Hello Maineiac,
You are not alone! I too own an Avatar Super and I have been working on clearing the problem with mine.
I have changed tubes with little or no success.
I was told it was my Grado wood cartridge, that it had too much gain @ 5 mv, so bought a new Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood. It was a little better but still not even close to acceptable.
I rewired my tone arm with the Incognito kit. The problem worsened. That was when I discovered that the hum changed depending where I grounded the arm to the Avatar chassis.
Now feeling less than intelligent I call VAC and talk to them about the hum in a nutshell they told me to ground it wherever it works. I have mine grounded to the ground on the right channel RCA. VAC's own external MC set-up grounds through this contact. This worked for me, although I find it to be a little Mickey Mouse, it works and sounds fabulous! Good Luck!
You are not alone! I too own an Avatar Super and I have been working on clearing the problem with mine.
I have changed tubes with little or no success.
I was told it was my Grado wood cartridge, that it had too much gain @ 5 mv, so bought a new Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood. It was a little better but still not even close to acceptable.
I rewired my tone arm with the Incognito kit. The problem worsened. That was when I discovered that the hum changed depending where I grounded the arm to the Avatar chassis.
Now feeling less than intelligent I call VAC and talk to them about the hum in a nutshell they told me to ground it wherever it works. I have mine grounded to the ground on the right channel RCA. VAC's own external MC set-up grounds through this contact. This worked for me, although I find it to be a little Mickey Mouse, it works and sounds fabulous! Good Luck!