Ground Loop /Balanced Interconnects!

wingnut4772

:eek:

I am still in the process of re-doing my HT and I finally got my balanced DH Labs Air Matrix interconnects. I hook them up and....Hummmmm.:eek:

So, I go throught the whole thing of unplugging everything. The first suspect the Sat box. I unplugged everything with no improvement. The only thing in my system that made a difference was removing the HDMI cable from the Anthem D2 that is coming from the Sat but there is still an audible hum. I never got any noise with my RCAs. Dead quiet. So, unless anyone here knows why this is happening I am returning the XLRs for my good ole' RCAs. They sound phenominal anyway...I don't know why I felt the need to try the balanced.

wingnut4772

I don't think I have that switch.... I will look

george daniel

anonymouse wrote:

I would use XLR only if you have very long runs. Having said this, on my Rotel amp there is a switch to go from balanced to unbalanced. Do you have the same? Is it in the right position?

Good suggestion, had the same problem with my amp,after moving it one of the switches was inadvertently flipped on the right channel,went through 2 sets of IC's before I figured it out

wingnut4772

Nope. No switches

wingnut4772

Screw it. They are going back.:mad:

faster100

Stick with the Rca's darla and put your mind on more important things in the system

wingnut4772

The only reason I got the XLRs is because another D2 owner recommended them over the RCAs but I really can not imagine that they sound better over a 1 meter run and in my system thery certainly don't.:p

schwarcw

Let us know if you get the hum with the RCA's, even if you didn't have it before. Ground loop hums can drive you crazy to find. They are usually cheap to fix once they are finally found.

fredv

I hate fighting ground loops. My gears are all RCAs. Everything I switching, the battle starts. I thought XLRs are immuned to ground loops, no? Or XLR has it's own quirky daemon?

Grimster74

See, I was in a different boat. I have the hum if I use the RCA's. Once I went to the XLR cables, hum was gone.

wingnut4772

schwarcw wrote:

Let us know if you get the hum with the RCA's, even if you didn't have it before. Ground loop hums can drive you crazy to find. They are usually cheap to fix once they are finally found.

RCAs are super duper quiet.