The saga continues . . .
I spent a fair amount of time online with the customer service folks at Needle Doctor last week. (I bought the speedbox from them, so I felt justified). They suggested that my cartridge might be incompatible with the phono board, and to swap it out if I had another one lying around. (I did and the hum got worse). I also borrowed a friend’s old Technics SL-D2 direct drive, with a Grado cartridge, which I learned is unshielded. Hum was way worse. (Although when input through the Rotel external preamp, no hum.)
I re-connected my Thorens, and the hum was back. I tried to short out the cartridge leads by connecting a wire between the red and green pins and another between the white and blue pins. The connection was unstable, but it seemed like the hum was worse, and definitely did not go away.
So I was back to where we started. It would seem the turntable wiring is suspect, but I did not think re-wiring the Thorens was worth the effort.
I was tired of all the hassle, so I bought the bullet and bought a new Project Xpression III from Needle Doctor. I’ll get it next week and report back. The Thorens goes on ebay. (I’m hanging on the the Rotel pre just in case . . . )
I spent a fair amount of time online with the customer service folks at Needle Doctor last week. (I bought the speedbox from them, so I felt justified). They suggested that my cartridge might be incompatible with the phono board, and to swap it out if I had another one lying around. (I did and the hum got worse). I also borrowed a friend’s old Technics SL-D2 direct drive, with a Grado cartridge, which I learned is unshielded. Hum was way worse. (Although when input through the Rotel external preamp, no hum.)
I re-connected my Thorens, and the hum was back. I tried to short out the cartridge leads by connecting a wire between the red and green pins and another between the white and blue pins. The connection was unstable, but it seemed like the hum was worse, and definitely did not go away.
So I was back to where we started. It would seem the turntable wiring is suspect, but I did not think re-wiring the Thorens was worth the effort.
I was tired of all the hassle, so I bought the bullet and bought a new Project Xpression III from Needle Doctor. I’ll get it next week and report back. The Thorens goes on ebay. (I’m hanging on the the Rotel pre just in case . . . )