At wits' end with radio through the speakers!


Hi, i am hoping for some creative ideas here ...

I have "upgraded" to a tubed phono stage with Herron VTPH2A.

I can hear quite clearly radio in the background! Drives me nuts!

I tried:
  1. Moving TT.
  2. Moving preamp.
  3. Moving grounding cable.
  4. Upgraded phono cable (slight improvement but still very clear)
  5. Upgraded audio cables.
  6. Using Ground Control GC1 doo
  7. Inserting shorting plugs.
My system: LP12 clone with aluminum plinth, SME V, DC motor and Dynavector XX2mk2 cart.

2 more data points:

"old" Schiit Mani phono is quiet and cant hear the radio!

Thanks in advance!



fuzzypoodle
You need shielded phono cable from your turntable to the phono stage (this is where the problem is, if you're using unshielded ) and maybe even from a phono stage to amp.
Oh brother.
I have the exact same problem(not with a Herron) and no matter what I’ve tried from everybody I’ve spoken to nothing helps. SS or tube. It suddenly started one day and I wonder if some sort of magnetic field developed in my large apartment building that I can do nothing about short of moving which is impossible. Digital is fine. Analog is no longer viable.
Give Keith Herron a call and see what he thinks. Keith is a great guy and easy to reach, from my experience. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t buy it directly from him, he’ll still help you. Good luck!
Thanks everyone for the responses!

so:

Digital stage (Auralic, Chord) are quiet as a mouse.
Phono cable is shielded: Cardas Clear Sygnus.
Talked to Keith Herron. Indeed very approachable and helpful guy. His suggestion is the shielded cables.

One thing i will try now is Clip-on Ferrite Ring i saw in one of the forums. Cheap enough.

The last option is to move to West Virginia ! :)


I had a bad interconnect (connected from amp to tubed phonostage) which was picking up radio interference. Switched with identical interconnects connected to streamer, no interference after that.  Didn't affect the performance of the streamer at all.  Assume maybe damaged shielding - not certain.
I had that problem when a local radio station moved its antenna a half mile from my house back in the 80’s.  I could not get rid of the radio sound playing in the background no matter what I tried. I even tried shielded speaker cables.  Lucky for me the station folded within 6 months and about 3 years later their antenna was dismantled.  There are new houses where the radio station used to be now. 
I once had this and used a handful of "rf coils" that snapped onto the rca cables. The things were a little less than an inch long and I just put them at random places on the phono cables. It fixed my issue
The ferrite rings might help. Let us know. Short of moving to West Virginia, you might try enclosing your phono stage in a sort of faraday box. It’s impractical to do a true faraday box, but you might encase it in shielding as much as that is possible without hindering your access.
I have noticed after purchasing a Manley Chinook SE MK2 I am hearing  radio stations. However, it is only coming through when the tonearm is sitting on the tonearm rest. Once I lift it up it stops. 

In addition, like the original post my previous phono preamps did not experience this interference either. 
I had a LIO DHT and was hearing radio stations when the amp was turned on. I added a ferrite ring to the the speaker cable close to the amp and the problem went away. 

I bought them on Amazon for $8. 


I had radio pickup when I bought a Naim Superline phonostage, mostly in Russian. A 1nf loading plug (in parallel with the resistive load) reduced the level to where I could live with it but I could never eliminate it until I swapped out the steel framed rack for one made largely of wood, I can only hypothesise that the old rack was acting like an aerial element and focusing the signal but I’d tried earthing it to no avail.