Buzzing from speakers on TT rig

It sounds like you have a funky interconnect cable, is that possible?

I guess it could be possible but would you think it would only be out of one channel that the interconnect is on? 

Also kind of curious it is a buzzing, that's often a wall wart, or some other sort of switching supply.  Turn everything else in the room off besides your stereo, especially lights and networking stuff.  See if it goes away.

It is the TT. This TT is built by Clearaudio and their tonearm cables are notorious for getting buzzy. 

If that’s the case what would one do? Order new tone arm cable and install install I’m guessing? When I took the Rogue out of the system and went direct into the integrated the whole issue with touching the arm and causing buzzing went away. Still had a constant much lower buzz in the speakers though but not effected anymore by touching the tone arm. 

This really sounds like the ground wire is damaged, possibly right where it connects to the phono section.

It’s a lot easier for you to track down than us. Keep trying, methodically eliminating suspects.

Do to the nature of grossly amplifying ultra small signals you should never expect "basically noise free" between program.

I hear you although it was basically noise free a few weeks ago. I did send the Rogue back waiting on a replacement. It was not a static issue but violent snapping popping as soon as you touched anything. I also agree it seems like some grounding issue. Hopefully the unit really does have problems and I’m not running them through the runaround. 

It was not a static issue but violent snapping popping as soon as you touched anything.

@mofojo 

This is very typical of an ungrounded phono setup. You mentioned that it occurs when messing with the phono cable too

Even through using only the MF phono input I can make the buzzing vary a little by wiggling the ground cable around.

- which suggests that the ground hasn't been made. Can you run a wire from the base of the tonearm to the chassis of the phono preamp? This would test that theory. Otherwise if you have a digital Voltmeter I would put it on the Ohms scale and measure for continuity between the bass of the arm (or other metal part of the arm) and the end of the ground wire.

If that measures nearly 0 Ohms then the phono section is suspect. If it measures much higher then the ground wire has a bad connection.

Great tip! Thanks very much, I will try it out tonight. 

Sure there's no routers or wi-fi nearby?

This certainly sounds like a ground loop issue, did atmasphere's suggestion work?

I moved to a new place a few months ago - and purchased a new TT to celebrate. I had an incredible amount of issues with what I had anticipated would be a trouble free TT, and assumed I should just have gone ahead and gotten the finicky belt drive rig.

My issues were very much like yours, it all started with a cartridge issue which I somehow made worse. For some reason, it decided it no longer liked the way it was grounded. And the interconnects that were fine yesterday are also an issue. I had one advantage in being able to quickly swap out cartridges which aided in my troubleshooting. I swear half the time it seems like voodoo.

I'll run through a few things to try - also don't discount the cartridge giving you problems. Is this both channels? Can you get it to change? A lot of times, you're going to get a slight hum/buzz at volume with an analog rig, but it shouldn't be noticeable at low volume.

Separate ground cable, interconnects and power as much as possible

Change out interconnects (they are shielded, correct?) and reverse

Change ground wire location if possible

Check cart wiring, reverse cart wiring (just to see if anything changes)

Relocate TT if possible - even 2' can make a difference

Unplug all of your digital gear and anything not needed

A lot of troubleshooting doesn't necessarily fix, but gives you clues that something else might be the issue. Also, does anything change? Meaning, is it quieter sometimes, noisier others? Do you have any sort of line conditioning?

In the end, my problem was 1) 2 new cartridges that failed in almost identical fashion, 2) needing a very well shielded interconnect cable (this was sporadic) and 3) relocating my ground location to phono stage power supply from preamp. Hopefully you've already solved it and it was your ground wire.

I don’t know if it worked yet or not. Didn’t get a chance to try cause of holiday BS. Will try some time this weekend. I did feel the ground cable coming out of the TT and feel it may be split inside the cord! Maybe that’s wishful thinking but shall see. 

Hello everyone. Still got the problem in a new location with a new Phono Pre and dedicated outlets. Is it possible to upload a video of what’s going on? Thinking maybe seeing and hearing what I got going may give some peeps a different idea and would be greatly appreciated. 

@mofojo Upload it to YouTube and post a share link here

Will do thanks. Just left for delayed blizzard holiday. I’ll post next week. 
 

thanks! 

Still got the problem in a new location with a new Phono Pre and dedicated outlets.

@mofojo This means whatever is wrong was moved with the rest of the equipment. I've serviced 1000s of turntables and preamps; the most likely thing here is as I suggested earlier- a bad connection- broken wire. They can be broken inside while looking perfectly normal.

Thanks Ralph.

On the Marantz unit the rcas and ground that would normally be be replaceable at the back of the unit go all the way to the phono pre through the tone arm into the cartridge. I’m looking this up and not coming up with anything for a replacement if needed. I’m calling it tt15s1 wire set and tt15s1 cartridge wiring? Something else I should be calling it? Guessing I need to try and call Marantz. 
 

I’m going to disconnect and reconnect the 4 cartrdige wires and re seat nice and tight. If that does not do it I guess try and order a new “wire set”? Seems really strange something in the wiring would go bad or break when the unit is just sitting there. 

. If that does not do it I guess try and order a new “wire set”? Seems really strange something in the wiring would go bad or break when the unit is just sitting there

@mofojo Again, try a putting a wire from the base of the arm to the phono preamp ground and see if that fixes it. If it does then you would simply make that connection more permanent. I've been doing troubleshooting since the 1970s; one rule of troubleshooting is its not worth it to speculate why something has failed when you know it did. Just fix it and move on :)

Ok Ralph I tried your above suggestion and it made no difference. 
 

When nothing playing and the volume is turned up a bit there is a descent amount of static through the speakers. If I touch the base with 2 fingers it knocks it out completely as long as I hold my fingers there. Buzzing when touch of run fingers down the tone arm when it’s parked. Definitely seems like some kind of grounding deal but I’m at a loss. 

@mofojo Sounds like the arm tube isn't properly grounded. Try running the wire from the chassis of the phono section to the arm tube itself.

Have you used an ohmmeter check continuity from tonearm to ground wire lug?

So from right by the cartridge it was 18ohms and under where the tone arms attaches under the table was 0ohms at a small screw. Went with a ground from the preamp to a small nut on the lower part of the attachment point and knocked it out completely…. Silence … perfect. I took it off and on a few times by hand and it stayed all good for about a half hour. Then it was back even worse. Ended up doing a ground from preamp to the anti skate nut and so far seems to be fine. Obviously “I think?” It’s in the cable that’s permanently connected to the tone arm. Weird thing is when I tried several days before in all those same grounding scenarios it would not go away. Pretty sure it’s coming back and maybe I should figure out how to order a new complete cable set? 

Oh for Christs sake. It’s back lol. Gonna bring the table up tomorrow and monkey around with how this cable set connects to different things I guess. Just wrote that and was playing downstairs for 20 min just went down to shut the system down. 

@mofojo Its really obvious your tonearm wiring has a bad (and intermittent) ground. Is the arm in warranty? If yes, I'd consider sending it back for repair; you might have to do that anyway...

I don’t believe it’s under warranty, I bought it used but will look into it. When you say the tone arm has a bad ground you are saying split in the wire inside? Any idea how the ground is attached to the tone arm? Do you think a new wire set would potentially fix the issue? 

^^

@mofojo Yes, a new wire set would fix it. But a wire attached to the base and run to the chassis of the phono preamp likely would too. If it does not, it means that the wire that goes past the bearings of the arm to the arm tube is broken. That usually means a trip to a technician qualified to do that sort of repair- and that might mean back to the manufacturer.