Live with A Hum vs. Buy An Outboard Phono Stage

When I separated the amp and preamp (twice now), they are currently separated by a shelf, and a CD player. They used to be right on top of one another. The 1st time was when I tried to eliminate the amp by connecting my old Carver M-500T. It buzzed like crazy when I did that (3' apart).

Each thing I do requires extraordinary effort. About 5 years ago, I had a massive stroke. The doctors didn't even think I'd make it through the night. Now, I'm chasing little, annoying buzzes. I may have lost a few brain cells, but they weren't audiophile related.

Have you tried physically moving the pre-amp with the phono stage around to see if the hum level changes with location?

If so, it is inductance hum from some nearby power transformer, possibly in power amp or other component(s) or other external source.

If you haven't already, try this first to determine if that is the problem. If so, switching to an external phono stage is not necessarily the solution. Addition shielding and/or relocation of components for better separation is.

The only moving of the preamp has been to move it to a separate shelf by itself (no discernible difference). When I connected different amp, they were about 3' apart. No difference then either.

This morning, I put a metal widow screen behind the stereo to act as a shield, hoping the noise was coming from that direction. It was a no go.

You may have a different problem yet this site provides some potentially useful shielding and measurement solutions.

http://www.lessemf.com/mag-shld.html

After looking at the website, I'm wondering if I can anything like that at Home Depot, or Lowes.