Sounds to me like the tube pre(just guessing here)I had a hell of a time with pickin' up a Mexican radio station thru my guitar amp(tube head+crappy house wiring)The noise gate on my rack gear took care of that.If all your cables are all good,try a different outlet and/or a different pre(if you can),like had been said.Either something's not grounded proper in your system or your house wiring(or the pre's screwed).That's my guess anyway. ...good luck.catpuke said:now have all balanced cables and tried a new mic, same thing
--about 30 seconds after I turn on the preamp i get a loud steady hum
--if I touch the mic the hum wavers a bit, but remains very loud, and sometimes receives a radio station
--it seems to me to be akin to old-fashioned television reception (when a person touching the antenna affected the signal)
does this sound like a ground loop?
if so, how do I solve the problem? (the outlet is grounded)
could it be something else?
anyone with similar experiences?
Yep...same story here about the house wiring.You can try buying one of those thick outdoor type extention cords(25 ft. or so),plug your strip into it and try all of your wall sockets.See if the noise goes away.I have all my stuff(2 puters,3 monitors,a printer,telephone,lamp,ect.)plugged in that way(25 ft. I think)with no problems.catpuke said:the preamp is plugged into the same power strip as the computer
the house is a mess electrically (bought it from a "home improvement" guy)
----there's dead outlets and switches, some are grounded, some aren't
----the outlet the computer is plugged into is grounded to a water pipe
any suggestions? any easy ways to fix the problem without moving or rewiring the house?
I'll still go with this, since it's not clear if you ever got a different mic (xlr to xlr) cable. If you did, and the problem persists, then it's likely in the mic's xlr connector, as you said in your first post that you can get rid of the problem by fiddling with the cable to mic connection. These are the first things to check, and it doesn't seem like you have.crazydoc said:First, try a different mic cable. Even new stuff comes broken. If you still have the problem, it's probably in the XLR connector of your mic, since you can fix it by twiddling there. It sounds like you have an intermittent open circuit. If the mic is new and under warranty, get a new one. If not, take it apart and inspect and resolder the wires to the connector.
I've got six cats - three are longhairs. Pukey hairballs everywhere.