I should have known better
Had a really good afternoon last Saturday when Simon (SiT4 ) came over for a sort of mini bake off, great music and chat and his excellent upgraded Naim nait 2. Bit of a dodgy start to the proceedings when my turntable sounded very distorted, did the usual stylus clean but no better and then it lost the right channel. Thinking the cartridge might have died I had visions of great expense but after some poking and jiggling the socket on the base of the SME was found to be at fault. I decided to change it from the SME socket to RCA sockets to allow for cable upgrades so the kit was ordered. When it arrived I swapped them over but was left with a nasty hum so thinking I'd missed an earth I checked through but couldn't find anything amiss, took it apart again but still no better. I've had a good think about it and decided to send it off for a wiring upgrade and a service, let someone who knows what they are doing sort it out.
So the lesson learned from this episode, keep my sausage fingers out of things in future. At least I'll have a nicely upgraded SME at the end of it all lol.
Looking forward to Simon's next visit when he brings over his Shahinian Arcs to compare with my Harbeth Compact 7s.
Turntable
Toshiba SR-370/Mission 774/Van Damme cable with MS Starline plugs/Ortofon Quintet Black
CD
Cambridge CXC transport/modified Musical Fidelity X-DAC/modified Musical Fidelity X-10 V3 tube buffer
Network Player
Cambridge NP30
Amplifier
Denon HA-500 head amp/Nakamichi CA-5E pre-amp/Chinese passive RVC/Proton AA-1150 DMC power amp
Speakers
Mordaunt Short Signifer on original factory stands
Cables
Mogami with Rean Neutrik plugs/NVA LS5
Headphones
Sennheiser HD600/Sennheiser HD650/Koss Pro4 AA