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Tonearm Grounding Problems.

I need some suggestions concerning my Orbe/Graham 2 set-up. Since buying this combo I have had major grounding problems and I cannot seem to get them solved. Of course this was not helped by my Graham bellying-up either. My electronics are Naim if this helps.
My major problem is that if I wiggle my tonearm cable I get sharp pops and loud bangs to occur. I have tried 4 different cables and separate phono stages but nothing helps. I have tried cheater plugs to float the ground and a separate grounding wire attached to anything I can think of but it does not help. At issue is wheteher it is the arm the preamp or my house wiring. It is not the Ruby 2 or the arm wand that I know for sure. But because I have had trouble with the arm before it is the major suspect.
What is causing the discharges and how can I defeat them? Any ideas? I assume that the fifth pin of the mini DIN conneccctor inside the Graham is a internal ground for the arm. What exactly is it connected to?
gerardff

Showing 1 response by extremephono

extremephono
123 posts
 
First you should have a multimeter to test for signal continuity.

Do you have MC or MM? And do you use a Naim phono card ?

1) Assuming that the continuity for all the DIN to RCA is fine, check whether the center DIN (physical ground) is NOT connected to the negative shell of RCA/BNC.

2) Check that the Orbe power supply and ground is NOT connected to the center pin.

3) Detach the cartridge leads from the cartridge end, make sure that none of the leads are shorted or cross with another (assuming a torn lead jacket inside, they may short with another lead or ground.

I am assuming you are using MC card, not step-up transformer.

Send further e-mail to me I will try to help.

www.extremephono.com
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