NAD 5120 noise and panning problems

[meddle]

Hello,

I have a NAD 5120, it works fine, but I hear a noise everytime it is connected to the amplifier, no matter what king of it (DJ-mixer, phono in on stereo home amplifier, computer sound card, etc), so it is from the turntable, not the (pre)amplifier. When I put my arm close to the tonearm, the noise get a bit louder. I changed the audio cable wich was a black 5-pin DIN cable, with a better one, with RCA, but no difference at all. And the right channel sounds louder than the left one, a bit louder, so I change the balance knob, from 12h to about 13h, to have the sweet spot in the middle. I mention also, that even if the turntable is not pluged in soket wall, or is turned off, (the motor is not rotating), the noise is still there. I tried to cover the tonearm with an aluminium tinfoil - guess what: no difference.

Anyone can help? Thanks a lot!

 

[briank]

Sounds like a pretty common grounding problem, do you not have the ground wire connected to your phono amp?


Any number of things could cause a level imbalance from your speakers. Are they placed symmetrically in your room and are you sitting symmetrically between them? If no, that could certainly cause the need for the balance control to be tweaked like you say--or if you're seeing this present on any audio meters, then it would be something else of course.

 

[meddle]

Yes, a grounding ploblem might be... I don't no exactely how to ground it, I do have a ground point on preamp, but can't find one on the turntable; What should I ground from the turntable, the ground of the two channels, or of the motor? The one on the two channels isn't already grounded when I plug the cable on the preamp?

On the balance problem, yes, the speakers are symetrically aligned, and the problem is only from turntable, because other sources on the same amp, or any othe amp I had, are just fine balanced, no problem. And I listened to music even in headphones (about 5 types), - same balance problem, so I am very sure it is from the turntable - maybe on the tonearm, because even changed the cartridge, and no difference. But the tonearm looks just fine, what can I do to it to remove noise and balance problem?

... anothe turntable?