so I'm recording a song off of an LP, and I notice this buzzing noise. Here's the extent of my troubleshooting. The buzzing is not loud, but noticeable.

1) changed interconnects. While moving them around and touching them quiets the buzz, different interconnects have no change on this behavior.

2) Makes noise when turntable is on, off, or unplugged from AC

3) makes noise when ground is disconnected/connected. However, it makes more when it's disconnected when I try to touch the metal part of the tonearm, the metal base, etc. When it is grounded it is just the steady buzz.

4) It is not the cartridge, tried swapping with another one.

5) when the daul is in start/return mode, the sound cuts off as usual, and so does the buzzing.

So I think it's something with the Dual itself, maybe a loose ground. Where would be the first place to check under there. I tried playing around with some of the wires I can see but I couldn't get anywhere. Any help would be appreciated. thanks.

Check cartridge carrier lead wires and spring contacts. Check the contact plate at the end of the arm that mates with the carrier.

Fred

You are correct about suspecting the ground. This condition is caused by failing tonearm wiring. What is happening is that an intermittant open has developed inside one of the tonearm ground wires where it is in constant motion at the tonearm pivot point. I've seen this in 1209's and early 1219's. You could re-wire it, but what I have done is to remove the external ground wire and internally ground it. Grounded internally, ground is achieved through the RCA phono connects. Check my previous posts/responses for a detailed discussion on this, as well as corrective measures.

I'm not really sure why this works - ground is ground, but it does. Just make sure to disable the existing ground wire - if booth are connected, you will get a ground loop.

I've had to ground internally on other turntables. I actually prefer doing that because the extra ground wire just gets in the way. I've usually installed a jumper from the ground connection to the negative side of the left channel and it's worked great.

Believe it or not, it suddenly stopped after a night of me sleeping on it (I nearly tore all wires out last night). Probably because those wires are "failing" and not "failed". I'll see how it behaves. It could also be something in my house causing interference, as that wouldn't be the first time. Though this is unlikely because the Dual was the only piece of equipment giving me a problem.

In the meantime I'll check out the stuff that Fred said...

Thanks!