Hum from my analog rig and the solution.

BruceLet

BruceLet

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I have been going crazy trying to figure out a loud and disturbing hum coming from my analog rig. I'm using a Basis turntable with a Lyra Skala cartridge into a Keith Herron tubed phono stage. I have been trouble shooting for over a week and Keith, from Herron Audio, has been so generous with his time, helping me on the phone and through emails. What great customer service.

I tried everything we could think of, without success. Finally it came to me. I had recently installed WiFi range extenders to help me get Netflix in our bedroom.....One downstairs connected to my router and one upstairs, behind the TV. I unplugged them and the hum was gone. Back to the silence I always loved about my analog setup.
 
BruceLet said:
I have been going crazy trying to figure out a loud and disturbing hum coming from my analog rig. I'm using a Basis turntable with a Lyra Skala cartridge into a Keith Herron tubed phono stage. I have been trouble shooting for over a week and Keith, from Herron Audio, has been so generous with his time, helping me on the phone and through emails. What great customer service.

I tried everything we could think of, without success. Finally it came to me. I had recently installed WiFi range extenders to help me get Netflix in our bedroom.....One downstairs connected to my router and one upstairs, behind the TV. I unplugged them and the hum was gone. Back to the silence I always loved about my analog setup.
Click to expand...

Stupid RF generators...
 
Bruce, what tonearm and cable are you using? I was going nuts with my graham's hum issues trying different aftermarket cables until I tried bob's own wire. it solved my hum issues completely, he grounds the shield at the load or RCA end at your preamps inputs and y's the ground to a single spade. it shortens the ground path considerably. I've since copied his scheme with my own DYI phono cable.
 
It would seem likely that Bruce was using an unshielded phono cable that was picking up the RF from his RF generators which induced hum into his system. However, if the RF generator was close enough to his phono section, he could have induced hum straight into the phono section as well.
 
I'm using a Basis Vector tonearm. Not sure if it is shielded, but it has always been quiet until now. The cable is attached to the arm, so no after market cables. This stumped me. The Wifi extenders are not in the same room as my system. One is connected to my router in my den and the other is behind my TV in the bedroom, with Ethernet to my DVD player. I think they work by using my electrical wiring to boost the signal. I recorded the hum and sent a video to Keith Herron and he said it most likely had to do with WiFi. I forgot about the extenders, so it didn't sink in.

Mep. From my understanding, the hum was coming from my electrical wiring, not from any thing in proximity to my system. Am I right to assume that cable shielding would not help and that a change in cables would not have fixed the problem?
 
BruceLet said:
I'm using a Basis Vector tonearm. Not sure if it is shielded, but it has always been quiet until now. The cable is attached to the arm, so no after market cables. This stumped me. The Wifi extenders are not in the same room as my system. One is connected to my router in my den and the other is behind my TV in the bedroom, with Ethernet to my DVD player. I think they work by using my electrical wiring to boost the signal. I recorded the hum and sent a video to Keith Herron and he said it most likely had to do with WiFi. I forgot about the extenders, so it didn't sink in.

Mep. From my understanding, the hum was coming from my electrical wiring, not from any thing in proximity to my system. Am I right to assume that cable shielding would not help and that a change in cables would not have fixed the problem?
Click to expand...

You do have some unshielded wire I believe that comes out of the arm wand?
 
BruceLet said:
I'm using a Basis Vector tonearm. Not sure if it is shielded, but it has always been quiet until now. The cable is attached to the arm, so no after market cables. This stumped me. The Wifi extenders are not in the same room as my system. One is connected to my router in my den and the other is behind my TV in the bedroom, with Ethernet to my DVD player. I think they work by using my electrical wiring to boost the signal. I recorded the hum and sent a video to Keith Herron and he said it most likely had to do with WiFi. I forgot about the extenders, so it didn't sink in.

Mep. From my understanding, the hum was coming from my electrical wiring, not from any thing in proximity to my system. Am I right to assume that cable shielding would not help and that a change in cables would not have fixed the problem?
Click to expand...

From what you said previously, I thought the hum was being caused by your RF generators and once you unplugged them all was right in the analog world. I can't place my Mytek Stereo 192 DAC anywhere near my Krell KPE Ref phono stage or the RF will make my phono section hum. The Lampi DAC was even worse. You don't want an RF source anywhere near your phono stage.
 

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If your audio system is not on a completely dedicated and isolated line those extenders will cause noise throughout you system though it will be heard mainly through the phono system. Try using extenders that don't use the house wiring. I have a couple I bought from Newegg several years ago from Encore that piggyback onto the router's signal. I get full speed over 75 ft from the router through at least five walls. Last time I looked they were about $35 a piece. They are sold as routers, but you can set them up as extenders.
 
i once lived in a building with awful electric and couldnt do anything about it. i would regularly pick up marine radios on my speakers, since it was on an island. sometimes when my stereo was off. i had to get rid of all my silver cables. didnt totally fix it but made it much better.
 
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