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grado hum

so I just added a grado gold to my music hall 2.1. On my headphones ( through the belari preamp) it sounded great, but then I was rocking out loud style on my monitors and I heard it...the hum I thought I had lost when I upgraded to the 2.1. Anyway the hum is really only present at loud levels, but I was wondering what you folks thought: what can I do to get rid of this? Should I get a new cartridge? If so, which one?
roggae
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,368 posts
 
There is nothing to do. It is system dependent and if yours hums, live with it or change the cartridge
thsalmon
348 posts
 
It could be a ground loop or incompletely grounded tonearm cable. Check your ground lead on the tonearm cable first. If it still hums, try lifting one of the ground leads from the cartridge. Your Music Hall TT might also have the same problems as rega TTs have with Grados due to magnetic interence from the motor.
pryso
1,905 posts
 
While checking for ground loops or other grounding problems is worthwhile, Grados often hum if operated within the range of the motor field.

Changing to a cartridge other than a Grado is one option but you can also look for shielding material to apply to the bottom or your platter or around your motor. Someplace there is a magazine article on modifying a Thorens or AR table to allow use of a Grado but I don't recall where.
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