Grado/Rega Hum

Grado/Rega hum is well known & documented. I tried a Grado 25 years ago (before the Internet as we know it) and ended up selling the cartridge.

Changing cartridges is the only sure fire way to eliminate the hum.

Almost any other cartridge works with Rega TT’s, but the grado unfortunately is not one of them.

Other cart’s I have successfully tried include Rega, Nagoka, Goldring, Denon, Ortofon and Audio Technica.

The Humbucker listed above may work, but I did try shielding by covering the inside of the motor compartment on my Rega with foil and grounding it and whilst it made a little difference I could still hear the hum once the cartridge reached the run-out grooves at the end of a side 

Not much help - sorry

Changing cartridges is the only sure fire way to eliminate the hum.

This statement is false.

All that is needed is to ground the Rega motor to the tonearm ground and the problem is solved. The tricky bit is the motor is sealed and not easy to solder to, but if you file it a bit and have a good iron, it can be done.

@atmasphere - thanks for providing another possibility

I had tried for many years to solve this issue and the only solution I could find was the arm grounding solution, which in my case was unsuccessful.

So in the end I just resorted to the more common practice of replacing the Grado cartridge - and the hum was gone - hence my posting

So I took a quick look on the web to satisfy my curiosity and found this simple way to verify whether the motor is the source of the hum ...

A simple way to test motor grounding issue on Rega TT’s, without taking the TT apart
1. remove the platter and drive band
2. move the arm to a position that causes the hum and start the motor
3. touch a "grounded wire" to the spindle of the revolving motor
4. if the hum reduces or disappears then make a more permanent grounding solution to the motor housing

Alas - I can no longer verify this process.

Regards - Steve

Yes, I've had several people bring their turntables to us for this problem. The tricky bit was how to attach the wire to the motor; I did it by filing off some of the plating on the motor which exposed enough material that I could solder to. I simply connected the wire to the ground of the arm and presto! no more hum.


To me its common sense to ground not only the motor but also the platter bearing. The first time I did this was a good 15 years ago and this problem still isn't fixed!