Hello there, first message on the forum and hopefully this is the right place for this kind of questions.
I have an Audio-Technica ATR2500-USB mic (), had it since release around 12 or 13 years ago, but always sounded very low so didn't use it much. Yesterday I picked it up again to see what the problem was, and found that while the volume is actually adequate (much less sensitive than other mics I have though), it picks up a hum from mains (I've recorded and confirmed it's a sine of ~50Hz) that behaves in a strange way, at least to me, so I'm hoping for at least an explanation, but even better for theories on what to do about it.
I connected the mic to my laptop and no other cables anywhere, not even the charger or anything else. I can hear the hum very faintly (noise between -60db to -55db according to Reaper). With my laptop on my lap and me sitting on a couch or a chair, if I put my feet on the floor, the noise gets noticeable louder (around -48db). If I actually touch the mic with my hands (it has an aluminum body), the noise becomes very loud and distorted (gets up to -12db), at this point it doesn't really matter if I touch the floor or not.
I'm assuming this is due to some grounding issues, but from what I've read online about people having similar problems with other kind of mics, they get better results instead of worse when touching the mic (i.e. the noise goes away). I'll try to get better pictures today, but somebody took these that might already show something to a trained eye:
Does anybody have a theory of what might be happening? I know there is probably not enough info here for a true diagnostic, but even if I cannot fix it, I'd like to know what's happening. And of course, being able to fix it will be nice, if just for the fact that I spent a lot of money at some point and will be nice to use it for something before keeping it in a closet for another 13 years :).
Thanks in advance for any tips, really appreciate it.
