How to eliminate hum...

audiobliss
audiobliss Posts: 12,518
edited August 2006 in Electronics
Since moving my system, I've noticed I've got a hum of fairly decent 'proportions'. I've narrowed it down to my AV-20's; both of them. What could be causing this? It's not the preamp, because both the Wave 8's and the AV-20's are connected to the same outs on the preamp (via Monster signal splitters). I can easily turn up the music high enough to over power the hum, but it's still very annoying at lower listening levels. Besides, I want to be able to say I have a quiet system! :p

Where's a good place for me to start with locating the source of this hum? Any guesses as to what it could be? I'd appreciate any recommendations!

audiobliss
George Grand wrote: »
Jstas wrote: »
Simple question. If you had a cool million bucks, what would you do with it?
Wonder WTF happened to the rest of my money.
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Comments

  • Dennis Gardner
    Dennis Gardner Posts: 4,861
    edited August 2006
    Remove the splitter first and see if it still exists.

    Try listening with other components uplugged when the 20s are on, it could be getting another ground through them.

    It is basically a trial and error effort until you find the exact culprit.
    HT Optoma HD25 LV on 80" DIY Screen, Anthem MRX 300 Receiver, Pioneer Elite BDP 51FD Polk CS350LS, Polk SDA1C, Polk FX300, Polk RT55, Dual EBS Adire Shiva 320watt tuned to 17hz, ICs-DIY Twisted Prs, Speaker-Raymond Cable

    2 Channel Thorens TD 318 Grado ZF1, SACD/CD Marantz 8260, Soundstream/Krell DAC1, Audio Mirror PP1, Odyssey Stratos, ADS L-1290, ICs-DIY Twisted , Speaker-Raymond Cable
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  • RuSsMaN
    RuSsMaN Posts: 17,986
    edited August 2006
    Do those have the ground lift switches on the rear, near the IEC jack?

    Do they hum without the splitters in place, connected directly to your preamp?

    Since you moved the system, what changed power wise? Different cords? Different surge strip? Different wall outlet?

    Cheers,
    Russ
    Check your lips at the door woman. Shake your hips like battleships. Yeah, all the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service.
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  • halo
    halo Posts: 5,616
    edited August 2006
    Do you have speaker cables and IC's near the power cables? Try to isolate the PC's from everything else. Could be noise from your AC line. A dedicated circuit, with an isolated ground, along with a hospital grade outlet should fix that.
    Audio: Polk S15 * Polk S35 * Polk S10 * SVS SB-1000 Pro
    HT: Samsung QN90B * Marantz NR1510 * Panasonic DMP-BDT220 * Roku Ultra LT * APC H10
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  • Toka78
    Toka78 Posts: 192
    edited August 2006
    This should cover just about all the bases...


    http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/setup/avhardware/groundloopcableTV.php
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  • okiepolkie
    okiepolkie Posts: 2,258
    edited August 2006
    Aquire C4, 300ft of monster cable speaker wire, and a gimpy cat. I'll let you figure out how to fix the hum with that. Have a nice day.
    Tschüss
    Zach
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  • Shizelbs
    Shizelbs Posts: 7,433
    edited August 2006
    Any other appliances, electronics running off the same circuit? Also, I always first look to new/changed cables/interconnects.
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  • McLoki
    McLoki Posts: 5,231
    edited August 2006
    You could get a cheater plug and try that. (one of those 3 prong to 2 prong adapters for power cables) not the best long term solution but it may help you find the issue.

    I have also seen cable lines cause hum issues numerous times. If you have any cable lines (as in cable TV) hooked up to any equipment, try removing it and see if the problem continues.

    Also could run an extension cord from another circut in your house (in an adjacent room maybe?) and try plugging one component at a time into that and see if the hum goes away.

    good luck, they can be hard to find.

    Michael
    Mains.............Polk LSi15 (Cherry)
    Center............Polk LSiC (Crossover upgraded)
    Surrounds.......Polk LSi7 (Gloss Black - wood sides removed and crossovers upgraded)
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    Pre\Pro...........NAD T163 (Modded with LM4562 opamps)
    Amplifier.........Cinepro 3k6 (6-channel, 500wpc@4ohms)
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  • I-SIG
    I-SIG Posts: 2,243
    edited August 2006
    Cable management helped me a lot.

    Wes
    Link: http://polkarmy.com/forums

    Sony 75" Bravia 4K | Polk Audio SDA-SRS's (w/RDO's & Vampire Posts) + SVS PC+ 25-31 | AudioQuest Granite (mids) + BWA Silver (highs) | Cary Audio CAD-200 | Signal Cable Silver Resolution XLR's | Rotel Michi P5 | Signal Cable Silver Resolution XLR's | Cambridge Audio azur 840C--Wadia 170i + iPod jammed w/ lossless audio--Oppo 970 | Pure|AV PF31d
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  • audiobliss
    audiobliss Posts: 12,518
    edited August 2006
    Thanks for all the advice, fellas; really appreciate it. I'll get to figuring it out and responding after supper...my stomach's growling!!
    George Grand wrote: »
    Jstas wrote: »
    Simple question. If you had a cool million bucks, what would you do with it?
    Wonder WTF happened to the rest of my money.
    In Use
    PS3, Yamaha CDR-HD1300, Plex, Amazon Fire TV Gen 2
    Pioneer Elite VSX-52, Parasound HCA-1000A
    Klipsch RF-82ii, RC-62ii, RS-42ii, RW-10d
    Epson 8700UB
    In Storage
    [Home Audio]
    Rotel RCD-02, Yamaha KX-W900U, Sony ST-S500ES, Denon DP-7F
    Pro-Ject Phono Box MKII, Parasound P/HP-850, ASL Wave 20 monoblocks
    Klipsch RF-35, RB-51ii
    [Car Audio]
    Pioneer Premier DEH-P860MP, Memphis 16-MCA3004, Boston Acoustic RC520
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  • Jeffrey_B
    Jeffrey_B Posts: 21
    edited August 2006
    audiobliss wrote:
    Since moving my system, I've noticed I've got a hum of fairly decent 'proportions'. I've narrowed it down to my AV-20's; both of them. What could be causing this? It's not the preamp, because both the Wave 8's and the AV-20's are connected to the same outs on the preamp (via Monster signal splitters). I can easily turn up the music high enough to over power the hum, but it's still very annoying at lower listening levels. Besides, I want to be able to say I have a quiet system! :p

