Does anybody really know what makes turntables hum?

[SIY]

Old tonearm, brand new wiring. Today I checked continuity from the arm tube, which I suppose should be grounded, to the ground wire. It continues. But the hum silences when I grab the tube, which is to say, when I grab a grounded component. If that ain't confusing, nothing is confusing.

It plays a record okay.

I tried two tonearm cables, the original FR ones and a new one.

The phono cable is floating about a foot above the floor, just because it's hung between the terminations.

I knew I was going to get an avalanche of snowflakes when I posted. That's okay, I'm sure y'all have special problems in your lives.

I'm guessing you don't really want help getting this to work.

 

[MAB]

I knew I was going to get an avalanche of snowflakes when I posted.

The brain-imploding irony of this statement, I laughed so hard when I read it I almost tossed.
But seriously, post 8 has everything you need. Just be systematic, you have either a critical missing ground, or a looped ground that is picking up the hum.

 

[ahofer]

But seriously, post 8 has everything you need

If he really is "floating around in space", solving the grounding issue might be insufficient to getting his turntable working properly.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Old tonearm, brand new wiring. Today I checked continuity from the arm tube, which I suppose should be grounded, to the ground wire. It continues. But the hum silences when I grab the tube, which is to say, when I grab a grounded component. If that ain't confusing, nothing is confusing.

It plays a record okay.

I tried two tonearm cables, the original FR ones and a new one.

The phono cable is floating about a foot above the floor, just because it's hung between the terminations.

I knew I was going to get an avalanche of snowflakes when I posted. That's okay, I'm sure y'all have special problems in your lives.

You ask for help with your stupid hum problem and get all snarky. Dude way to go and hum you. Solve it yourself.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

… and Merry X Mas.

 

[Galliardist]

Old tonearm, brand new wiring. Today I checked continuity from the arm tube, which I suppose should be grounded, to the ground wire. It continues. But the hum silences when I grab the tube, which is to say, when I grab a grounded component. If that ain't confusing, nothing is confusing.

It plays a record okay.

I tried two tonearm cables, the original FR ones and a new one.

The phono cable is floating about a foot above the floor, just because it's hung between the terminations.

I knew I was going to get an avalanche of snowflakes when I posted. That's okay, I'm sure y'all have special problems in your lives.

It seems to me that you are the one with the special problem in your life.

Or rather not, as a quick Google search tells me that you have already fixed the issue by moving the power supply for your diy phono preamp to a separate shielded box.

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/magnetic-shielding-how-to-defeat-hum-pickup.405352/ post 19.

You really should have trolled us under a different name, sir.

 

[Prana Ferox]

Slide rules are cool, never knew how they worked but cool nevertheless.
Keith

An office I worked in, where the builders were unusually whimsical, had a slide down to the ground floor. Of course corporate was worried we would hurt ourselves on it and decided we needed safety policies. So we ended up with slide rules.

 

[DonR]

Old tonearm, brand new wiring. Today I checked continuity from the arm tube, which I suppose should be grounded, to the ground wire. It continues. But the hum silences when I grab the tube, which is to say, when I grab a grounded component. If that ain't confusing, nothing is confusing.

It plays a record okay.

I tried two tonearm cables, the original FR ones and a new one.

The phono cable is floating about a foot above the floor, just because it's hung between the terminations.

I knew I was going to get an avalanche of snowflakes when I posted. That's okay, I'm sure y'all have special problems in your lives.

Your best bet is to grasp the turntable firmly and throw it in the trash. Then, move into the 21st century and get a digital source.

 

[BDWoody]

I knew I was going to get an avalanche of snowflakes when I posted. That's okay, I'm sure y'all have special problems in your lives.

You can lose the attitude.

Thread closed.