Hum in a phono cartridge?

When you unbalance the phono cartridge, you connect ground to neutral.

If you mean AC, then no.

Otherwise, are you calling ground the preamp shield conductor and neutral the catridge (-) ??

@cleeds

OK ... help me out a little here. But even if it gets grounded at the phono input, that is a single ground reference. Where's' the competing ground that the phono catridge attaches to?

I'm not trying to be difficult here... I'm just genuinely not seeing the whole picture.

Of course, YES, phono cartridges are notoriously susceptible to ground loops. My own mental model just doesn't explain it yet.

So, my statement was "Balanced and isolated"
Where is the ground contact happening at the cartridge side?

I'm honestly curious, as I've not touched a turntable in decades.