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Colibri or Hummingbird?

Hi all,

I'm experiencing a rather annoying 'hum' with my Colibri XPW cartridge. It sits in a Reed 3P tonearm on a Micro RX-1500 and goes into a Boulder 1008 Phono amp (the Reed tonearm cable has RCA plugs, so I'm obliged to use the Boulder's RCA-XLR adapters). The hum is typical to the Colibri/Reed combo. The two other tonearms I use on the RX-1500 (one of which also goes straight into the Boulder) are completely silent, no matter what cartridges are used.

The hum resides in the background while the arm is in stationery position, but it turns into a fierce 'humming' the moment I touch it, again retreating to the background when I release the arm. Strange enough this problem comes and goes and had almost completely disappeared for a while. But for some reason it has returned again, without having made any changes in the system.

It's a complete mystery to me, so I hope some of you might be able offer some explanation. And if possible a way to get rid of it.....


edgewear
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rauliruegas
12,842 posts
 
Dear @jtimothya : The best adapter is NO adapter, always makes a high signal degradations.

R.
lewm
12,543 posts
 
See my post of 10/08 at 9:31 PM.  That says how to replace the RCAs with XLRs, assuming the Reed is wired to treat the cartridge as a balanced device.  Simple.
jtimothya
612 posts
 
Dear @rauliruegas,

Of course adapters are best avoided - everyone knows that.


The OP is trying to resolve a hum problem with a tonearm and preamp that apparently require their use, at least in the short term. Thread responders seemed to localize one possible issue in the way the adapater is working.

If one wants to buy an adpater reliably wired correctly, I suggest Atma-Sphere.
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