Ground Loop?

Grounding Boxes

This may sound really dumb, and I don't have even a smidgen of the electrical chops that the old hands on the forum have; but I was having a similar problem awhile back with some new equipment and decided to make my own DIY "ground boxes" that use the RCA connections as a "signal ground." I found that in my system signal grounding only the CD transport and the DAC plus the REL subwoofers worked best and that every component need its own dedicated box. My boxes contained mostly sand and powdered graphite - the kind that hardware stores sell for lubricating door locks and such. Nestled in this mixture was a copper mesh conductor linked through the box to conductive wire leads soldered to RCA male connectors which interface with the female RCA connectors on the back of the components.

The upshot was that any little hums vanished and that the music became more relaxed sounding.

I don’t understand why that works either, but I took a 4" piece of wire attached 2 spade lugs, 1 slid tight behind the loading potentiometer located on the back of the unit and connected the other end to the phono ground lug and the noise slowly dissipates. It’s screwy too that the noise cancelation points seem to move too. It was only when I touched the gain toggle now it moved to the pot. Totally unbelievable I have no explanation for any of this it just crept in and now prevents me from listening to any vinyl. 5 different A/C cords, dedicated lines, Audience Forte V-8 power conditioner, plugged into other outlets not connected to dedicated lines, lifted grounds, Ground Hum eliminator and even cocked my head to the left. EVERYTHING in front and behind has been replaced, swapped, moved and tested. This has been going on for almost 8 months with all the shipping times and at least $700 in various shipping and services of TT and this preamp numerous times with no results other than a lighter wallet and an extreme migraine. Trying to download a picture but I’ve never done this here but the lay out is pretty simple. You have 2 toggles with the pot in between the 2 switches and ran it to its own ground lug, not a wall ground that does nothing I’ve tried that too. I’ve unplugged just about everything in the house other than the refrigerator and the house A/C, no new nothing installed. I did notice that when using a multi meter, both toggle switches and the pot don’t show ground continuity that all the other connections have at their bolts on their basses, I didn’t know if that’s normal or should be? And again, it’s not a hum, it’s a tapping staticky popping noise similar to the sound of a motor, thud, thud thud, with a slight popping sizzle sound in the background and so on. I’ve never heard of this type of noise before. STRESSED!!!

The potentiometer knob is plastic but with the spade or actually a U clip lug tucked up between and under it, and it kind of wraps around the metal post of the knob. So, what I’m doing is grounding the potentiometers metal post. It’s been to service twice and shipping isn’t free. Closest Parasound service center is over 200 miles away. The last I heard from Parasound was over 9 days ago and just said fill out the form again for an RMA said ship it to us. Both times they said they replaced the power supply and found no other problem. Shipping isn’t free and with today’s economy it’s twice what it cost before. I already could have bought the JC3+ instead. I can't sell something I have suspicions about or just take a total dump on it. It least that worked for now and so maybe my ulcer will settle down.