McIntosh C39 noise


Any Mac C39 owners or others in the know who can tell me whether it's normal for C39 phono stage to have noticeable hiss beginning at volume level 30 or 35 out of 100% (with no source on to contribute)? Gets pretty bothersome at 50, and is much higher than my old, cheap preamp. Has both hum and hiss spectrum to it. I don't usually turn it quite that loud to play, but it makes me think the noise floor should be better. Running VPI TNT, Rega 900, and Shure V15. Any unusual grounding issues with this, as the arm has no separate ground wire, and the pre has no separate ground plug on the cord?
riholub

Showing 1 response by dtomdowney24f03

I have c2200 and the shure v15mxr and lots of noise but at louder levels (55-60). Light dimmers and ac motors seem to contribute. My ic's are nordost red dawn and they have no real sheilding so just touching them increases hum . Cables with better sheilding reduce noise greatly but I also lose the fine detail, speed and openness of unshielded cables. I'm looking to combine nordost sound with better noise rejection. Grado cartridges have same issues, maybe music man with higher output and better cartridge shielding is an answer also but that costs twice+ the shure and no user replacable stylus.