HISS out of speakers

donedroolin

I have a parasound halo amp and controller. They are all pluuged into a Monster brand power conditioner surge protector. Besides using a an adapter to get rid of the ground (three way plug to two way) how do you get rid of the hiss noise.

Syndil

Ground hum is usually, well, a hum, not a hiss. A hiss usually means there is either something wrong with the preamp, or that it just naturally has a high noise floor. A quick Google search confirms that several people have complained of audible hissing with the Halo C-2, but some have alleviated it by using balanced XLR interconnects. Might try that if you haven't already.

http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?t=6977&highlight=hiss

tonyb

A Hiss, can also be from a bad cable somewhere in the loop. Disconnect one cable at a time to see if you can narrow it down. Does the hiss get louder as you turn up the volume ?

donedroolin

Yes Thanks my system is hooked up using balanced XLR interconnects, They are from monster. The hum,hiss does not get louder as I turn the volume up. I think it may be a ground problem. Should thier be a seperate ground for any piece of equipment.

Syndil

In my experience, I have found that ground hum is usually more audible from the equipment itself more than from the speakers. So if you don't hear anything humming with your ear up to the amp or the pre-amp, then I would rule out ground hum. If you do hear humming, then of course address the ground issue.

But if it's not ground hum, and since the hiss is a constant level regardless if the volume setting, then I would have to assume what you are hearing is unfortunately the natural noise floor of the equipment. The previous info I found via Google tends to support that theory. You could however narrow it down to either the amp or the preamp as the source of the noise by disconnecting the pre-amp from the amp and seeing if there is still a hiss. I would suspect that it is the preamp that is the culprit, in which case I can only recommend replacing it with something else.

tonyb

Was the hiss always present ? Or did it just start recently ? Do you have a pair of interconnects laying around to replace the balanced cables to compare ? Could be a dirty pin on one of the balanced cables. Just a thought.