Rega Turntable Repair?

[tek]

Hello all,

My Rega P3-24, which has been working perfectly for several years, all of a sudden started making a loud buzz/hum whenever I turn it on. I have a feeling it may be a grounding issue, but Rega doesn't have separate grounding wire. Not able to solve it myself. Is there any official Rega service center in Mumbai? I know of Pandu in Opera House, but from my experience he mostly fixes vintage TT's, not to sure how he would handle a modern one? Any advice would be great.

Thanks
Tek

 

[sandeepmohan]

The fundamentals around tone arm wiring and the electrical motor are the same as a vintage turntable. The chap in Opera House should be able to sort you out if he is well versed with turntables.

I don't believe there is a anyone official to support their products. This goes for pretty much any Hi Fi you get in India.

 

[jls001]

Did you make any cabling changes lately? Or even repositioning equipment and its attendant cabling repositioning? Is it possible that your phono cables have become closer to, say, an amp, or running closer to a power cable?

For Rega, one crude method of grounding the arm is to run a wire from left channel RCA barrel to your amp or phono ground screw. Take a length of solid core wire (like from an Ethernet CATx cable, strip both ends. One end may be stripped by about 1½ inch. Loop this end tightly around the RCA input socket of left input of phono preamp, then insert your RCA cable so that the loop makes proper contact to the barrel of RCA socket as well as RCA plug.

Connect other end to grounding screw of your phono preamp.

If this does nothing, try it on right input.

 

[tek]

Thanks @jls001 for the feedback.

I managed to resolve the issue. It appears that my cartridge is the culprit. I switched out the cartridge (a Benz Micro Gold MC) with a Denon DL110 (HOMC) and the buzzing is no longer there and it plays fine. Just to double check I switched the cart back and the buzzing was there again. It appears to be only in one channel which leads me to believe there is a problem in the cartridge itself. Which is a shame, because I loved that cartridge! Had it for just over one year, and it's strange that it is causing an issue so soon.

I guess there is no way to get the cart repaired?

 

[jls001]

There are a few places you can have it repaired and/or retipped (like Soundsmith) but I'm not sure if it's worth it. Of course one can retip with a much better stylus and cantilever, but it will no longer remain a DL110. Amazon.com lists a new DL110 at $299. For that kind of money, I would suggest considering the Nagaoka MP200 (or MP150).

 

[tek]

@jls001 the faulty cartridge in question is the Benz Micro, the Denon works fine. I’m not sure it’s worth it to get it fixed but maybe I’ll try it on someone else’s TT to ensure it definitely is faulty.