To ground or not to ground?


Many of you will instantly know what I am talking about - to ground or not to ground...

I learnt it the hard way... I never had a problem with mains hum/buzz till the day I got my LENCO L75 machine. I drove me up the walls - I checked and rechecked each connection, each wire and shield... Nothing wrong there. What is wrong? I started to think the pre-amp was the culprit. No - I was wrong.

It was the turn-table that was grounded in its mains plug and on its chassy. This was the cause of some nasty him/buzz. Snipped of the ground wire and pooff - gone was the hum/buzz. Let is be a lesson to those who're struggeling with a hum/buzz problem.

Stay of the ground people (when your using phono anyway...)
Dewald Visser
dewald_visser
Someone with a L75........

Sold mine 25 years ago, so I can not replicate the problem. Anyway, you had a ground loop of some sort, and removing the ground on the TT may be the second best approach.

Best would be to find out why, but that takes time and effort, and can be maddening. Culprit may have been a cap from the AC line to the chassis. They can inject noise in a system. Which is why one might be best to use "medical grade" filters, if anyone is in the market for one. They do not use the problematic caps that can cause the problem.

Jensen Transformers have some interesting papers on that subject. You can find them on their webiste. Good reading.