Well I've basically tried everything now, bar wearing a tin foil hat! I think the wiim phono input just seems to be extremely (overly) sensitive to interference, so I've gone back to my little fosi phono stage to enjoy the blissful silence (via the wiim line in). I already have a very good dac with remote control, peq and LDAC Bluetooth, so I'm not sure the wiim holds much value for me personally without a functioning phono stage. I'm going to live with it for a couple of weeks to see if I fall in love with it or decide to return it. Thanks everyone for the multitude of suggestions to try and resolve the issue.
Buzzing/Humming when using Phono Input
- Thread starter alucas92
- Start date
Pardon my ignorance, but EoP adapter?
Ethernet over Power, sometimes known as powerline adapters?
Thanks, I thought that's what they were! That's good to hear because I have a set connecting my ATV in my garage (where I run zwift). Simple enough to unplug when using my TT (which is once a week at most)
I've just unplugged them and the popping has gone! It's now almost completely silent, even at max everything. It's now quieter than any phono stage I've owned, there is no audible hum and only a quiet hiss when you put your ear next the tweeter, but this is setting the amp volume to max and the Ultra vol to max.
slartibartfast
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In that case a filter on the power cable might help.
As it happens my ATV hasn't been plugged into the EoP for some time, which I'd forgotten about as unrelated. I've no need of them but useful to know.
Well it's 1am here and i have finally eliminated the noise problem! Turned out the power brick for my Aiyima A07 Max amplifier was introducing electrical noise and that was being picked up by the (albeit very sensitive) Wiim phono stage.
To elaborate a little, by pure chance today I was browsing the classified ads and saw a little TEAC AI-301DA DAC/amp being sold for a bargainous £35 so I went and bought it. This allowed me to remove the Aiyima A07 Max amp, which was the only thing I couldn't test before. To be honest, I wasn't expecting it to be the amp given the other two phono stages have no noise at all when used with the A07, but again this Wiim phono seems very sensitive /easily susceptible to interference.
I think with hindsight, after so many hours and days of trying everything I could think of, and along the way acquiring a mountain of new (and pointless) RCA cables, ground cables, and extension chords etc, I would use the following process of elimination:
Hopefully this will make it quicker to identify the problem (as a reminder my noise was high pitched / interference, rather than low frequency ground fault hum, and it was not present unless using the wiim phono stage).
To elaborate a little, by pure chance today I was browsing the classified ads and saw a little TEAC AI-301DA DAC/amp being sold for a bargainous £35 so I went and bought it. This allowed me to remove the Aiyima A07 Max amp, which was the only thing I couldn't test before. To be honest, I wasn't expecting it to be the amp given the other two phono stages have no noise at all when used with the A07, but again this Wiim phono seems very sensitive /easily susceptible to interference.
I think with hindsight, after so many hours and days of trying everything I could think of, and along the way acquiring a mountain of new (and pointless) RCA cables, ground cables, and extension chords etc, I would use the following process of elimination:
- Unplug everything (including amplifier), except for the turntable and the Wiim Ultra (connected up and grounded).
- Plug in wired headphones to the Wiim, start turning up the volume to max to see if any noise is present. If there is no noise then start plugging things back in one by one until the noise noise comes back.
- If there is noise when it's just the turntable and the wiim then first try moving them to a different socket, and if still noise then try different / shielded RCA cables / check grounding etc.
Hopefully this will make it quicker to identify the problem (as a reminder my noise was high pitched / interference, rather than low frequency ground fault hum, and it was not present unless using the wiim phono stage).
Mr Ee
Major Contributor
Good to hear that "window shopping" lead to you finding / fixing the issue.
Corpus Frisky
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davmol, that audio file indicates a noise that is not 60Hz hum but rather a higher frequency. I notice you have your Class D amp sitting right above the WiiM. Try adding some separation between the WiiM and Aiyima to see if the noise goes away, or at least reduces. Better still disconnect the Aiyima from its power source and use headphones with the WiiM to see if the noise is gone. Torsten mentioned the WiiM is very sensitive to electronic interference. Seems likely this is what's happening in your case.
Thanks it was the amplifier. At first I moved it (and it's external power supply) about 3 feet away from the Wiim and ensured all power cables ran separately to phono RCA and speaker wires but it made no difference. I eventually bought another amp and the noise was gone, so it looks like it was the Aiyima power supply introducing noise to the phono stage.
slartibartfast
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Sounds like the Aiyima power supply and the Ultra don't meet EU EMC regulations
I picked up the new Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT turntable (with bronze trim of course) and I found the phono preamp on the Ultra to be very noisy. As luck would have it, the Audio-Technica AT-LP70XBT has it's own built-in phono preamp and using that to the line in on the Ultra is nice and quite. Maybe it's the interesting ground lug? No idea, but I aborted using the Ultra phono input. Unfortunately for me, if I have to sacrifice the aux RCA input for the phonograph input, that reduces the Ultras usefulness as a preamp.
Are you getting buzzing and humming or have you just accidentally cross posted this comment?
Corpus Frisky
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By and large it appears that from the audio files of WiiM phono stage noise being posted here that the noise is not a ground loop issue (50/60 Hz hum) but rather airborne radio frequency interference (RFI). I also notice from images people have posted of their setup that the WiiM is often stacked on top of, or otherwise very near, other equipment in use. In that case my best recommendation would be to try and set the WiiM aside and away from other devices as much as cabling will allow. It seems the WiiM's phono stage is very sensitive to airborne electrical interference. The manufacturer would do well to include a metal can shield (Faraday cage) around this sensitive portion of their internal circuity. Apparently there isn't one.
Something's clearly amiss, as many are reporting similar issues. In my case, I simply connected the same turntable using the same cables to another amp with a phono stage input and it was as quiet as a church mouse [full transparency, no idea how quiet a church mouse actually is].
I don't really have a lot of free time to troubleshoot the Ultra, so I figured I'd try it again if I saw WiiM post that they improved their phono pickup in a firmware upgrade, but if it's lacking RF shielding and that's the cause of their phono issue, then all bets are off. Kind of hard to believe with as long as phono inputs have been around that the Ultra had to be "special"
Yep buzzing and humming when I tested my turntable on the Ultra, and dead silent when connected to a different integrated amp w/phono input.
We realize that not everyone is experiencing the issue.
Skull
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Ok I apologise
