I know have been talking about evidence (anecdotal) they are seeing which shows a rise in brain cancer that correlates with the increase in cellphone use. Now, with 5g coming, we will be bathed in this stuff.
Although, @stttt, you would be amazed how fabulous your system sounds when you cut ALL power except one dedicated circuit! The sound just appears from a far darker background than one can usually hear. It certainly makes you appreciate how important a lack of noise can be in shaping the actual sound. 
Question: what type of cell phone radio was it? Do you know if it can be replaced with a 4G cell radio that should produce less interference?