Stellar phono noise

Audio Components Vinyl
1

Hi,

I received my stellar phono amp today and was looking forward to listening to some records.
Unfortunately, after having everything connected, there is a loud noise on the speakers after I unmuted the unit.

I then started the usual troubleshooting.
I set MC or MM to low gain.
I disconnected all cables from the stellar phono except the power cable and the 2 XLR3 cables.
Still the same. Then, I used a different pair of XLR cables.
I then connected the unit directly to the M700 Stellar power amps, also the same.
My DSJ works perfectly fine with the same connection path without any noise.

Any idea what else can be done?

Two other, unrelated questions.

  1. Does the stellar phono need to stand horizontally or can I also turn it 180° ? Beside my 2 turntables, I do not have that much space on that desk.

  2. Can I connect my MC turntable and a second MM turntable at the same time to the stellar phono? For sure, I would not try to listen to both at the same time but I also don’t want to disconnect and reconnect the cables from the turntable to the stellar phono when I want to listen to the other turntable.

Thanks
KR
Chris

2

Can’t offer much help without a description of the nature of the noise. Is it hum? If it’s hum and you haven’t grounded your SPP to both your TT AND the component it is connected to you need to do so. XLR connections not withstanding (I use balanced connections between my phono pre and line stage) I always ground between those three points to eliminate any floating potential induced hum.

3

You have mass connections from your tonearm and turntable mass to the phono?

4

It is white noise with a bit of hum.
I will try over the weekend to make a video to make it more clear. It’s always difficult to describe.

@jazznut Since I have the noise without connecting any cable from the turntable to the stellar phone, I would rule out the mass connection from the tonearm.

5

You don’t tell us what turntable and connection that you use. I use a Rega Planar 8. It only has RCA out. I had noise with my Stellar Phono that I traced to an RCA connector that wasn’t locked down correctly.

6

I don’t see why you couldn’t set it on it’s side except for the air vents. It’s solid state and doesn’t care. No moving parts.

7

My money is on a grounding issue.

The other possibility is it being too close to a power supply. Get some long rca cables out the cupboard, separate it from everything else and see what happens.

8

ok, thanks.I did some further testing.
It seems that the noise only comes at high volume (80–100%).
Since I am still waiting for my new preamp, I connected now the RCA output to my Marantz AVR (which does not have XLR input) and here there is no noise at 0-80% volume.

When I connect the XLR directly to the M700 power amps, the volume is at 100% because the stellar phono does not have any volume control (except for the 3 gain levels). Hence the noise. (my current working assumption…)

Once my new BHK preamp arrives, I will check again with the XLR outputs.

Thanks!

1 Like
9

you mean 90 degrees? 180 would be on its back, upside-down.

or maybe I’m not smelling what you’re cooking

Yep, you should be able to have two connected at once, and just toggle between MM and MC.

10

ok thanks!
Yes,sorry, 90 ° then…:slight_smile: