Just been on the phone with a friend who owns an LV1. I do also.

When I connect my FR64fx arm to it I get a hum which I've not been able to get rid of, with earthing or without it.

My friend has just bought a new tonearm and now has the same problem. It's an AudioMods series 6  from Geoff Spall  in England.
No problem with his old one. an Helius Cyalene.

I never got back to Gary about the hum, as I use my SP10/SME3 through it, with an Arcam phono for the 401/FR which has a cheap cartridge in it. Sorry I didn't now!

Any ideas on which way to go with this problem?  And does anyone know if there is a dealer/fixer for Gary's gear who may have a suggestion? Michael?
Thanks for reading.
 

One cheap and probably illegal trick is to disconnect the earth to your LV1. The easiest way to do this is to get an old back-to-back three pin plug (these aren't available anymore but were very common) and cut the earth pin from it. You can get earth loops when using multiple components (I had an active 3 way system in the 80s and isolated all but the pre-amp power cord this way) each of which has two earths - one through the power chord and one (actually two) through the RCA interconnects. Make sure that you are using hefty lockable RCA cords if you want to try this but in the short term won't cause any problems unless the equipment is faulty.

Never though of that Peter,me being an electrician!
I'll give it a go and let you know. It is through an RCD after all.Thanks.

Used to able to buy cheater plugs, think they've been banned ?

Not used a production LV1, did try a couple of prototypes with no problems.

Last year I asked Ross Stevens about servicing PA gear, not heard anything since.

No that's no good Peter, a lot lot more hum/noise. If I feed my FR arm through my Arcam rPhono there's no hum at any volume.

But through the LV1 if I turn the volume up I hear faint hum.Listenable as the music hides it. With no tonearm/LV1 earthing there's a lot of noise.

The least noise I get is when the LV1 and tonearm are connected to an earth wire to my switchbox, which then of course goes from there down to my MF M3si amp through interconnects.

Connecting an earth wire directly from the amp to the LV1/tonearm has more noise/hum! And the LV1 is plugged in direct to the MF amp,not through the switchbox!

And as I said the SME3 arm through the LV1 has no noise/hum at all!

Don't worry about silly records Neil.. Use tapes instead as they are making a comeback!

Cassettes yeah !



Latest tape from Strange Behaviour - Uneasy Clubbing

Nice Michael.

I've just dumped a lot of cassettes. Kept a few that still play and don't have mould on them! Then my tape deck stopped working. The Teac V3000 I've been using sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. The level bar leds shoot up half way on startup. When they don't it'll work.

Had to find the old Akai GX-46D I had in storage to finish checking the rest of the tapes.

Looks like the Audiomods series 6 has a carbon fibre arm tube. That might mean less shielding for the low level wires within. Not much to do about that unfortunately but if possible, use shielded wires inside the arm tube. That might be something to take up with the arm manufacturer.
BTW my Nak ZX-7 is just sitting here, does anyone down under want it?

AMR-iFi R&D

Thanks Colin,I'll pass that on to him.
Had another play with my FR64fx into the LV1. I only hear a little hum when volume turned up fairly loud, can't hear it over the music.My FR has silver leads inside it.