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Vinyl through headphones - noise/grounding

edited November 2013 in Audio Talk

It occurred to me over at Tony's place this avo to listen to vinyl through headphones. This has never ever occurred to me before. No feedback problems eh? Just hooked it up now and it works pretty well although a bit noisy (buzzy sound). I'll mess with things a bit and see if I can get that sorted out.

Comments

  • Ah. Putting my finger on the tonearm results in a big increase in buzz. This is not normal, right?

    I suspect that although the grounding wire is connected to the phono preamp, it goes nowhere useful, because the preamp is powered by a wallwart and the headphone amp is battery powered. Is it legit to connect the grounding wire to a real earth? What would be a good way to do that... somehow wiring up a 240V cable with just an earth wire doesn't seem like a great idea.

    ?

  • I have used a light ground wire to a pc case screw before now.
    Onto the case of any earth grounded appliance should work (amp or pre are the usual suspects).
    The earth wire only into a 3 pin plug has been used.

  • I've never tested the opinion that the house ground has tons of noise/voltage on it, but that's obviously where dedicated grounding came from. Whether the ground noise is audible or effects the signal audibly...I don't know.

  • I think I'll have to try the modified power cable, there aren't any grounded components nearby. It could be that my house ground is noisy as heck... I'll try tonight

  • Hah hah, just seen that VPI has announced a turntable with a built-in headphone amp. Includes headphones and cartridge.

    VPI Nomad

  • OK, the ground wire from a power plug did the trick. Mostly, still some noise when I touch the tonearm but it's way better than it was before. And I have to leave the light in the corner (dimmer switch) off.

  • You need a beeter quality dimmer switch

  • edited November 2013

    Ah, well that's true. It's just a floorstanding lamp from Ikea with a floor/foot dimmer. I like it because it has not one but two! heads that swivel.

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