Ground cable advice or is my Phono stage faulty?

[Lost Angeles]

Having had a Rega arm for years I’ve never needed to ground anything but I’ve just bought a new tonearm and created a problem.
I connected the ground wire to the Phono stage and we get a hum through the speakers so I put another wire between Phono stage and the TT chassis and the sound was still there.

Thinking there may be a problem with the arm I fetched my Audiolab 8000A amp out as it has a phono stage in it (The Caspian does not) and connected the arm and ground wire direct to this and the problem disappeared so there is nothing wrong with the arm.
Next I connected the arm and ground wire to my Phono stage and the Phono stage to the tape in on the Audiolab and the problem reappeared.

As a final check I connected the arm and ground wire direct into my AV receiver Phono input and the problem disappeared. So there is definitely nothing wrong with the arm.
I have now set up as follows the leads from the arm go into the Phono stage and the Phono stage feeds the Caspian amp, and I have connected the ground wire to my AV receiver and the problem has disappeared. The lead was not long enough to reach the Caspian unless I alter my rack.
Is there anything else I should have tried? Is the fault with my Phono stage? Or am I being paranoid and the ground wire is ok where it is?
I might try and borrow a spare Phono stage from someone I know next week and see if that works.

I hope this makes sense to anyone who reads it.

 

[John Duncan]

Have you tried *not* grounding it at all?

 

[floyd droid]

Have you tried moving the phono around a bit with the ground attached ?. What make is the arm ?, not really relevant just being a nosey sod,lol.

 

[Lost Angeles]

JohnDuncan:Have you tried *not* grounding it at all?

Yeah a long post and I forgot to say that it made no difference whether it was grounded to the phono stage or not the hum was still there.

 

[Lost Angeles]

floyd droid:Have you tried moving the phono around a bit with the ground attached ?. What is the arm ?.

I moved the phono around and it made no difference
The arm is an OL Illustrious.

 

[floyd droid]

Maybe register to the Graham Slee forum, you could get lucky with a response

.

 

[Lost Angeles]

floyd droid:Maybe register to the Graham Slee forum, you could get lucky with a response

.

Thanks for that although if I can borrow a phono stage off someone I know and that does the same then it would prove it's not the phono.
With it ground to the AV there is no hum at all.

 

[Anonymous]

Swap the interconnects for another pair. It's possible they arnt grounding properly. I had that with mine. Worked fine on my cd player but gave hum on my turntable. Swap em for the pair on your cd player. Worth a go

 

[Al ears]

I would infer that the problem is in your phono stage or more presicely the wiring. Your ground goes from the Dino back to the dino+ power supply and then mains. Check the wires in your mains plug.

 

[Al ears]

Forget the above I've just seenn your reply to John Duncan

...check it just for the hell of it!

 

[Al ears]

Another thought, is it still there if you plug the phono stage into any socket other than the 'tape in' on your amp?

Try the 'tuner' socket if you have one / it is free.

Very nice arm by the way!!!

 

[Lost Angeles]

Apologies guys I should have come back with an update on this.
This problem was with my other Phono stage.
I then won a Trichord Dino2 with Dino + PSU off E bay, I connected this up and the problem has disappeared. I updated my Bio but forgot to update this.
I solved the problem with the GS phono stage by running a ground cable to the Caspian and had no problems but then I won the Dino.
Incidently the Dino was a 3 month old ex-demo that I picked up for £369 which I thought was a good deal although I was the only bidder which made me wonder.
Sounds flaming good though, it's given my system a much warmer and richer sound with a fuller soundstage, although we've just murdered Marillion.
I've had to turn the amp down to between 7-8 o'clock whereas it was usually between 9-10 o'clock.
A week is a long time in HiFi. I did not know the Dino was for sale this time last week.

 

[Al ears]

Glad to hear problem resolved.

That's a good price for the Trichord they'd be about £530 new. I used one for quite a few years and they do make a difference!