Hi,

I picked up a used Beogram 8002 recently and only get a fairly loud hum as output from the turntable.  I suspect the cable is at fault, but thought I'd check here before I try buying a new cable.

The turntable is known to be working, because I tested it out before purchasing it.  It was hooked up to a B&O receiver.  I bought this cable on ebay and when I have it hooked up, I get hum from the turntable, regardless of whether the turntable is playing anything, or even powered on.

If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.  Thanks!

That cable has no chassis earth. You need to run a wire from the metal casing of the DIN plug to the earth of your amplifier - That will get rid of the hum.  Although I am definitely not a cable enthusiast, the cable from a record player to an amplifier carries a very low level signal and need to be as short as possible and shielded. I am not sure that the one shown is ideal. I would look at getting Steve at Sounds Heavenly to get you a proper cable will have two phono plugs and an earth in a shielded casing.

Hi,

I couldn't have put it in a better way! (I'm French)

I have a similar experience. This will do nicely, and yes Steve is nice and will sell you a good, not audiophile cable, ie not expensive... but there's no difference anyway!

The ebay cable was  expensive for what it is, and too long for a phono lead. It may have too high a capacity and affect treble level.

Thanks for the replies, guys.  Grounding the cable got rid of the hum, but there's still no output.

I can hear output from the cartridge if I put my ear close, so I know that part is working.  I've got a multimeter--is there a way I could test the output of the DIN jack before I buy a new cable?

Thanks again for all of the help.

Have you tried all the outputs? I would suggest it is the cable.

The RCA jacks were labeled wrong on the cable, so I was using the wrong ones.

The turntable plays and sounds great, but now I'm having another issue.  Something is causing the tonearm to "fall" all the way down on the record.  I have adjusted the tonearm weight, and it seems like I need to have it pretty high in order to remove the distortion from the sound.  Is this a sign of a bad (worn) cartridge?

It's a sign of a failing (or failed, take your choice) stylus suspension.  It's rubber and dries out with age.  The tone arm falling onto the record might have precipitated it.  Often a temporary cure is to do what you did - increase the stylus pressure.  But beyond a point this will damage your records.