lewm--
Both are attached to a grounded surge protector on my bench.
Both are attached to a grounded surge protector on my bench.
Tonearm Ground Loop
@dover Sorry, the picture doesn't show it well, but there is a black ground wire coming from the tone arm, which is soldered to the EMI screen. I did a continuity test between it and the black wire that leads out with the RCAs to the amp, and it gave me a confirming beep. I think the problem is in the arm itself. So, I took that apart -- now I kind of wish I hadn't... but when I did so, I found the black wire was loose from the copper clip I assume is designed to ground the arm itself. I'm not 100% sure I didn't pull the wire loose from the clip in disassembling the arm, of course. I soldered the wire back to the clip and tried to reassemble, but in the process the blue wire snapped... :( So, now, I'm going to rewire the whole arm... argh... it will probably still buzz once I've done that... but, I'll have learned some lessons, I guess... |
Thanks, cleeds. OK, yes, that makes sense to me. The L and R signal grounds are soldered to separate posts on a small EMI screen, which is attached to turntable base/decking. The earth ground wire is also attached to a post on this screen, as are the other two signal wires from the tonearm/headshell combination. Finally, the L and R of the RCA out are attached to posts on this screen. With my DMM, I get a continuity beep when testing the blue tonearm wire against the ground wire on the RCA out connection for L, R, as well as the dedicated black (earth) ground wire connection. I get the same result when testing the green tonearm wire against all three of these. Photo of EMI screen + connections: https://photos.app.goo.gl/T7pMiX1L75mPjTPv8 |
@dover Thanks for those tips. Unfortunately, I bought some cardas before your note arrived ... I just keep learnin'... ;)... these expensive lessons... I'm finding it a little challenging to find non-cardas tonearm wire. Do you have any recommendations on suppliers or specs? I gather 30awg is OK, even if 33awg is ideal? The really small gauges seem to be harder to obtain, while Amazon is teaming with 30awg... |