So Weird- No Stylus Contact Woofer Pumping with Hana ML and Elac PPA-2

I’m still thinking you are putting a static charge on your records. That charge won’t universally distribute evenly across the record, as the vinyl itself is an insulator. Something you are doing is leaving a charge, and that charge is concentrated (possibly) at the last place you touched the record. That concentrated, persistent static charge is inducing a periodic, low-frequency signal via your cartridge.

I also still think the conversion from balanced to single ended isn’t what resolved your issue. You created a better ground path to dissipate the static charge. I’d bet that if you ran a very thin wire from your head shell to ground you would have resolved the issue as well.

BTW, I’m running balanced from cartridge to speakers (and have been for 17 years). Soundsmith Aida -> OL Enterprise -> AudioQuest Leopard (balanced) -> Ayre P-5xe (balanced) -> AudioQuest Colorado (XLR) -> Ayre AX-5/20 (balanced).

And I can tell a difference if my table bearing is properly grounded or not, particularly on dry days. 

You have a relative humidity of 25%?!?!

Way too dry.

40% to 50% should be a your target. 

your statement:

Wiring for the tonearm to the preamp was as follows:

• Pin 1- no connection
• Pin 2- + positive
• Pin 3- - negative
• Shell ground- cable shield

is very very confusing.

This tonearm is for custom mono cartridge? For stereo cartridges, 4 color coded pins (same four pins from arm) are:

positive 1

negative 1

positive 2

negative 2

There is no ground pin for cartridge.

My experience is that ground loop hum/electro-magnetic noise has nothing to do with RCA or XLR plugs if ground wire was connected properly.

remember, Tesla proved a long long time ago that electro-magnetic energy could be transform from source (turn table/cartridge) to receiver (phono stage inputs) if no ground shelling to short the energy.

Actually, this phenomenon states a fundamental fact:  electro-magnetic energy broadcasting as waves/Strings not as particles. So the great Einstein could be wrong right here.