Love / Hate relationship with vinyl?


Ok, I do love the sound of vinyl, but with my LOMC (Lyra Kleos), I hate the noise (low level hum, and hiss) levels I'm getting. I own a Hagerman Piccolo head amp that I haven't used in a couple of years, so I thought I'd hook it up, and see what happens. Well, still got the hum (at high levels), and the hiss. However, I do like what it's doing for the sonics! I've tried moving cables, moving the head amp, but I only get incremental improvements. Is this just the nature of the beast (LOMC's), or is there something I'm not doing that could improve these noise levels? Of course, another option is to go with something that has more output, like a HOMC, of a MM? Thoughts?
louisl
When I move (or even touch) the cables going to my headamp, the level of hum changes.

Bingo! or maybe bingo ;-) I'd try different ic's to/from the headamp and also check to see if the RCAs on the headamp are secure and properly grounded.
I had the same problem with hum when I added my sut. I tried 4 interconnects and only one, Autitorium 23, stopped the hum. Like you, I could move the sut around,and by touching the transformer or moving it around the hum would change.

It may or not be your problem, but like Swampwalker, your last description reminded me of how I fixed my hum problem.
Swampwalker & Acman3......
Yes, I could try some other interconnects, but this morning, after more aggravation, I decided to take the Hagerman totally out of the the system. I reconfigured my Acoustech phono preamp for MC input (61.5db of gain, 220 pF capacitance, & I like the sound at 47k Ohms resistance). Boom, dead quiet! The headamp was an experiment, and there were several things that I thought it did improve on (bass tightness & impact, stage was slightly improved, and perhaps a bit more extension at the top). However, nothing earth shattering, and certainly not worth the extra noise. Listening now, going straight in to the phono preamp, sans headamp, it sounds incredibly good, and QUIET! Thanks for all your suggestions! I think I'm going to stick with this.
To All,
First thanks for all of your suggestions and comments. This morning, for comparison, after much aggravation, I decided to go back to where I started before this experiment with the Hagerman headamp. I totally removed the headamp from the system. I reconfigured the Acoustech phono preamp for MC input (61.5db of Gain, 220pF Capacitance, and I prefer the sound at 47k Resistance). Plugged the interconnect directly from the tt junction box directly in to the phono preamp (no headamp). Perfectly quiet, and certainly enough gain. The headamp did slightly improve some things (bass was a tad tighter, the top end had a bit more extension, and the stage was just a bit more open). However, these "slight improvements" were not worth the expense of the noise that was introduced by using the headamp. Again, thanks to everyone for your suggestions and guidance, but for now, I enjoy the system without use of the headamp! What a headache that was!