WANTED : MC cartridge for testing

[Bigman80]

I've got chronic buzzing from somewhere on my turntable (Quest from Inspire HiFi). I recently changed my cart to a MM from Goldring but the buzzing still persists. I want to try a MC cart to see if it helps. If anyone is interested in loaning me one for an hour or so it'd be appreciated. (wolverhampton area)

[YNWaN]

I very much doubt that changing the cartridge will make any difference. The buzzing is likely an earthing issue or a fault with your phonostage.

[bob4333]

Happened to me a couple of years back. Try a different earthing point if you can. If you have separate earths from your T/T and Arm try disconnecting one of them. If you have a separate phono stage and pre amp play the options.

Inexplicable why one cart is silent and the other isn't but there you go.

[Bigman80]

I've tried different earthing points as I use a phono stage. So I even tried driving a metal rod into the ground and earthing to that but it made no difference. I think there is an issue with the arm of I'm honest

[Firebottle]

If you want a system to plug different bits into, TT and phono stage, to see which is at fault, you are welcome to bring them over to me and I'll give them a look over.

I'm in the UK near Dudley at the moment.

:)

[Bigman80]

That's a very kind offer Firebottle. How long are you in the uk for ?

[Firebottle]

Until the end of Jan :)

[Bigman80]

Ok that's great. January is good for me I think. I'll have a look at what I'm working and private message you. Thanks Firebottle [emoji1]

[mikegreenwood]

Have you had a contiuniy meter across the cartridge to arm lead phono's. Could be a dry joint also.

[Bigman80]

I haven't. How would I go about that ? Sure I read never to connect anything to a cart other than RCAs. I feel a few pics may enlighten why I'm getting a buzz. http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/12/20/77369b5ef083c8239ee47dbafd7d6300.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/12/20/294b9d0fa1bc066e85133bcb93ce449d.jpg

[Bigman80]

What you can see in the pics is a Pro-ject junction box. It's been crudely installed and soldered. This was on here when I bought it. The green wire attached to the center is the ground. I removed the solder and attached it directly to the ground screw on my phone stage. It made no difference than when it was connected to the junction box. I also get a really loud buzzing if the RCA cable isn't positioned quite right which leads me to believe the RCA sockets aren't isolated.

[walpurgis]

Looks like the polarity is wrong. The centre terminal is positive for the signal. White left +. Red right +.

The earth is green as well as what should be the right negative. Are they commoned?

[Bigman80]

I don't know what that means lol. I have to apologise. I haven't really delved into electronics. When something breaks I usually replace but I really want to keep this TT.

[Bigman80]

If the polarity was wrong would there be sound as in music ??

[Bigman80]

Ah! Got it. It's soldered to the wrong part of the terminal !!!!! Ok. On rega I believe they ground through the left channel ? Is that what you meant by commoned ??

[walpurgis]

If the polarity is reversed, you'll still get music and it may not even sound 'wrong', but it would be. However, that's not a hum source. Try unsoldering the green earth wire from it's tag (put some insulating tape around the end) and trying the turntable, if the hum goes, then it's a hum loop (there could be other causes though), there are no high voltages to worry about at that point. The tonearm and cartridge should earth through to the phono stage via the negative side of the signal connections.

You could always have a word with Robert Isherwood at Inspire Hi-Fi. He's a helpful bloke. They're based in Chesterfield, about forty five miles from you.

[Bigman80]

I have had a chat with Robert. He did invite me to either send or take the TT up to the factory for a repair. I suppose I'm just trying to find a cheaper/nearer Solution. Firebottle has offered to take a look, for which I'm grateful.

[walpurgis]

Firebottle has offered to take a look, for which I'm grateful.

He'll sort it OK.

[Bigman80]

[emoji106]