Hi. I recently purchased Stellar phono preamplifier from the local HIFI dealer. Replaced my 23 year old Electrocompaniet. Sounds superb straight from the box. I have been using Benz Micro “The Glider” cartridge for the past 20 or so years (not the same one!) so the loading was set at 100 Ohms, as on old preamp. I tried 200, think it sounded better and left it there. Yesterday, felt like experimenting and set the loading at 500 Ohms. Just when I was about to play the record I heard something I thought was a grounding hum but when I got closer to the speaker I could clearly hear the prayer coming out of it. No, it wasn’t the voice of Allmighty, I was picking up radio signals from who knows where. Switching back to 200 (or 100) Ohms and it was gone. Now, can someone tell me is this the common problem with phono stages (I never experienced one before) or something’s not right with my Stellar preamp. Is there a simple solution to it? Please, help.
Many thanks.
Usually the cables act as an antenna. I have no idea about the phono preamp somehow catching a radio signal.
Radio Frequency pickup is quite a common experience with phono cartridges,or more usually the wiring between it and the phono preamp, almost always down to earthing or shielding issues. Higher impedance is more likely to suffer from it too, which I guess explains you hearing it only at the higher setting. Did it sound any better on 500 ohms?
I had a devil of a time with RF breakthrough using a Herron Audio VTPH-2A phono stage. Same problem, local radio broadcast pickup. It was obnoxious. Wish I could tell you I solved it. Alas nothing I tried eliminated it. Best advice I can offer is try different interconnects and make sure your TT grounding is solid. Good luck.
Hi joma0711. i could not play it at 500 Ohms. Radio signal was too loud.
I just purchased a Stellar phono on the 30 day trial basis. After a two day continuous warm up and then serious listening, I had no issues at first and then intermittent issues with noise and RF. I moved the cables a bit and still had issues off and on. Sometimes none and then RF would surface. At one point even when my hand got close to the tonearm (without touching it) noise would increase. Or the unit was quiet and the beginning of the record and by the end, it was noisy. I looked around in my old box of tricks for a ferrite cable collar to see if that might work. Instead I found Shun Mook Original Cable Jacket I thought that might work. When attaching the Shun Mook ground wire to the grounding post the noise was instantly gone without even covering the cables with the jacket. In fact the Stellar Phono wasn’t just quiet, it was completely dead silent. The soundstage before the Shun Mook was great when I didn’t have the intermittent noise. Now the soundstage is stunning and the music is crystal clear with dead silent backgrounds. A highly recommended solution - if only you can buy them. I don’t think they make them anymore. The jacket is a small silk like bag with some type of unobtainium in it.