Unsolvable Woofer Pumping (Phono only)


I'm at a loss for trying to find the source of my "woofer pumping."  It's most noteworthy when playing something that is mostly/all treble, and the woofers of my Focal Aria 906s are going nuts (inaudibly, of course).  Turntable is a Debut Carbon with Ortofon 2M Blue.

Initially I was told it's an isolation problem, so I better isolated my TT, even put it right on the concrete floor to test!  Next I thought maybe a problem with the TT itself, so tried a couple others, no change.  So I figured it must be acoustic feedback, as with the TT stopped and stylus on a record, I could produce woofer pumping by tapping on certain parts of my stand...but it is also not this! I turned off my amplifier and recorded from the pre-out to a Tascam digital recorder and played that back afterwards and the pumping STILL happened! So I tried an Schiit Mani phono stage, no change in woofer pumping...I was sure it had to be my pre-amp...

So a local audiophile came over with a couple of pre-amps and we tried those.  The only time the problem went away was when the subsonic filter that one had was engaged.  So, I've ordered some Harrison Labs "FMODs" (20Hz high pass) to see if they will help.  If they do, I may order a KAB RF1 one day...but don't want to spend that much if I don't have to.
Any other ideas on what could cause this?!

tl;dr: Woofer pumping not caused by isolation, acoustic feedback, phono/preamp or a compliance issue...what's happening?!

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Showing 4 responses by yogiboy

Does that table have a dust cover? If it does you should remove it and see if that helps!
"My Hotel California LP must be particularly bad, especially the way I was playing it with loudness on. I found that if I moved to certain records and cranked it (with loudness off of course), there was very little/no woofer pumping."

The loudness control should only be used at low listening levels. It’s no wonder that the woofers are pumping like they are. If you use the loudness control you are wasting your money with any kind of rumble filter!
The OP did not try a subsonic filter. He is using the loudness control that is causing excessive woofer pumping. That is what seems to be the problem!