Rega Planar 10/Aria MC Phono Stage HUM


Hey all. I recently took delivery of a Rega Planar 10 and Aria Phono Stage. Hooked it up yesterday. Result: pretty significant MC hum. I’ve done some interwebbing on the matter and have seen the P8/Aria post at this forum, and see that the Aria seems to hum quite a bit. Most of the suggestions about fixing the issue are directed towards checking for grounding issues, etc. The rest of my system is fairly straightforward (Hegel H160 integrated; Hegel CDP4A; top shelf Supra wire) so after hooking it all up, I unhooked everything except the Aria to the amp and the speakers. Same hum, same volume. I did typical ground checks and that doesn’t seem to be the issue. I took the Aria and put it one more shelf away from the amp (as far away as the cable allows) and lo and behold the hum volume was cut in half. While at the new position, the hum would be "tolerable" at any particular music volume, it’s annoying when there’s no music signal going to the speakers. Standard light background white noise is somewhat expected, extraneous signal hum doesn’t work for me. So, if, indeed, this is a simple proximity issue (I don’t feel like buying more wire and putting the Aria across the room), is there an elegant shielding solution for the Aria? Is this an issue of Aria design (possibly an engineering "compromise" as Roy Gandy might suggest)? What are other phono stages at a similar price point ($1500ish) which perform musically as well as the Aria? I see I see the Parasound JC3 Jr might be an option. Looking forward to suggestions. Thanks!
sumadoggie

Showing 1 response by williewonka

@sumadoggie - The Aria has a two pin plug, so it is not "grounded"

Many amps have an issue with ungrounded source components - i.e. HUM
- my Bryston has this issue
- my Bluesound Node 2i causes hum if it is the only connected component
- However, my Simmaudio Moon phono stage IS grounded
- So when the phono stage IS connected - the hum goes away

So try this ...
- using a piece of wire
- connect one end to the Aria ground terminal
- touch the other end to a mains ground point

The hum should STOP - if it stops
- attach the free end of the wire to the ground pin ONLY on a mains plug
- plug it into any mains outlet
leave the other end connected to the phono ground terminal

If this DOES NOT stop the hum - you have a more serious issue

Regards - Steve