About a week and a half ago I put on a new record I'd just gotten and almost immediately I noticed a rhythmic thump thump thump in the background. Since I hadn't noticed this before with any record, I immediately suspecting the vinyl itself. I stopped playback and the thumping remained. I did all the usual troubleshooting to no avail and did not relish the thought of lugging the receiver back to Prescott for my guy up north to look at (not to mention the six-to-eight month turnaround it normally takes him).
So went online and found a highly-rated vintage repair shop just up the street from where we live. I've driven past it a hundred times and never knew it was there. I called to verify they were open, and then drove the receiver up and told him what was going on. After paying the $40 inspection fee, the guy said he'd call in about a week with an estimate for repairs.
Got the call on Tuesday. He could find nothing wrong with it. Everything was dead quiet.
So I brought it home, hooked everything back up, and heard thump-thump-thump.
This was maddening. So I disconnected everything except for the turntable and speakers. Thump-thump-thump.
Disconnected the turntable. Thump-thump-thump…but only when the receiver's selector switch it was set to phono.
I discovered the sound went down significantly when I touched the back panel of the receiver. This told me this was some kind of ground problem. But everything was grounded!
After about an hour of trying everything my years of experience in this hobby had taught me, I gave up and decided to see if Google had any answers.
It turns out there were lots of mentions of WiFi routers causing interference like this with vintage equipment.
Hmmm…
We have an Orbi mesh router. The satellitewas in the bedroom, directly on the opposite side of the wall from the receiver. For the longest time it wasn't in use, but I decided to power it up just a few weeks ago.
The light bulb went off.
I unplugged the satellite and voila! Dead silence from the receiver.
I moved the satellite about three feet, plugged it in, and the receiver remained quiet. Go figger.