To Aesthetix users

I had a similar problem with excessive RF with a phono stage I have since sold. You could here the music from the FM station through the speakers. I thought I had a $2500 tuner, but with no dial. In any case after several helpful pieces of advice from Audiogon members it turns out a major source of the RF was that the phono stage itslef was not properly grounded and eventually with a few tweaks to the chassis we ended up solving the issue. After getting rid of the FM station it turns out there was also an issue with hum, which was quickly resolved by moving the TT and phono stage closer to the floor.

It was almost enough to give up on vinyl, but the trial and error process was worth it in the end.

More news... the motor on my Garrard 301 is exposed in its skeletal plinth, and I thought this could be generating the problem. It has its own ground wire, unusually enough (I haven't seen this in other 301s), and I tried grounding it at the Io. No change.

Then I realized that I pick up the RF even when the TT isn't running, so it isn't the TT. It's the Io.

So next step is tube rolling in the Io, shielding the Io as suggested, rolling interconnects (currently balanced Kimber Select KS-1120 everywhere except from the two tonearms - Ikeda has its own single-ended pair, the Graham has singled-ended Golden Cross; noise is identical with either tonearm/cart).

In other news, I had my carpenter make me up a Graham/SME armboard so I could mount my 2.2 on the Garrard. It's currently running a Helikon Mono. Just roughed in alignment for now (though "roughing in" with a Graham is closer than most other arms) and making music.

Still just one phono stage with one set of inputs, so it's a task to switch between tonearms. But interesting. I might try mounting my as yet unused but intriguing Decca London Super Gold on the Graham, since it's said to like damped unipivots. (I have a Decca International Arm as well but would need to make a new mounting board once again.)

I still remain so impressed by the Denon 103R, which sits on my Ikeda. Maybe there's a synthesis between it, the Ikeda and the Orsonics headshell, but wow. For $250 (I just got an extra one) this cart blows away the Shelter. And it plays mono recordings more noisily than the Helikon Mono, but more musically. At nearly one-tenth the price.

sorry to ramble

currently on: Clara Haskil playing Schubert's posthumous sonata, mono, Dutch Philips Minigroove....... magical.

Patrick

OK further updates... no response from Jim via email, I'm gonna try calling him next week. I love Aesthetix and they have been nothing but incredibly helpful when I've managed to get in touch with them. That said, and I know they are a small boutique firm, they could use a website with a FAQ and customer service email address which could get questions to Jim and back. (Even when you do call you usually have to leave a voicemail and get a call back.) All this said, I have to say that Aesthetix has handled every complaint and repair for me gratis aside from shipping the unit to them in California. My only problem with them is communication.

I've ordered Caig ProGold (which is now called DeOxit Gold) for the contacts.

Njk, I'm sure that positioning is a problem, since I only discovered this when I moved the entire system across the room to fire the speakers from the long wall. But as I'm sure you're all aware, it's a black art to arrange components regardless of their RF-susceptibility... right now the cables just reach from component to component. I don't have a rack, and all the components sit on amp-stands and footers which are directly on the floor - except the turntable, which sits on top of an (unused) subwoofer.

Add to this that the Io Sig is 2 heavy boxes... well, I guess I have to do it. Positioning is key. I'm just scared that I won't avoid the antenna effect without going all the way back across the room (and throwing out my back again!)

And then there's the cryotweaks recommendation from oldvinyl. I am trying everybody's suggestions, one by one.

Best
Patrick

A new clue!

I just realized that the RF noise has a soft "chuff-chuff-chuff-chuff-" sound to it, like a steam train but speeded up, as if something were cycling in and out.

This is more akin to very soft white noise and occurs at the same time as the radio station reception.

It is limited to the Io ... when I switch the input selector on the BAT linestage it vanishes.

Any ideas, anyone?

Patrick

Hi Patrick ,

This is classic and could be endimic to the design. As I had mentioned you are running very high gain for very fragile (small) signals as they get swamped by the RF energy.

The line stage is orders of magnitude greater in amplitude so the RF is riding underneath the line stage signal ..It's still there..

Cables , positioning (think a tuned circuit like an antenna) are bombing the fragile signal and getting through your system. If you had lower gain or inefficient speakers you may not hear it at all. Different cables,tubes, or positioning alter the tuned circuit and may make it go away all together. It is not easy when you are in such a RF rich environment running very high gain of such a minute signal.

Keep trying...try some different front end tubes too...Good luck ,Nkj