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Buzzing from speakers on TT rig

Looking for a little help or suggestions:

I have a Marantz TT15S1 hooked up to one of several amps. There was 0 noise in the beginning. I was using the Phono Input on the MF integrated. I added a Rogue Triton phono stage and all was good for a few days. Then the buzzing started. It was to the point where if you touch any point of the tone arm it makes weird static noises and touching the ground wire into the Rogue makes loud pops! I re-arranged the wiring and it seemed to help. Now I moved everything around on the racks and it's louder than ever. I took the Rogue out of the circuit and ran through the phono on the MF A1008 and there is still a slight buzz but not a violent snapping like with the Rogue. Ohh and I floated the ground on the Rogue and it made no difference. 

Even through using only the MF phono input I can make the buzzing vary a little by wiggling the ground cable around. Very frustrated. Is there a better way to ground that may help, could it be in the cartridge or TT wiring? My digital system is 100% noise free so I think my power is ok. Rogue is being shipped back for a replacement but I hope I don't have the same thing when I receive it. Should a vinyl rig be basically noise free or should expect some static? Sorry for the long winded rambling post! I am very new to the vinyl world. 

 

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

Jason

mofojo
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,103 posts
 

. If that does not do it I guess try and order a new “wire set”? Seems really strange something in the wiring would go bad or break when the unit is just sitting there

@mofojo Again, try a putting a wire from the base of the arm to the phono preamp ground and see if that fixes it. If it does then you would simply make that connection more permanent. I've been doing troubleshooting since the 1970s; one rule of troubleshooting is its not worth it to speculate why something has failed when you know it did. Just fix it and move on :)

mofojo OP
2,312 posts
 

Ok Ralph I tried your above suggestion and it made no difference. 
 

When nothing playing and the volume is turned up a bit there is a descent amount of static through the speakers. If I touch the base with 2 fingers it knocks it out completely as long as I hold my fingers there. Buzzing when touch of run fingers down the tone arm when it’s parked. Definitely seems like some kind of grounding deal but I’m at a loss. 

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,103 posts
 

@mofojo Sounds like the arm tube isn't properly grounded. Try running the wire from the chassis of the phono section to the arm tube itself.

imhififan's avatar
imhififan
2,225 posts
 

Have you used an ohmmeter check continuity from tonearm to ground wire lug?

mofojo OP
2,312 posts
 

So from right by the cartridge it was 18ohms and under where the tone arms attaches under the table was 0ohms at a small screw. Went with a ground from the preamp to a small nut on the lower part of the attachment point and knocked it out completely…. Silence … perfect. I took it off and on a few times by hand and it stayed all good for about a half hour. Then it was back even worse. Ended up doing a ground from preamp to the anti skate nut and so far seems to be fine. Obviously “I think?” It’s in the cable that’s permanently connected to the tone arm. Weird thing is when I tried several days before in all those same grounding scenarios it would not go away. Pretty sure it’s coming back and maybe I should figure out how to order a new complete cable set? 

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