New to Vintage components and having grounding issues. Please advise.

LiberalTennessean · Nov 21, 2012

I hope this is the right forum for help. I am a complete novice to vintage electronics.

I just purchased a Realistic STA-2000 and off of CL for $60. Everything works great it just needs to be cleaned up a bit. I also purchased a Technics SL-Q200 for $45 from a buddy of mine and it runs very smoothly. I hooked everything up to (2) DCM KX-10 ($50) and (2) Sansui S-37 speakers (free). Everything sounds great EXCEPT I have a horrible "hum" that sounds like feedback or something. I tried moving the speakers and that didn't work. My research online said that it's most likely a grounding issue. I was not given any type of ground wire hook up with either the receiver or the TT. I tried making my own with a 16 gauge solid state ground wire. I attached a fork to one end for the receiver's ground wire screw and stripped the other end for the hole next to the RCA inputs on the back of the TT. This didn't work in the slightest.

I haven't been able to locate any other info online on how to fix this issue. One forum on another site had a link to an actual ground wire connection made for receivers similar to mine but had a warning that the purchaser should make sure their receiver was on the list of approved receivers. Mine wasn't.

Can someone please refer me to where I can purchase such an item, tell me how to make one my own or offer any helpful advice on how to get rid of this hum? It is really pronounced and makes enjoying my records negligible.

Thanks in advance for any help you may can give me.

Steve Williams · Nov 21, 2012

A quick way to find out if it's a ground loop hum is to buy a $0.29 cheater plug(s) at home depot. If so a cheap way to solve the problem but can be dangerous so caveat emptor

BTW, welcome to WBF

GaryProtein · Nov 21, 2012

Steve Williams said:
A quick way to find out if it's a ground loop hum is to buy a $0.29 cheater plug(s) at home depot. If so a cheap way to solve the problem but can be dangerous so caveat emptor

BTW, welcome to WBF

They were $0.69 when I got them several months ago!

Many of these have a tab with a screw hole. DO NOT use the screw hole to secure it to the outlet. That will defeat the purpose of the cheater plug.

Steve Williams · Nov 21, 2012

Star grounding should also be considered

amirm · Nov 21, 2012

The first thing to do is make sure it is a ground loop. Disconnect *everything* from your Realistic Receiver other than the speakers and their wires. Do you still hear a hum? If so, the power supply or the amp may be shot in that device. If it works great, then add one more component to it and see what happens.

Bill Hart · Nov 21, 2012

I've been doing this for more than 40 years, and just posted something about grounding issues elsewhere on the site.
If the receiver has no hum with the speakers, but no turntable connected, and it hums with the turntable plugged in, take a look at the wires coming off the back of the phono cartridge, at the front end of the tonearm, just to see if they are all connected. A funky connection there could be a world of hum.

mep · Nov 22, 2012

Bill-He has no ground wire from his turntable to his receiver. That alone could be causing his hum assuming he has no hum with just the receiver turned on to another input besides phono.

Bill Hart · Nov 22, 2012

mep said:
Bill-He has no ground wire from his turntable to his receiver. That alone could be causing his hum assuming he has no hum with just the receiver turned on to another input besides phono.

10-4.

Johnny Vinyl · Nov 22, 2012

My Nottingham has no ground wire, maybe the cartridge lead connections are an issue.

DonH50 · Nov 22, 2012

He should ask his friend if the TT had a ground wire. Not sure I have seen one without someplace to hook a ground wire... the RCA jacks are usually not at chassis ground so would not help.

mep · Nov 23, 2012

I just went online and downloaded the owner’s manual for this table. This table is one of those from Technics where the tonearm is terminated into RCA jacks on the back of the turntable. Next to the RCA jacks for the right and left channels is another jack for a ground wire. This needs to be attached and could well be the source of hum that is currently being heard.

DonH50 · Nov 23, 2012

Bingo! Nice find, mark.

LiberalTennessean · Nov 25, 2012

mep said:
I just went online and downloaded the owner’s manual for this table. This table is one of those from Technics where the tonearm is terminated into RCA jacks on the back of the turntable. Next to the RCA jacks for the right and left channels is another jack for a ground wire. This needs to be attached and could well be the source of hum that is currently being heard.

Wow! Thanks!

1) How/what do I "attach" for the ground wire?
2) Where did you download the manual. I would like to have them.

GaryProtein · Nov 25, 2012

Strip 1/2" of insulation off each end. Soldering would be best.

If soldering isn't possible twist the wire tightly onto the terminal.

mep · Nov 26, 2012

LiberalTennessean said:
Wow! Thanks!

1) How/what do I "attach" for the ground wire?
2) Where did you download the manual. I would like to have them.

Look at the back of your turntable and tell me what you have next to your RCA right and left output jacks. If it is a thumbscrew or regular screw that you could hook up a small spade lug, that would be the cool way to do it. That would require a piece of wire, two spade lugs (one for each end and the other is going to attach to the ground post of your receiver), wire strippers, and a crimping tool. As for your manual, I just typed in the name and model number of your table in google followed by the words "owner's manual" and it came up with a hit on vinyl engine. You have to register at vinyl engine in order to download manuals, but it's free and easy.

LiberalTennessean · Nov 26, 2012

mep said:
Look at the back of your turntable and tell me what you have next to your RCA right and left output jacks. If it is a thumbscrew or regular screw that you could hook up a small spade lug, that would be the cool way to do it. That would require a piece of wire, two spade lugs (one for each end and the other is going to attach to the ground post of your receiver), wire strippers, and a crimping tool. As for your manual, I just typed in the name and model number of your table in google followed by the words "owner's manual" and it came up with a hit on vinyl engine. You have to register at vinyl engine in order to download manuals, but it's free and easy.

It has the RCA connectors (red & white) and then just a small hole to the right.

mep · Nov 26, 2012

The "picture" from the manual wasn't very clear and it almost looked like the ground terminal was another RCA jack. Can you take a picture of the small hole and post it here? There should be something there to attach the ground wire to.

LiberalTennessean · Nov 26, 2012

I'll post one when I get home for work. Can't thank you enough for the help.

bblue · Nov 26, 2012

May not really be a grounding issue. Might be interesting to note if the hum is in both channels or just one. If just one, it could be a bad cable between turntable and input jack (either red or white side), bad cartridge wiring, or one channel open at the cartridge.

--Bill

mep · Nov 26, 2012

Bill-Since the turntable was designed to be grounded to avoid hum issues and there is currently no ground wire attached, it seems like a logical place to start. Having said that, he was asked to change the input on his receiver to something besides phono and see if the hum is still present. We haven't heard back on that yet.

New to Vintage components and having grounding issues. Please advise.

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