Super Noisy Phono Pre--Help?


I have a Fosgate Signature Pre. I feed it with a Lyra MC cartridge mounted on an SME V arm. Until last week, all was bliss. Then the preamp started producing a random popping sound and a motor sound like there was poor electric motor plugged into the same outlet. I thought it was a tube, but swapping out tubes didn't change it. I took it to my local service department. They cleaned and resoldered some of the connections. Now the popping sound is gone, but the constant motor sound persists. The motor sound goes away if I disconnect my turntable. I can influence the sound by moving my interconnects around. I cannot change it by relocating my preamp. It seems like it might be some sort of interference, but I can't understand why it has shown up all the sudden after a couple of years of perfect sound. Suggestions, please. Could there be something wrong with my interconnects or my cartridge?
jmmorford

Showing 1 response by atmasphere

Sounds like Lewm and Jmmorford both have the same problem, and in both cases no evidence whatsoever that the preamp is at fault.

If getting a lot of motor noise the culprit likely has something to do with the tone arm wiring. Perhaps a bad ground so the arm tube isn't able to shield the cartridge from the noise of the motor. If one is using a belt drive turntable, the best designs will have the motor opposite of the arm in order to minimize noise pickup from the motor. But if the motor isn't grounded properly and if its not opposite the arm, the noise from the motor might be getting into the preamp through the cartridge itself.

If the preamp is silent when the turntable is disconnected but on, this is a good indication that the preamp is not at fault.

This would also explain the sudden nature of the onset and why its not tubes (if it was tubes, the problem likely would not have manifested in both channels at once...). All it would take is one bad connection in the turntable and you've got your noise problem.