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  3. 195213-5876

In need of a GOOD 3:1/4:1 passive input selector

I have two turntables and will be adding a 3rd to my main system. It will be used to screen records purchased from less than ideal locales (goodwill, garage sale, etc). I have a 4:1 passive ’preamp’ (sic) that I use with my primary turntables on my Bryston 1B-MC. The problem I hear is a audible low-frequency hum over the speakers at around 70 hz regardless of the input I select. Both tables are grounded. If I select one table over the other and connect directly to the back of the preamp, the hum goes away. This tells me that the selector i have is, well, a cheap POS.

Is there a solid 2:1 or 4:1 passive selector that filters out the hum?

(NOTE: worst case, I could create a filter that filters out the hum. but seeing as it is the 70hz and below region, I will cut-off some low frequency information.)

jcipale
jcipale's avatar
jcipale OP
69 posts
 

I have a builtin phono stage on my Bryston

 

lewm
13,771 posts
 

I see now that your Bryston 1B-MC is a preamplifier.  Up until now, I thought it was a power amplifier.  My bad.  So as I now understand it, you feed your passive switch with each of your 2, 3, or 4 turntables, Then the output of the passive switch, which is unamplified un-filtered phono signal, goes to the Bryston.  Is that correct?  If so, that is a very suboptimal way to go, if you want to get the best out of each of those sources. Ideally, you would want to do any switching AFTER RIAA equalization and amplification of the phono signal to linestage level (e.g., mV signals coming from cartridges then equalized and amplified to signals at 1V to 2V). I am sure your present set up "works" but you are losing some fidelity in the process. Ideally you want either a phono stage with multiple switchable inputs to feed your selector (these days there are many excellent choices with 3 or fewer phono inputs that obviate the need for any selector switching) or a discrete phono stage for each TT output, which you could feed to a switcher.

jcipale's avatar
jcipale OP
69 posts
 

More good news on this front.

I started looking "behind the curtain" if you will. While the last vestige of noise was rattling my brain, I shifted one of my power cables and the hum went away. Hmmmm...

After contemplating things a moment, a slash of inspiration like a bolt of lightning from Zeus hit me! Basic electrical wiring knowledge! So I remounted my power strips,  rerouted and secured the cables along a horizontal shelf, oriented the cabling to be at 90 degrees to the power cables and wrapped them in rfi shielding. Everything is crystal clear!

I knew keeping those old circuits books would pay off.

dogberry
824 posts
 

Well done!

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