Electrical problems?


I have this plops from my speakers during LP playback. They definately do not happen with CDs.
I believe that loud passages trigger these.
Also when I use the cueing in my ET2 tonearm sometimes there are these horrible noises, similar I believe to the plops during playback but in a raft mode as I move the cueing lever.
I have grounded the Teres motor pod to the middle socket in an electrical outlet, along with a wire to the grounding screw in the preamp (this ATC-1 Air Tight has a two prong connector without ground), even a wire to the metal axis of the vta adjusting lever in my ET2 tonearm. I have tried connecting and removing these for different combinations but this is not gone.
I also have a miniature tester for gounding from RadioShack to make sure that the grounds are correct in the outlets, and to cap it up I am now using a Monster 2000 power strip JUST to try to spot a solution to this problem and I believe that with the grounding improvement from using the tester and this power strip I have been able to reduce it but I am not sure and definatly not altogether.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
alanpiga

Showing 4 responses by alanpiga

I have checked the cartridge clips and their connection appear to be allright. As far as the internal wire of the tonearm I haven't ventured to dissasemble it. I could try and use another arm wand and discard the wiring in the arm wand as the one causing the problem. Then I would have to open the pivot - the ET2 is a linear tracking arm. The disturbing sound that the speakers make can be similar to the change of interconnects when the sistem is on and set to the component being affected but then I am willing to state that at least there are two different types of sound. The other one that I have detected seems to have a pure electrical nature in that it is not a tap sound per se but instead has some variation in its development. Something interesting happened, that I tried to connect another amplifier and a second pair of speakers in another room but the power amplifier showed a current overload signal in theright channel and then the right channel got shut off, probably a fuse broke. I had a similar experience with this second amp but with another preamp but in that occassion the event involved cd playback therefore this second amp may have something wrong going in its right channel. What's interesting about this is that after its right channel got shut off I switched the preamp to monophonic operation and a continuos burst of sound started to come out of the speakers that wouldn't stop until I set up the preamp to stereo operation. Therefore there could be something wrong in the right channel some where in the L.P. system.
I spoke to Chris at Teres and his suggestion is to connect the wire from the screw at the bottom of the table which I believes connects the bearing to the power adapters ground.
But he suggested that it may not be possible to eliminate the static building up from the platter altogether. He also suggested me to use silk thread instead of the rubber band that I am using. I am getting some in a few days and I will see if it has any effect in the static build up. The most upsetting situation would be if this static build up has an effecr in the second amp that I want to install and then I won't be able to install it, due to current overload of right channel as the amp signaled and then got shut off, as I metioned in the former post.
Connecting the cable from the bottom of the turntable at the bearing to the power adapter's ground terminal didn't help eliminate the hum. The system is humming as hell when switched to phono stage; once when opening the bedroom door there was a static discharge and it telegraphed as a poping sound from the speaker. Any ideas?
This is new:
When the tip of the neddle touches the platter you hear noise. A new noise. It clearly goes away when you lift the neddle from the platter. Or the record. Basicaly, the grounding of the turntable I think has been done. There is a wire going from the bottom of the turntable at the button of the spindle that goes into the ground connector or the power adapter of the motor of the turntable. I heard that this is what should be done. Therefore, i think that the case is lost. For as long as I keep this equipment combination, I will have to live with noise. Ironic.