tpryan \$m[1]:So if you short U3, pins 3 and 4 it kills the noise and the signal, but if you turn the trim fully CCW it kills the signal but not the noise, right? With the trim fully CCW, can you measure the voltage across pins 2 and 3 of the output XLR with your DMM set to AC millivolts? Let us know what you find.
0 Volts.
On a side note, when I shorted pins 3 and 4 of U3, after a few seconds I heard a mid frequency oscillation until I power cycle the rack. Now I hear the same oscillation for a few seconds when I power up the rack.