Rotel Preamp Phono Stage Noise

tonysmmr

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Hello. I have a Rotel 1070 preamp on a Carver amp. Never had a Turntable on this system until I received one as a present this Christmas. A vintage Phillips 312 with an Ortofon 5E mm cartridge. With the phono connected (properly grounded), if I switch the preamp to the phono stage I get a very high level of static and noise. Grounding has been checked and rechecked and it is fine. This Turntable was hooked into another system and presented no noise. So the issue seems to be with the Rotel phono preamp stage. Same issue with the power amp off, just listening through the preamp > headphones.

Any advice? Should I get a separate phono preamp and hook it through the aux input? Or should I just dump the Rotel and get a new preamp? I am committed to moving back into vinyl with this system configuration or with a new one. But I am not sure how to proceed.

UPDATE: Problem positively IDed, thanks to Wine Man. It was my powerline adapter setup. See thread, below.

UPDATED UPDATE:
This fix may be of use to others.

So, I was having no real luck reducing my phono preamp stage noise down to a tolerable level. I tried lots of fixes, including trying to ignore it, but it was really ruining my record listening. Finally, in response to Wine Man's suggestion, we IDed the problem, but not the solution.

It was directly related to the plug-in wifi extender system hooked in at our house. These range boosters plug into your wall and use the house wiring to extend the range throughout bigger houses. We require this so that my son has decent reception upstairs for his work and, more importantly to him, his gaming.

We disconnected the range extender as an experiment and my phono noise disappeared -- 100%. Buuuut, no wifi upstairs.

Talked to a tech nerd friend who told me to try an alternative to the plug-in house wiring solution: it's called Moca, made by Motorola. This extender uses the house coax wiring instead of electrical wiring. Our house's cable/coax runs into most rooms, including my son's, so this was viable. We bought it, installed it, and —magically— it worked.

This fix is similar to what Wine Man implemented at his place. So it seems that using coax is the better way to extend wifi reception.

Nomo phono noise, better wifi coverage than before, and my vinyl is now in play once again.
 
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If the TT works perfectly with a different amp (and you're sure something hasn't been dislodged in transit) then it's fair to assume the fault is with the pre amp stage in the Rotel. Might be an idea to try a separate phono stage before changing out the Rotel, the Rega Fono or ifi zen phono stages are very popular, the ifi zen is well regarded for being very low in noise.
 
If the TT works perfectly with a different amp (and you're sure something hasn't been dislodged in transit) then it's fair to assume the fault is with the pre amp stage in the Rotel. Might be an idea to try a separate phono stage before changing out the Rotel, the Rega Fono or ifi zen phono stages are very popular, the ifi zen is well regarded for being very low in noise.
Thank you. This is pretty much what I expected. And based on some other folks' input, a consensus is forming. And Thanks for the Rega and ifi phono pre suggestions. That was my next question.
 
Have you tried it without grounding?
 
Possibly a long shot but are you using homeplugs by any chance (used to get your Internet signal from the router to elsewhere in the property using the mains circuit?) These can add annoying noise into sensitive circuits like phono stages in a system. This happened to me and removing the homeplugs cured the noise completely.
 
Possibly a long shot but are you using homeplugs by any chance (used to get your Internet signal from the router to elsewhere in the property using the mains circuit?) These can add annoying noise into sensitive circuits like phono stages in a system. This happened to me and removing the homeplugs cured the noise completely.
That is a good long shot and easy to test. There's one in the room above the stereo, in my son's room. I'll keep you posted
 
I read a review of a Rotel amp where they mentioned that had noise if on same socket as other HiFi kit, this disappeared if plugged separate. I have connected my A11 Tribute today and connected on a separate plug, zero noise floor on any input.
 
Possibly a long shot but are you using homeplugs by any chance (used to get your Internet signal from the router to elsewhere in the property using the mains circuit?) These can add annoying noise into sensitive circuits like phono stages in a system. This happened to me and removing the homeplugs cured the noise completely.
Well, Wine Man, your shot was not long. It was dead on. We have a NETGEAR powerline adapter hooked up to get internet from the back 1st floor to the front 2nd floor of our house. Disconnected it tonight and the noise was 100% eliminated from my phono stage. After you made your suggestion I started searching the problem on the www from your angle instead of from the Rotel angle, and I found out that this is a very common problem. Now at least I know the source of the problem, next issue is how to keep good connectivity throughout my house and still use my phono. That should be solvable, now that I know what to solve. You saved me from buying a new phono pre, or worse, a new full preamp - neither of which would have made any difference.
THANKX!!
 
No probs Tony, glad I could help. My phono stage is a Gold Note PH10 and the noise was like a pulsing motorboat with crackling and buzzing alongside. Instead of the homeplugs I got a Cat5 cable installed - it ran from the router at the front of the house, round the outside, to our TV box at the other end of the house. Much better than the homeplugs or a wifi connection and the noise is gone!
 
Reviving this thread as I just found it, and thank God I did!
I too have a Rotel RC-1070 and a ProJect turntable with an Ortofon Red cartridge. I had noise so bad when I would select the phono input on the preamp, it was unusable. Furthermore, I had an ENGL guitar amp which was so noisy I could barely use it. I spent way too much time trying to diagnose the ENGL as the problem. Finally I gave up and sold it. The strange thing is I went to a Hughes & Kettner guitar amp and also noticed the problem. Both of these are German amps. I also have a Marshall and an Orange amp, which are British and neither of them had the problem, plugged into the same power outlet. I can only attribute this to possibly a different type of grounding used by the British amps.
I have an external Cambridge Azur phono preamp which also does not have the problem when I run my turntable through it instead of the Rotel. Coincidentally, Azur is British as well.

I had narrowed mine down to what I thought was my wireless router as I could literally hear the "pulsing" of the signal in tandem with the noise coming through the amps. It was something like the sound a Geiger counter would make, lol.

After reading this thread, I too have the power/ethernet plugs setup in my hosue. Mine are Netgear. As soon as I unplugged the one in the room with my music gear, poof, noise gone.

I don't have an Xfinity coax-type router, I have direct fiber and also because of the location of my wife's computer upstairs (the one using the power ethernet) I can't really run ethernet across the room. I'd have to drill into through the walls.

So, I guess I too have the problem with no resolution, or at least no easy one. I however do have a workaround by using my external Cambridge phono preamp. For my guitar amps, at least I can pick those up and move them to a different power circuit.

Anyway, thanks for all the info!
 

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