Phono stage hum - Rega Aria

I was cursing my Aria for a hum. I tried moving a few things around on the rack and then twisted the cables from the P6 table and the hum went away completely...

OK - this may be the problem ...
- the Aria is not "grounded" via the mains cable
- it’s ground point is "relative" to the neutral side of its circuit - which SHOULD be at ZERO volts
- the images I have seen shows ONLY a 2 pin mains socket.

Even if there are versions with a 3 pin plug - the ground pin may not be connected to the neutral side of the circuit

This can present problems with certain amps - one I know for sure is NAIM - they design their components such that ONLY the source components provide the ground point and not the amp - so you get hum if the source is not properly grounded - as in this case

I had a similar issue with a "consumer grade" CD player and my NAIM amp

Any component that uses an "isolated" power supply design like the Aria may suffer hum issues (in some systems)
- Components that use Walwart power supplies can also create hum

There should be NO HUM at all !!!

The easy solution is - to make up a ground wire...
- connect one end of a piece of wire to the ground pin on a mains plug
- connect the other to the ground terminal on the Aria
- plug the mains plug into a wall outlet or power bar - whichever you use
- for best results use a spade connector on the end connected to the Aria

If that does not cure the hum you may need to ground the neutral side of your system...
- as before - add the mains plug to a piece of wire
- connect the other end to the neutral side of a cheep RCA plug
- connect the RCA to any unused RCA socket on only ONE of your components
- experiment with different components - it can make a difference

WARNING: - DO NOT GROUND AT THE AMP in this manner IF...
- your amp is a fully differential design (i.e. with balanced speaker outputs)
- in this case - ground at a source component ONLY

There could be hum due to a noisy transformer, but that’s a very rare occurrence these days - certainly not in most modern components

Proper grounding is essential in all systems, but for some reason designers seem to think isolated designs provide something superior

The debate between Isolated and grounded designs will rage on ad-nauseum
- the problem comes when trying to mix the two approaches in a single system
- then you may experience hum.

I’m yet to see/hear of an isolated design that works in EVERY system

In my case - even with my current Bryston amp -
- My Simaudio Moon phono stage is whisper quiet at full volume - it is a properly grounded design.
- However, - IF the Phono Stage is disconnected from the system, my Node 2i (with an isolated power circuit) will cause hum
- but grounding my system as above WOULD fix the issue.
- So you may only have to ground ONE of your source components !

ONE LAST THOUGHT - if the hum gets louder as the cartridge approached the motor, you may need to ground the motor - a common fix IF using a Grado cartridge on some Rega Turntables

ALTERNATIVELY...
- You could buy all components from a single brand
- that should work :-)

Hope that helps - Steve

I found this guy talking about this here also:

https://youtu.be/S8mAGs4-GAI

@vic2020 interesting, might explain why I see a hum reductions with my non grounded Rega Aria when I ground the rca output of my preamp. I just bought a Parasound JC3 JR, going to do some testing today! Hoping I come out of this with no hum! 

Replaced the Aria with the Parasound JC3 JR. Hum disappeared 100%. I still get some white noise when I crank the system to max volume. Going to see where that’s coming from, I’m sure it’s not easy, if not impossible for an MC turntable to be dead silent at max volume. Having said that, I’m curious what level of silence others have achieved at max volume levels.