Turntable /Cartridge hum

1 - try grounding to various points on the table - that causes many hums and some tables work better grounded and some not

2 - try dressing the cables from the table to the preamp differently - I had a hum that I killed by moving those cables away from some power cables and hanging them from my equipment rack.

3 - be aware that some phono stages have inherent low level hum that never seem to be beatable while others are dead silent

9/10 hum is grounding related. Have you tried grounding the tonearm wiring to a different component or even not at all? What happens to the hum as try these different variations? Does your phono stage have a grounding connection to the line stage? Many setups benefit from "star grounding", search the archives for details. Cheers,
Spencer

Orpheus 10,

Thanks for the tips.

Rvpiano, I was rushed yesterday, and didn't have time to respond adequately. There are tweaks that will take the sound of your P3 to a whole higher level, I am going to list them, and you can do them as your time and budget will allow.

If you can solder, you should be able to handle that motor; as I recall, it's not too difficult.  What I was trying to say before, was that the motor and the PSU are recommended together, so if you bought your table used, you might already have the motor.

The incognito Rewire Kit for Rega Tonearms is highly recommended. It is difficult and you'll need to send your unit to "Galen Carol Audio"

"Groovetracer" Deluxe sub platter.

The "Heavy Weight" for your tonearm.


Those are the tweaks I recommend, and the only one you won't be able to do is tonearm rewire; tweaks work well for the Rega, if you see others that are specifically recommended for your turntable, try them.


Happy listening.

Anytime I've used conditioners, the sound was ruined.   Listen with and then without the condition and evaluate.  (forget the hum for now)

I said if you don't have the motor, you might already have it.  The PSU and the motor solve some of the same problems, both might be overkill; you're probably good like you are.

I'm glad you solved your problem; happy listening.

Thanks all for the responses.
I mostly fixed the fluttering problem to bare audibility by switching some electrical cables from the wall to a power conditioner.

orpheus 10,

The motor sounds like a solution, but I don’t think I’m handy enough to install it.
BTW, I also have the Rega TT PSU, if that has any bearing.

I don't think you have the "same" problem. Check leads coming off your cartridge, make sure they are secure.

Check and see if you have this motor, if not, order and install.


        http://www.rega.co.uk/24v-motor-upgrade-kit.html


You have a good combination, I had the same combination; if the hum is worse than you described before, you have a new and different problem.

Does that hum get louder for a period of time and then bursts away ?
I had this kind of noise when using an MC cartridge, as if a charge is building up and then bursts loudly away, in other words a heavy static problem. But you are not using an MC so maybe a different situation but it may very well be simply static so you could try to drain static more effectively. I´ve never had this phenomenon with MM cartridges.

What comes to mind is it might be a ground problem between your arm/cartrdige and phono pre. The fluttering may caused by infrasonic frequencies causing your woofers to flutter. In my case, Dan Wright came to the rescue and sent me some resistors, and told me where to install them, and it worked like a charm. There are filters that can be had that will filter out those frequencies.

Back to the hum problem, it's also possible you have a ground loop problem. I have had one in my center channel for a couple of years now. It only happens when the prepro is turned on. I've tried everything, an isolation tranny on the speaker wires to the center (that helped a bit), isolation on the power to the center channel amp and prepro, it just won't go away for me. I hope your problem will be easier to solve than mine.

Good luck, regards,
Dan 

Typo:  should be “HEAR a fluttering sound....”