I apologize upfront if this is not appropriate for this forum, but I thought I would tap the insights of the very knowledgeable and thoughtful people here. I have a Rega Aria Phono Stage coupled with a Rega P6/Ania Moving Coil. When using the MC side of the phono stage, I am getting an audible hiss at higher volume levels, like high frequency noise. It is quite noticeable in quieter passages of music with the gain turned up. I do not get such noise on the MM side of the Aria. I have used different preamps and amps, including my new PSA Stellar Gold preamp, but the hiss persists. I have double checked the loading and it is set as recommended for the Ania MC. I reached out to Rega and was told this was normal given the high gain required for moving coil cartridges. Before I got the Aria Phono stage, I used the MC stage built into my Denon PMA-3000 integrated and got no such hiss.
Something doesn’t sound right to me. If anyone can offer some thoughts here, I would appreciate it. If any of you have a PS Audio MC phono stage, I would love to hear if you experience anything similar Thank you
I have a Rega Aphelion 2 MC cartridge connected to a Rega Aura phono stage and have little to no hiss or hum. I think I have the gain set to “high” as well.
I’ve also noticed that some light dimmers can cause audible noise in a phono preamp so you may try turning off any lighting in your listening room.
Also what turntable are you using? There may be a shield wire that you could try connecting to the phono pre if not already present. If there try removing this shield wire.
This can be tricky to track down, but persistence usually pays off.
Good Luck,
Kurt
I presume you have a Rega turntable. On my P8 with a MM Ortofon black, I hear noise if I turn the volume up and move the arm toward the spindle, even without playing music (it goes away when I turn the table offf). I also got noise from the LED lights I installed underneath the granite slab upon which I set the turntable. Of course, the lights are gone and the noise induced from the motor to the cartridge is quite low. I am sure it is impacting the SQ but I am done chasing turntable upgrades. I realized that cartridge alignment is critical and who knows when a reviewer states one table is better than another if that difference was simple a matter of better alignment on one. Of course, you are using more gain for your MC but regardless of MM or MC, the “guts” of the cartridge is a coil. Although the output from the MC is less because the coil is smaller, there is more coil in a MM to pick up external EMF.
Thank you Kurt for your thoughts here, I very much appreciate it I have a Rega P6 turntable that is paired with the Ania MC. The cables are direct connected to the turntable with no ground wire which is I believe the way Rega generally does things. I will play around with the lights and see if that has an impact. I have also placed the Aria as far away from other sources of noise as the P6 cables will allow, to no avail. I will continue trying things and report back here if I have any success.
Thanks, Bob
Thank you for your thoughts here. Yes, I have a P6 paired with the Ania MC. I coming to the opinion that there is some environmental issue causing the noise. I am going to be doing my annual breakdown and spring cleaning of all my kit in the coming two weeks, and will do some detailed testing of the impact of other components, circuits, lights, wall-warts, cables etc as I put things back together and see if I can track anything down. I suspect there is no substitute for persistence and patience here. Thank you again for your insights.
Although MC cartridges have much lower output voltage when compared with an MM cart they have a big advantage by having much lower source impedance (resistance) around a few ohms versus the typical MM cart = 47K ohms.
You might also try switching off the turntable motor controller to see if the hiss lessens or changes.
Thanks, yes I tried that. I have had everything I own turned off (powered off, not even in standby) but the Phono Stage, two different preamps, and two different power amps; same hiss. They are all plugged into the mains through a Furman Elite 15 Power Conditioner, which I have not yet tried removing from the path. I will give that a try amongst other things in my upcoming spring cleaning teardown.