    Where's a good place for me to start with locating the source of this hum? Any guesses as to what it could be? I'd appreciate any recommendations!

    audiobliss
    Try removing your TV coax cable from your system - it may be that...it was for me...pulled it out of the back of my cable box and no more hum. I bought an isolation transformer ($15) that you connect between the cable and the cable box and now no more hum. JEFF
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  • audiobliss
    audiobliss Posts: 12,518
    edited August 2006
    I'm still fixing to start responding and working on this hum issue. Right now my amps are in pieces. I decided I'd take them apart to clean them and snap a few pics. Well, the binding posts were also loose, so I tightened those up.

    However, it's not the coax cable, as it's a lot farther from my system now than it was. Video is not a part of my system.
    George Grand wrote: »
    Jstas wrote: »
    Simple question. If you had a cool million bucks, what would you do with it?
    Wonder WTF happened to the rest of my money.
    In Use
    PS3, Yamaha CDR-HD1300, Plex, Amazon Fire TV Gen 2
    Pioneer Elite VSX-52, Parasound HCA-1000A
    Klipsch RF-82ii, RC-62ii, RS-42ii, RW-10d
    Epson 8700UB
    In Storage
    [Home Audio]
    Rotel RCD-02, Yamaha KX-W900U, Sony ST-S500ES, Denon DP-7F
    Pro-Ject Phono Box MKII, Parasound P/HP-850, ASL Wave 20 monoblocks
    Klipsch RF-35, RB-51ii
    [Car Audio]
    Pioneer Premier DEH-P860MP, Memphis 16-MCA3004, Boston Acoustic RC520
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  • audiobliss
    audiobliss Posts: 12,518
    edited August 2006
    I guess this is on hold until I get my amp fixed. :(
    George Grand wrote: »
    Jstas wrote: »
    Simple question. If you had a cool million bucks, what would you do with it?
    Wonder WTF happened to the rest of my money.
    In Use
    PS3, Yamaha CDR-HD1300, Plex, Amazon Fire TV Gen 2
    Pioneer Elite VSX-52, Parasound HCA-1000A
    Klipsch RF-82ii, RC-62ii, RS-42ii, RW-10d
    Epson 8700UB
    In Storage
    [Home Audio]
    Rotel RCD-02, Yamaha KX-W900U, Sony ST-S500ES, Denon DP-7F
    Pro-Ject Phono Box MKII, Parasound P/HP-850, ASL Wave 20 monoblocks
    Klipsch RF-35, RB-51ii
    [Car Audio]
    Pioneer Premier DEH-P860MP, Memphis 16-MCA3004, Boston Acoustic RC520
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  • wingnut4772
    wingnut4772 Posts: 7,519
    edited August 2006
    After I refigured my HT I had a bit of noise -slight hum/hiss- from the speakers. A little wire management fixed it. I just islolate all of the interconnects from the speaker cables and power cables.
    Sharp Elite 70
    Anthem D2V 3D
    Parasound 5250
    Parasound HCA 1000 A
    Parasound HCA 1000
    Oppo BDP 95
    Von Schweikert VR4 Jr R/L Fronts
    Von Schweikert LCR 4 Center
    Totem Mask Surrounds X4
    Hsu ULS-15 Quad Drive Subwoofers
    Sony PS3
    Squeezebox Touch

    Polk Atrium 7s on the patio just to keep my foot in the door.
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  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited August 2006
    Smack her on the top of the head and tell her to shut up.
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
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  • GATOR3000
    GATOR3000 Posts: 355
    edited August 2006
    It was the TV cable in my system hum. I run my TV cable through Monster Power Conditioner and no hum at all.
    Theatre System 5.1
    Sumsung HP-S5053 plasma
    Receiver Denon AVR 3806 Pre/Pro
    Parasound HCA 1500A amp (front L/R)
    Parasound HCA 1000A amp (centre)
    B & K AV5000 amp (bi-amp + surround)
    Dynaco ST70 tube amp (Herbie HAL-O9)
    polkaudio Lsi15 (Cherry) 2-channel
    polkaudio Rti8 Front (Cherry)
    polkaudio Csi5 Centre
    polkaudio Rti6 Surround
    polkaudio PSW1000 Subwoofer (Cherry)
    Original A8T CD
    Pioneer DV-275 DVD Player
    MONSTER CABLE MP-HTS3500MKII Powercentre
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