Serious Noise Problem with my Pro-Ject Debut Carbon

[Ent]

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR THE HELP! You guys are the best!

 

Long story short...I got a Debut Carbon and Parasound Zphono Preamp back in October (thanks to all of you who explained to this idiot how to connect a ground wire-- doh!), and I've been loving my setup ever since.

 

Tiny problem, though. Since around January I've noticed a noise (a buzzing, if you will) that has gotten progressively worse and worse. I've checked the wires and connections all around my setup, and everything seems to be fine on that end. I've disconnected and reconnected everything and even tried rearranging where everything to see if that would get rid of the sound. nothing. I even went to Radioshack and got brand new (and shorter wires) to see if that was the problem. nada.

 

Today I had something of a breakthrough... I found that every time I touch the area around the stylus (specifically by the wires connected to the tonearm and stylus) the buzzing gets worse and worse. Can my problem just be a defective stylus or something of that sort? Should I try returning the tt or is there something I can do to fix it?

 

If someone can please help me, I'd greatly appreciate it. I posted a video for reference. Thanks so much, everyone!

 

-MadMax

 

 

http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=2hduzkj%3E&s=8#.U3qgavldWSo

[xxmartinxx]

Make sure all four wires are connected tightly to the back of the cartridge.

[Ent]

Make sure all four wires are connected tightly to the back of the cartridge.

So they should all be close together? Should I tape them?

[allenh]

Make sure all four wires are connected tightly to the back of the cartridge.

 

This

 

So they should all be close together? Should I tape them?

 

They push onto the back of the cartridge and should be a good tight fit, if they are loose you can get hum from a bad connection or worse still they could be touching each other or very close to touching which could cause your noise.

 

It is quite fiddly as they are very small wires and connections which are easy to break so don't touch them if you are at all ham fisted or not comfortable with it.

If you are ok with this sort of thing then just touch them to see if any are loose and if they are you need to close the connectors up slightly with tweezers or small needle nose pliers and push them back on tightly.

 

If it's not that you have a bad earth somewhere in the system or in the power supply in your house so you could try a mains conditioner if you can't find the problem in the cartridge wires or any of the earthing.

[Ent]

This

They push onto the back of the cartridge and should be a good tight fit, if they are loose you can get hum from a bad connection or worse still they could be touching each other or very close to touching which could cause your noise.

It is quite fiddly as they are very small wires and connections which are easy to break so don't touch them if you are at all ham fisted or not comfortable with it.

If you are ok with this sort of thing then just touch them to see if any are loose and if they are you need to close the connectors up slightly with tweezers or small needle nose pliers and push them back on tightly.

If it's not that you have a bad earth somewhere in the system or in the power supply in your house so you could try a mains conditioner if you can't find the problem in the cartridge wires or any of the earthing.

Thanks for the advice! I will try this out later

[Ent]

 

 

So I just played around with the wires a little bit, and I'm pretty sure the connections are all screwed up. The wires seem to be touching and might even be a little bit tangled or something...I don't really know where to go from here Can you see what I'm talking about from these pics?

 

 

[swemoll]

Those wires look fine. It's perfectly fine if they touch (as long as no bare copper is exposed), and it's fine if they are "tangled".

 

It is worth noting a couple things though:

 

1. There is noise/hum while playing records. This noise gets louder as your cartridge tracks along the record. It's simply picking up your motor noise. This is more audible if you turn up your volume. Is your hum volume-dependent?

 

2. If you touch the back of the cartridge tags (where the wires meet your cart) with your bare hand, your hum level is going to get A LOT louder. You are acting as a big antenna, and introducing a large amount of noise into the system. So don't let that be a deciding factor in whether something is busted or not.

[xxmartinxx]

What is your phono preamp plugged into?  Where is your cell phone?

[allenh]

Those wires look fine. It's perfectly fine if they touch (as long as no bare copper is exposed), and it's fine if they are "tangled".

 

It is worth noting a couple things though:

 

1. There is noise/hum while playing records. This noise gets louder as your cartridge tracks along the record. It's simply picking up your motor noise. This is more audible if you turn up your volume. Is your hum volume-dependent?

 

2. If you touch the back of the cartridge tags (where the wires meet your cart) with your bare hand, your hum level is going to get A LOT louder. You are acting as a big antenna, and introducing a large amount of noise into the system. So don't let that be a deciding factor in whether something is busted or not.

 

Yes that looks fine.

 

I took it you were touching the arm not the wires but as above if you are touching the exposed part of the wires then you will make any noise a lot worse.

 

Motor noise on a decent turntable shouldn't really be audible unless there is an earth issue but it's worth looking at.

 

Your phono stage or amplifier picking up noise from elsewhere is quite possible and a cell phone is a good noise maker but I would expect it to give you the tell tale phone interference noises when getting a text or when it checks in with the network etc.

 

You could try a filter on the supply to all the hifi bits, see if you can borrow one just in case it's not it.

 

Apart from the obvious bad earth noise can be difficult to diagnose so you need to isolate things, start with everything powered off completely and you want to see the noise you are used to appear normally.

 

Do you get noise with just the amplifier turned on only?

If not is it there when you turn on the phono stage as well?

If not is it there when you power on the turntable power supply but don't spin the motor?

If not is it there when you spin the motor but don't play a record?

If not is it there only when you play a record?

 

The above might help to isolate where it is coming from.

[Ent]

Those wires look fine. It's perfectly fine if they touch (as long as no bare copper is exposed), and it's fine if they are "tangled".

 

It is worth noting a couple things though:

 

1. There is noise/hum while playing records. This noise gets louder as your cartridge tracks along the record. It's simply picking up your motor noise. This is more audible if you turn up your volume. Is your hum volume-dependent?

 

2. If you touch the back of the cartridge tags (where the wires meet your cart) with your bare hand, your hum level is going to get A LOT louder. You are acting as a big antenna, and introducing a large amount of noise into the system. So don't let that be a deciding factor in whether something is busted or not.

 

 

What is your phono preamp plugged into?  Where is your cell phone?

 

 

 

Yes that looks fine.

 

I took it you were touching the arm not the wires but as above if you are touching the exposed part of the wires then you will make any noise a lot worse.

 

Motor noise on a decent turntable shouldn't really be audible unless there is an earth issue but it's worth looking at.

 

Your phono stage or amplifier picking up noise from elsewhere is quite possible and a cell phone is a good noise maker but I would expect it to give you the tell tale phone interference noises when getting a text or when it checks in with the network etc.

 

You could try a filter on the supply to all the hifi bits, see if you can borrow one just in case it's not it.

 

Apart from the obvious bad earth noise can be difficult to diagnose so you need to isolate things, start with everything powered off completely and you want to see the noise you are used to appear normally.

 

Do you get noise with just the amplifier turned on only?

If not is it there when you turn on the phono stage as well?

If not is it there when you power on the turntable power supply but don't spin the motor?

If not is it there when you spin the motor but don't play a record?

If not is it there only when you play a record?

 

The above might help to isolate where it is coming from.

 

 

Thanks for all of the help, everyone!

 

After further investigation and playing around with the setup (and how things are arranged in my circuit breaker), I figured out that it was (wireless) home phone that was plugged in next to the pre-amp. I couldn't have done it without you guys, so thanks again!!!

[allenh]

Thanks for all of the help, everyone!

 

After further investigation and playing around with the setup (and how things are arranged in my circuit breaker), I figured out that it was (wireless) home phone that was plugged in next to the pre-amp. I couldn't have done it without you guys, so thanks again!!!

 

Ah yes wireless home phone I forgot about those but yes anything that produces radio is noise as far as your turntable and amplifier are concerned.