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Grado Hum Database

Great idea but Too many links pointing all over the place where's the sticky?
Most of the links are deadends or old.
So Here goes anyway
Technics Sl-5 Grado red P type No hum anywhere even with 140 watts cranked all the way up needle not on record ofcourse but no hum during regular playback either real black background:banana:
Dwight
 
Another Thorens

Thorens TD-160 (re-wired to use interconnects of choice) + Grado Prestige Red = HUM
Thorens TD-160 (Same) + Stanton 680EE = NO HUM
 
Not many hours yet (**funny story) but Grado Blue Prestige on a Sanyo Q50 = No hum. Quiet as a mouse fart at 50 paces, as a matter of fact.



**believe it or not, I need to invest some aversion therapy time in one of my dogs... A family-member F'd with my 2ch rig and could not figure out how to get it all turned on. He left the volume knob on about 6, whereas conversation in the room ceases at about three. I did not realize it when I hit the amp and walked away.
Ever seen a 160lb Great Dane levitate? I don't think he touched the floor until he had made it to the basement and peed on himself.
Now I can't even point at the stereo without him fleeing the house.
FWIW: The rest of the rig was: NAD 114 pre, NAD 2040 amp, and 1985 Klipsch Cornwall 1.5s.
 
SL-1300 w/ Grado Black. Hum. It's non-existent when the needle hits the vinyl though. So, for what it's worth the hum is not a deal breaker in my opinion.
 
PLEASE NOTE: Do not post your grado hum results in this thread. PM me directly and I will add them to the actual database spreadsheet. The link to the database is in the sticky called "New Grado Hum Database."
 
Linn LP12, Hercules PSU, Akito Arm, Grado Prestige Gold. Hum at VERY high volumes but not at comfortable listening levels. Knowing it's there is enough to annoy me anyway.
 
Link is dead

Sansui Louie said:
Ok, so I was probably kind of dumb by putting the title "Because it doesn't know the words" on the thread for collecting data for a database reflecting what models of turntables hum with what models of cartridges, etc.

So l'm creating this one with the currently tallied results in a link to an excel spreadsheet.

http://www.daveonbass.com/SOTD/grado.xls

Grado owners/former owners/etc. please post your turntable model, Grado cartridge model, and whether or not you have/had hum in this thread and I'll add the data to the spreadsheet.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
The link is gone for the grado.xls spreadsheet as June 28, 2013
 
Grado Reference Platinum and Music Hall MMF5.1. Outer half of LP plays fine, 1/2 way through rumble sets in and the woofers on my Devore 3xl's get pumping prompting immediate hit of mute switch. Repeated this with 5 LP's of various genres.
 
Dunno whether this can be of any help but a friend of mine had a Grado Silver on his TD124 MK1 (alu "grid" headshell) and had a significant hum.
He put another cartridge which he said to be better shielded and the hum disappeared.
 
Grado Wood bodied Reference Series Platinum, Music Hall 5.1

Hum in both channels, predominantly left side. Motor OFF. Motor on with platter and LP playing, left channel considerably muted with the exception of very heavy unnatural muddy bass.

Left RCA out (female) on table, interconnect is loose fitting. Move the table, slightly wiggle the left cable or opening/closing dust cover hum changes. Entire table, tone arm is microphonic. Tap cover, table, platter or arm lightly, sound comes thru speakers as a pronounced 'thump'

The most aggravating aspect is this is intermittent in intensity. Open/close cover or move arm it might increase or decrease but it never really is eliminated.

Motor died approximately 14 months after purchase. Developed a clicking sound much like a model railroad operating. Full pop retail replacement price, no warranty, no pro-rate or split from manf.

Dealer BROKE stylus of Grado whilst replacing motor. Returned, paid 2/3 retail for new cartridge, dealer adjusted VTA (arm was nose high with Grado) That's when all the hum/noise, cracking, popping sound developed.

Very disappointed.... ;-(
 
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yerguy said:
Grado Wood bodied Reference Series Platinum, Music Hall 5.1

Hum in both channels, predominantly left side. Motor OFF. Motor on with platter and LP playing, left channel considerably muted with the exception of very heavy unnatural muddy bass.

Left RCA out (female) on table, all interconnects are loose fitting. Move the table, slightly wiggle the left cable or opening/closing dust cover hum changes. Entire table, tone arm is microphonic. Tap cover, table, platter or arm lightly, sound comes thru speakers as a pronounced 'thump'

Motor died approximately 14 months after purchase. Developed a clicking sound much like a model railroad operating. Full pop retail replacement price, no warranty, no pro-rate or split from manf.

Very disappointed.... ;-(
Click to expand...

what does this have to do with the grado cart?
 
what does this have to do with the grado cart?

"what does this have to do with the grado cart?"

Everything!! There was NO noise at all with the OEM Goldring but I wanted to upgrade to something better. In the hey day of vinyl.. 70-80's my best luck ever was with two high end Grado's on my Thorens TD-160 table.

With the AC motor and NO grounding cable as provided on the early Thorens tables it should have made a ton o' noise but it was dead quiet.
 
yerguy said:
"what does this have to do with the grado cart?"

Everything!! There was NO noise at all with the OEM Goldring but I wanted to upgrade to something better. In the hey day of vinyl.. 70-80's my best luck ever was with two high end Grado's on my Thorens TD-160 table.

With the AC motor and NO grounding cable as provided on the early Thorens tables it should have made a ton o' noise but it was dead quiet.
Click to expand...

Coulda swore you were refering to the table being bad.
 
Grado hum mystery solved.

I think most Grado hum problems have nothing to do with what table it is mounted on, and everything to do with what gear is in close proximity to the cartridge. Keep your cartridge at least 24" from any other gear, and I'll bet your hum problem goes away.

