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Phono cartridge noises

Hi All, 

I finally after many years built a new home with a dedicated music room and was quite happy with it until I connected my turntables. I've never run across this and looking for advice as I'm truly lost on what I’m experiencing. 

I have two phono preamps, the Jolida JD-9 II / Grado Gold G2+2 High Output cartridge / Project RM 1.3 and a Black Ice Fusion F159 / Grado Reference Low Output cartridge / VPI Scout. Without the cartridges connected I have a slight bit of air noise when I turn up the volume which I kind of expect. As soon as I plug in the cartridges I pick up what I think is internet noise and not in a small way. The high output masks it to a point, the low output can't be used at all. It sounds like I'm on a spaceship! It's a high pitched noise with a morse code like beeping sound, a lot of background kinda rumble/flutter and distortion. The room is wired for ethernet but as yet not connected I only have WiFi in use. When I switch to any other source input on the main preamp all noise goes to silence. I have connected the phonos with different cables from Transparent Audio, Morrow, Original phono cables that came with the tables and even tried an old set of Monster Cables; all produce the same result as soon as the cartridge is introduced into the loop. 

Has anyone come across this I'm truly stumped?  

K

skyy75234
ghdprentice
7,038 posts
 

The ARC acrylic top does show off the innards, however it replaced the steel to plate because it had a sonic benefit.

skyy75234 OP
12 posts
 

Hi Mulveling, I  don’t think the acrylic faceplate on the Black Ice contributed to anything as both it and the JD-9 replicated when I changed the settings for the low input Grado. I did try covering both preamps with the Faraday cloth but nothing changed. The only ‘leak’ was at the RCA junction box on the VPI and only occurred when I plugged the RCA’s into the table. Unplugged I had no noise. Even with the cartridge removed from the arm as soon as I plugged in the cables the noise appeared. 
 

Onto the phone preamp. I had the JD9 for a few years and gave it to my brother and purchased the JD9 II.  I’ve done some tube rolling and not sure what’s in there right now, I’m thinking Amperex Bugle Boys from Brent Jessie. I have the entire Jolida Music Envoy system, preamp, mono blocks and the Envoy CD player. I bought the whole shebang from Shanghai years ago. The phono always sounded great to me until building the new home, dedicated music room and the lovely 5G tower! I really don’t look at specs I went with my ears and to date have not had any system issues or buyers remorse for the purchase. 
 

I’ve always been a Grado guy but thinking that it may be time to invest in something other than Grado to possibly remove the last traces of noise. I know you’re a Koetsu guy from reading your posts. Any suggestions on an alternative MM high output cartridge other than Ortofon, not a fan of that sound at all?

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
1,913 posts
 

@skyy75234 

That's fair. I'm sure the JD9's sound & work great - just the specs always struck me as clearly "wrong". Probably a mistake that was never corrected. One of my first audiophile components was their JD100a CD player, and I remember it sounding GREAT. The Envoys were well beyond my reach at that time, but wow did they ever seem exotic and awesome!

Yep, as you know, I'm pretty much exclusively MCs. I totally get not being into the higher end Ortofon sound. I love some of their lower models for the money, but at the Black level - yeah I get it. 

I've got no experience to draw from on high output MI's, but SoundSmith's high output MI models seem to be the obvious choice here. I'm not clear what the actual advantage is to their low output versions, given there's no moving coil mass like with MCs. And in your case, fighting noise, the high output versions are the clear choice. I've got a friend in Singapore with similar tastes to mine, and a large MC collection too, who absolutely loves his SS Boheme (HO, discontinued model). The SS high output carts are in my list to try at some point :) 

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