Cartridge/RFI

Guys,
I've been dealing w/similar issues for over a year, being located near a large radio tower. Most of what's been said above is generally on track. Sometimes all the little nits add up to a big problem, so attack RFI in every way possible.
- As mentioned try cheapo interconnects from a vcr, boombox etc. They sound crappy musically speaking, but most are heavily shielded. If the problem decreases, you know to shop for a good shielded hi-end cable.
- If possible use as much balanced cabling as your gear will allow.
- Since you have a VPI table, you can do what I did; buy a balanced junction box for ~$150 from VPI. It replaces the one on your table, with lemo connector on top and balanced outs on the back instead of the RCAs. This conquered massive RFI in my room!
- experiment with aluminum foil wrapped around cables, especially at connection points on the phono stage & preamp. Do this with music playing, if you hear changes thru speakers while you move the foil around your cables, you'll get an idea where the trouble spots are.
- Physically move your tt, phono stage and preamp if room allows and you are up for exercise.
- borrow a solid state phono stage and see if it eliminates the problem. It usually does, but that always leads to a whole 'nother dilemna.
Good luck,
Spencer

I'm not a technical guy, but touching and moving the cables and equipment can affect the RFI. When I had the buzz the same thing happened. I think it is similar to an FM antenna when you move it around. Since this is a common issue, try searching on the Audio Asylum Vinyl Asylum and here to see how others dealt with it. Again, I'm not technical, but my understanding of this is that the cartridge emits a very low level signal which is then amplified much more than a line-level CD/DAC signal. As a result, you are amplifying the RFI garbage as well as the nice tunes going through your Scout. This is also why phono tubes have to be very low noise (and explains why you could hear hum/hiss without the Scout connected). You are pushing the envelop of what I know, but I'm glad to help if I can. Hopefully, others can provide a more nuanced explanation.

Thanks for the compliment. Even with all the technical puzzles, like hum, I've really enjoyed the system.

I need to get my system updated, but I am still using the Nordost cables. I had Discovery in there before the BAT, but they were worse with the buzz than the Nordost. The buzz changes volume when I just shift the cables around. I have an extra set of tubes that I can try, but this semms really weird.
Morris, very nice system you have there.
Thanks
Jeff

I checked your system. If you are using Nordost blue heaven interconnects anywhere between the turntable and the amps, that could be the problem. I have been using red dawn and blue heaven and they were prone to RFI hum when used in the phono chain, even though they produced no hum, when connected to the DAC. I looked at your system. Is the turntable rack on wheels? If so, you could probably isolate the turntable better if you took the wheels off the equipment rack. Good luck...

I had bad hum/rfi problems. It was due to an unshielded interconnect between the turntable and the transformer. Are you using an unshielded interconnect between the preamp and the mono amps? You can test whether it is the interconnects by using some freebie interconnects, which are all shielded. This is a technique recommended on the VPI website and it worked for me. Also, if the BAT uses tubes for the phono stage, it may help to replace the tubes in the phono stage with some low noise tubes. Also, make sure everything is grounded properly to reduce RFI. I feel for you, since I lived with the hum for almost a year before figuring out the cause.