Ground loop with Miyajima Premium mono

ok. Robin said, due to the fact that both sides of the cartridge use the same mono signal; when connecting two stereo outputs it "can" cause a ground loop. this does not always happen. in fact; i've had it when it did not cause a ground loop....and i don't know why it does not always happen.

but if it does; then you get a sum'ing interconnect (where you have 2 rca inputs into one rca output) and plug that into one side of your preamp. and then use the mono switch on your preamp to get 2 channels of mono. you have then defeated the ground loop.

if you don't have a mono switch then you get a splitter (an interconenct with a single rca input and 2 rca outputs) plug the suming single output into the splitter and plug one output from the splitter into each stereo input. you now have a mono signal out of each input (just like a mono switch).

the most elegant solution is to get a friendly cable maker to make you the suming and splitter combo piece and eliminate the extra connectors. it's a simple thing to do.

My phono and line stages are fully balanced, so perhaps this would not be an issue for me. Balanced lines typically are less subject to ground loop problems (he said, with his fingers crossed). I would not want to have to build a Y-connector using XLRs. Also, in all cases the use of a Y-connector adds physical connectors into the phono signal path and might slightly degrade sound quality. Not good for those of us like me who suffer from audiophilia nervosa.

In the last two days, I purchased a bunch of very early 50's jazz LPs, all mono, so my appetite for the Miyajima is even more whetted.

It's wonderful listen fifties and sixties mono jazz LPs!
I have hundreds,so for me is fundamental a mono cartridge.
It's very smart what says Mikelavigne on splitting and suming
interconnect,but it's possible only with a dedicated tonearm and/
or turntable, I think.i have a second tt,a Goldmund Studietto,
but I'm very curious on this question,but it would be beautiful to be able to resolve the thing without working with interconnects cables.

I hate to pop the bubble here, but there is no way that one ground in a cartridge is causing a hum on account of a ground loop!

You can prove this easily enough by tying the minus outputs of a stereo cartridge together- no hum will result!

If one channel is responsible for a hum, it is because there is something about that channel that makes it hum, like an open connection or something like that. I'm not denying that the hum exists, just the explanation for it is not a ground loop.

Mike, thanks for the detailed response.

This hum is bad news to me. I have a Kansui, which I like alot, and I was very close to buying the Premium BE Mono but now I think I won't. My Steelhead II doesn't sum through the fixed outputs and my VAC Phi Beta preamp doesn't have a mono switch. I don't want to have to do the summing-splitter IC thing and I certainly don't want to risk hum. Oh well. Seems like the manufacturer could fix this somehow.