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Motor noise with Michell Orbe and Benz Ruby?

Gents,

I just set up my Michell Orbe with Wilson Benesch Act 0.5 arm and Benz Ruby 2 cartridge and I'm able to hear the motor whine in the background through the speakers when it is engaged. It's not very perceptible when playing music but I can hear it faintly during quiet passages with the volume set to a decent listening level. Once I turn the motor off, the motor whine totally disappears, even with the volume cranked. I tried a cheater plug on the motor's AC cord, but it did nothing. The motor has a shielded collar on the coupling for the DC line (at the motor) and I was thinking of running a ground wire from there to either the phono preamp or to the line preamp but haven't done so as yet.

I just hope it's not a problem with the proximity of the cartridge to the motor and the fact that the Benz Ruby is open on the bottom and thus, unshielded.

I got the rig sounding fantastic and if I could just lick this one problem all would be bliss! Has anyone else encountered a problem like this, and if so, what cured it?

I used to use a Shelter 501 II with this set up and was not aware of the problem, but since I have the Ruby set up so well, I'd like to leave it in place if I can find a way to tame that incidious whining.

Help!
plato
2 responses Add your response
hdm
1,062 posts
 
I'm not sure whether this will be of any help to you or whether I'm on the right track at all and am a bit confused by your post, but will just throw it out on the off chance it might help you. I have an older Gyro (mid 80's) and there is a "locking collar" on the power switch (a green push down round button). If this is loosened or tightened, it can loosen up or reposition the wire running to the power switch to the point that the loosened wire will interfere with the spinning motor (at least on my Gryo). This would not explain the noise coming from your speakers (or maybe it would, I don't know?) but this can be a cause of the whirring noise you described. On my table, you can look up directly underneath the motor (the housing is open) if you situate the table on something to let you do so (ie. hang that motor corner out over the edge of a table so you can look straight up into the housing) and then make sure that there is no power wire interference with the motor itself caused by a loosening or unravelling of that wire.

Good luck.
plato OP
1,543 posts
 
After a little more experimenting with the motor noise problem I found that the noise was not a proximity problem but an electrical one. If I loosen the locking collar at the motor and pull the lockring back, then pull the connector out just far enough so that the metal shield does not connect the metal of the collar on the motor body, there is no noise.

So somehow, there is a connection being made by the locking collar at the motor that is causing the noise. Is something wired incorrectly to cause this?? I would have thought that the purpose of the shielded collar would have been to prevent such noise, not to enable it...

Should I continue to use the turntable in this manner or is there a way to tighten the collar and maybe ground it to something to eliminate the noise? What am I missing here???
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