Problem with my new setup

[Abri830]

Hey guys, I'm new here and to turntables in general so bear with me!

 

I just bought a Technics SL-BD20 turntable from my friends brother with needle and everything and he threw in a Pyle Ultra Compact phono preamp as well. I got the necessary RCA cables and set everything up with my 2 Mackie MR5MK2 studio monitors. After playing the record I realized some humming coming from the speaker before playing the record and that the sound is only coming from one of the speakers. I obviously want the sound to come from both speakers. Help please!

[Subwire]

Did you use the ground wire for the phono?

[allenh]

if you have a hum on one side only and music with no hum on the other side then either something is not plugged in correctly on the humming side, and that can be from the cartridge all the way up to the speaker or the same but a broken connection. Start at one end and work along.

 

If you have hum and music on both sides then it's probably a ground problem as suggested above.

 

For audio a turntable will have a left cable and a right cable which both have 2 parts (signal and earth/0V) and a ground cable and the ground needs to be grounded at the phono preamp.

[Abri830]

Ok, I had read about the ground wire and cant seem to find one coming from the turntable. here is a a picture of what I'm talking about.

 

http://imgur.com/N2g4Kjy

[allenh]

Ok, the socket next to the red and white ones if that's where the power goes in it may not need a ground as it's a DC table and it's possibly grounded internally but if not then that socket is for the ground.

 

I don't recall ever seeing a TT that doesn't need a ground but that doesn't mean one doesn't exist and some of those 80's 90's DC powered ones that came with a system did all sorts to keep the costs down.

[allenh]

Sometimes I'm a complete plumb, I should have looked at what the words said, it says quite clearly 120V AC so not a DC turntable and that socket next to the red and white RCA connections must be a ground point which you would need to take a wire from to the ground post on your phono pre amp.

[Abri830]

Thanks for the help, so this means I need a ground wire... how do i find a replacement one?

[Abri830]

Also I couldnt fix the issue with the sound only coming out of one speaker

[allenh]

Yes you need a ground, that looks like the type of connection used for a DC powersupply, hence the easily confused man, so it depends how practical you are, I doubt you will find the correct lead so you will need to make up something that does the job.

 

The sound from one channel could be anything in the chain but I would start with wiggling wires and connections to see if it comes and goes, after that the only way without test equipment is to replace stuff bit by bit until you find what is at fault, but for that you need another set of everything.

[Abri830]

I found a replacement ground wire here: http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-SJPB7M-PHONO-GROUND-WIRE/dp/B001DPOLBU

 

I'm fiddling around with the connections as we speak but nothing seems to be working but thanks for all the help!! 

[xxmartinxx]

Assuming the back of your turntable, looks similar to this:

 

The ground wire is the thin black wire with the exposed wire at the end. 

[allenh]

That ground wire looks ok but it's difficult to see the plug properly, also the picture above is perfect so should help a lot.

 

that's hopefully the ground wire sorted and you might well have a 2nd problem causing the one channel sound. With no ground wire I would expect sound from both channels and both with a hum, so do you have any other RCA cables you can use to substitute? You can also try swapping sides, re to white etc. to see if the fault stays on the same side or follows a cable.