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Connecting the ground wire makes music less lively

Friends,
Lately for some strange reason I heard hum from my TT setup. When I connected the tonearm ground wire to the phono the hum was gone. Thats the good news. The bad news is, when I heard the music with the ground wire connected, it sounded less lively, less palpable. Some vitality was taken away. When I remove the ground wire the life in the music is again back, just that the background hum is audible during silent passages (thats irritating). Has anyone else heard this effect ? Is there a solution to this problem ?

My phono stage is very heavy and can't be moved around. I have to say this problem is quite disturbing because either way there seem to be a serious compromise which is not really the fault of the components.
pani

Showing 3 responses by atmasphere

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,575 posts
 
Phonograph cartridges are a balanced source. That is why the ground wire is needed, as it is the ground of the balanced system. The thing is, when employed as a single-ended source, the capacitance of the interconnect plays a bigger role when the ground cable is connected.

By running a balanced preamp that ignores ground at its input, you get around this problem. Truly balanced systems tend to be very cable-immune.

If you don't want to replace your preamp, you might have to consider a lower capacitance cable between the arm and preamp.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,575 posts
 
Do you have any sort of loading on the cartridge?
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,575 posts
 
Does the phono preamp have hum in the highest gain setting when there are no interconnect cables connected from the tone arm? If it does the arm and cartridge may be off the hook.

The loading resistors need only be used if your preamp is susceptible to Radio Frequency Interference (RFI). Ignore what the manufacturer recommends- if their preamp was susceptible then they will have a recommendation. Otherwise the stock 47K is sufficient.

I would certainly start by grounding the wire and removing the loading resistors- see how that works for you.
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