I recently bought another turntable with a Grado on it. I have owned the same table in the past with a Grado - a Mission 775S. The other one hummed. The new turntable did not hum at all. No hum even at wide open volume, only the hiss of the phono stage. Weird I thought. What was different? Better wiring? It never hummed with Shure or Ortofons, so how could it be wiring?? Both tables had Grado Presitge series carts. One hummed and I hated it. The new one was nice and quiet and I loved it. I couldn't figure it out.

I had plans for the new table and the Grado and the tonearm were replaced. I took that Grado and put it on my JVC QL-Y5F in another system. Would it hum, I wondered? The JVC did not hum at all previously with the DL-110 on it, so I know the wiring/grounding is good. Also, I remember seeing this model in the Grado hum database and it's not a hummer.

I mounted the Grado and it did hum! What was the difference here I wondered? In the other system, there are no components under the turntable, it is a side by side rack config. In the system with the JVC, it is on a vertical rack, right above the integrated amp. Hmmm. Come to think of it, my old Mission table was on the shelf right above my amp. I'm seeing a trend here....

So I move the amp down one shelf, and move the CD player up one shelf to put some distance between the turtnable and the magnetic field of the amp's power transformer. That was all it took. Hum gone. Completely. The cd player doesn't produce enough EMI to make the hum come back. I'm happy and loving the warm Grado sound.

Lesson learned, keep any other components a good distance away from your Grado cart. I'll bet on most Grado hum problems are caused by other components being too close to the cart.

It is probably a wise practice with any cart to keep it as far as possible from gear that draws a good bit of current, because as a result it will create a stronger magnetic field than gear that does not draw much current.
 
hypertone said:
Grado hum mystery solved.

I think most Grado hum problems have nothing to do with what table it is mounted on, and everything to do with what gear is in close proximity to the cartridge. Keep your cartridge at least 24" from any other gear, and I'll bet your hum problem goes away.

I recently bought another turntable with a Grado on it. I have owned the same table in the past with a Grado - a Mission 775S. The other one hummed. The new turntable did not hum at all. No hum even at wide open volume, only the hiss of the phono stage. Weird I thought. What was different? Better wiring? It never hummed with Shure or Ortofons, so how could it be wiring?? Both tables had Grado Presitge series carts. One hummed and I hated it. The new one was nice and quiet and I loved it. I couldn't figure it out.

I had plans for the new table and the Grado and the tonearm were replaced. I took that Grado and put it on my JVC QL-Y5F in another system. Would it hum, I wondered? The JVC did not hum at all previously with the DL-110 on it, so I know the wiring/grounding is good. Also, I remember seeing this model in the Grado hum database and it's not a hummer.

I mounted the Grado and it did hum! What was the difference here I wondered? In the other system, there are no components under the turntable, it is a side by side rack config. In the system with the JVC, it is on a vertical rack, right above the integrated amp. Hmmm. Come to think of it, my old Mission table was on the shelf right above my amp. I'm seeing a trend here....

So I move the amp down one shelf, and move the CD player up one shelf to put some distance between the turtnable and the magnetic field of the amp's power transformer. That was all it took. Hum gone. Completely. The cd player doesn't produce enough EMI to make the hum come back. I'm happy and loving the warm Grado sound.

Lesson learned, keep any other components a good distance away from your Grado cart. I'll bet on most Grado hum problems are caused by other components being too close to the cart.

It is probably a wise practice with any cart to keep it as far as possible from gear that draws a good bit of current, because as a result it will create a stronger magnetic field than gear that does not draw much current.
Click to expand...

I strongly disagree I have a Ref Sonata and a Gold they are dead quite on all my DD tables (SL1800 MK2, SL1500 MK1 and DP 62L), But hummmmmmm like crazy on both my Regas, a Planar2 with 24v motor and a P3-24 and on my VPI classic. I have had the tables stacked and set off by themselves, it made no difference in my all tube setup. YMMV
 
kenvab55 said:
I strongly disagree I have a Ref Sonata and a Gold they are dead quite on all my DD tables (SL1800 MK2, SL1500 MK1 and DP 62L), But hummmmmmm like crazy on both my Regas, a Planar2 with 24v motor and a P3-24 and on my VPI classic. I have had the tables stacked and set off by themselves, it made no difference in my all tube setup. YMMV
Click to expand...

The hum is due to proximity to an unshielded motor or transformer. The amount of hum is based upon how high the EMI field is. If a syncronous motor produces 3-6 Watts of power, it doesn't matter if it takes 24vac or 110vac to produce that 3-6 watts, the EMI field strength will be the same.
 
david winter said:
Dunno whether this can be of any help but a friend of mine had a Grado Silver on his TD124 MK1 (alu "grid" headshell) and had a significant hum.
He put another cartridge which he said to be better shielded and the hum disappeared.
Click to expand...

I'm presently using an 8MR on my '61 TD-124 and there is no hum at all.
 
hypertone said:
Grado hum mystery solved.

I think most Grado hum problems have nothing to do with what table it is mounted on, and everything to do with what gear is in close proximity to the cartridge. Keep your cartridge at least 24" from any other gear, and I'll bet your hum problem goes away.
Click to expand...

I thought that my TD-124 was causing my Grado to hum at first, but Marc Morin and others suggested that the iron platter should be a sufficient shield from the motor's EMI. The turntable happened to be sitting next to my Fisher 400 tube receiver. By chance, I repositioned the turntable about 6" higher than the Fisher, and about 12" to its left, and the problem went away.

I now have my system on a vertical rack with the Fisher about 4' below the Thorens, and that has also prevented any hum issues from the tubes.

 
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