Ground Loop

Hey All,

I've determined I have a ground loop issue with my preamp. With just the preamp and amp on, a hum sound travels with the volume.

I searched ground loop and read up. I bought a couple of cheater plugs. Both amp and preamp are older and have two power prongs. Will the cheater plugs still work, in theory?

I've already tried just flipping the plugs and it seemed to help a bit.

Thanks! Would it do much good to put a wire from preamp phono ground to the chassis of the amp?

Andy

With two prong plugs, a cheater plug won't do anything. All it does is remove the ground leg, and your cords don't have one.

Ground loop hum does not usually increase with the volume control. Have you tried different interconnects?

I guess I can swap the ICs out.

Yeah, the cheater plug didn't seem like it was going to do anything, but worth the $.99 anyway.

Thanks! Fire away with any other ideas, guys.

ANdy

Try moving the TT further from the amp to see if the hum decreases in volume as the distance increases. I went through a problem with hum very recently. I also thought about ground loop hum, but after reading it seems that ground loop hum sounds like a bass note. I had more the "angry insect" noise, which I believe is called mechanical hum. I picked the TT up from off it's top shelf perch and noticed that the hum decreased in volume the higher I held it. So, I moved the integrated from the second shelf down to the bottom of the rack. Problem largely, and satisfactorily, solved.

Your turntable interconnect should have a ground wire along with the RCA plugs. Make sure that is securely connected on your preamp.