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Live with A Hum vs. Buy An Outboard Phono Stage

It appears that I have an airborne hum that I can't seem to track down. I've done all the usual things (use cheater plugs, shorted ICs, etc.). Now, I am wondering if I should just ditch the whole effort, and buy an outboard phono amp, ala Bellari, Creek, and such. The turntable I have won't set the world on fire, but it does a more than adequate job if given the chance.

So, opinions please. Is it worth getting a phono stage, and plugging it into a dead-silent input, or will it suffer from the same thing?
licoricepizza
licoricepizza OP
48 posts
 
An Update - which I hope is final.

The hum doesn't appear to be grounding related. Instead, it appears to be thermal in nature. If I turn off the amp, but leave the preamp powered up, there doesn't seem to a problem. For 2 days in a row now, there's been no hum.

If it ain't broke, I won't fix it.

Thanks to those who helped.

Lee

The problem appears
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,949 posts
 
" If I turn off the amp, but leave the preamp powered up, there doesn't seem to a problem."

Well, you need the power amp with accompanying hum on to play, don't you?

Sounds like the transformers in the power amp is the cause of teh inductance hum in the phono-pre....same problem I had.

Try separating them further apart physically and see if that helps. if your IC is too short, use a cheap longer one temporarily just as a test to see if it helps. If it does, get a longer good IC to your liking and keep them apart.
licoricepizza OP
48 posts
 
Mapman,

Actually, I don't need the amp on to play the stereo, I can use headphones! With the amp powered off, and using 'phones, I heard the hum. After about 1.5 hours, the preamp must have warmed up enough to kill the hum, because it did go away. Hence, my theory that the problem was thermal.

Lee
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