The end of the (upgrade) road?

[CageyH]

Parts ordered based on an article by Rod Elliot.
I hope they are here by Saturday, so I can implement the mod a the weekend.

[CageyH]

Another thing I put in place last night was the 0V connection of the HT part of the PCB to earth.
I have also added the arm ground to my BB3. With these in place before I suffered from noise, but I had not tried it recently since changing out the cheap diodes for the super fast versions.

I didn't hear any hum last night, but as experience has shown, that can happen for days. The only fix that will definitely cure it is a mains regenerator, so I am thinking of a double on-line UPS such as the Eaton 9sx to run my source components.

[CageyH]

The ground loop breaker has been built and added between the 0V on the HT side of the BB3 and the "safety" earth.
This should help eliminate any stray hum getting into the PCB through the earth.
I have built it using a 35A diode bridge (KBPC3510), a 10W 100 ohm wire wound resistor and a 0.1uF X2 capacitor, so in the event of a failure, the "safety" earth is still maintained.

I will see what happens with this before going to the next stage - treating the mains.

[CageyH]

I have been listening to vinyl for about an hour since the mod.
I think that this "fround loop breaker" has helped reduce the noise floor of my BB3. It is certainly sounding very good now.
I can finally put my soldering iron away.

I can't tell you if it has helped with the hum, as it is not something I hear when music is playing.

[Tim]

Sounds like the effort is paying off

[CageyH]

We shall see.
I think the super fast diodes and the ground loop breaker have helped remove the background noise.
When I rehoused the BB3, I added a common mode filter. The only part I did not touch was the earth.
I think (well, hope) that this has now sorted it. Noise removal in a phono stage can only lead to a better quality of sound.

If I am feeling brave, I will have to fit my XX2, but as I will have about 15 kids in the house in a few weeks time, that may not be the best idea.
I will pop an SLA stylus on the AT20 instead of the current SS to minimise the risk.

[CageyH]

I have decided to go belt and braces, and have ordered the on-line double conversion UPS. It is an Eaton 9SX 700i.
This should make the BB3 "silent".
It does pretty much the same thing as the Power Inspired AG1500, which seems to have developed a fault.

[CageyH]

The Eaton 9SX double conversion (pure sine wave) UPS arrived yesterday.
It is far too loud to be in my listening room.

I bought it second hand, as they are expensive. As it will only be running my source components, I doubt it will exceed 100W, for a capacity of 700W, so I will modify it with a quieter fan.

It is not a straight forward swap though, as the fan fitted has a blocked rotor sensor, so I will need to trick the UPS into thinking that the new fan is the same as the old fan.

[Macca]

starting to think you might be better just changing the phono stage.

[CageyH]

I have a cupboard full of them, but I like the BB3.
It is a challenge to conquer.

The funny part is that the noise is not audible when a record is playing, but I know it is there.