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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 yeti42

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yeti42
287 posts
 
If you look at the power socket on the back of the Aria you may find it only has two pins, the one pictured on Regas web site does.
I don’t know recent Rega arms, my RB300 had a ground cable which grounded the mounting pillar but the actual ground for the arm is through one of the RCA outers, I forget which channel, there’s a soldered link inside the pillar. A rather odd arrangement and one I’ll revise if I ever use the arm again but with a Rega phonostage it should work with this setup. Ae you connecting a ground wire from from the deck to the ground post on the aria? Try removing it. Another test is to ground that post, if the amp has a ground post too that might be the best bet for that, assuming the amp isn’t double insulated too.
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