+1 to everything gs5556 said. A ground loop would be characterized as a hum. What you say you heard was a buzz, that blew out a woofer, almost definitely DC
Ground Loop(?) leads to blow speaker
Aloha 'goners!
I'm going to do my best to get the details down here as I am a bit stumped on this one.
I have a Wadia 121 DAC that was recently repaired. The issue was the RCA/XLR outputs produced mostly noise and little music. The headphone side was fine.
As the unit wasn't functioning properly I hadn't had the chance to hook it up and use it. When I got it back and hooked it up there was a nasty ground loop(?) that led to a blown speaker (Thiel 1.6). The buzz produced was the angry bee buzz followed by a loud electrical sounding crack and the woofer was gone. The amp (Creek Classic A53) went into protect mode and I shut it off. I then disconnected the Wadia and hooked up a Mytek Brooklyn+ and there was no buzz. Same cables same outlets same everything except the DAC. I tested the amp and it seems to be ok through another pair of speakers.
At this point I wasn't sure what was going on. I tested 3 different amps with the Wadia and 2 of the 3 buzzed. With the Mytek none of them buzzed. Of the 2 amps that buzzed one of them had a 2 pin connection and the other a 3 pin. The only amp that didn't buzz was a 2 pin Adcom 535 MkII. The other amps were a 3 pin Creek and a 2 pin Carver.
Here is the full chain:
Primare CD31 --> Madrigal AES Cable --> Wadia/Mytek DAC/preamp --> Chord Cobra Vee RCA --> Creek/Adcom/Carver amps --> Tara Labs spkr cable --> Thiel 1.6/B&W CDM1SE speakers
I used the same wall outlets for the DACs and amps. The same interconnects were used between components as well as from the amps to speakers.
I tested the wall outlets with a cabling tester and it said they were wired correctly.
Could there be something else that I'm missing that would be causing this? The only amp I am comfortable with using to test is the Carver as it has a variable level on the front panel.
Any help or thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
I'm going to do my best to get the details down here as I am a bit stumped on this one.
I have a Wadia 121 DAC that was recently repaired. The issue was the RCA/XLR outputs produced mostly noise and little music. The headphone side was fine.
As the unit wasn't functioning properly I hadn't had the chance to hook it up and use it. When I got it back and hooked it up there was a nasty ground loop(?) that led to a blown speaker (Thiel 1.6). The buzz produced was the angry bee buzz followed by a loud electrical sounding crack and the woofer was gone. The amp (Creek Classic A53) went into protect mode and I shut it off. I then disconnected the Wadia and hooked up a Mytek Brooklyn+ and there was no buzz. Same cables same outlets same everything except the DAC. I tested the amp and it seems to be ok through another pair of speakers.
At this point I wasn't sure what was going on. I tested 3 different amps with the Wadia and 2 of the 3 buzzed. With the Mytek none of them buzzed. Of the 2 amps that buzzed one of them had a 2 pin connection and the other a 3 pin. The only amp that didn't buzz was a 2 pin Adcom 535 MkII. The other amps were a 3 pin Creek and a 2 pin Carver.
Here is the full chain:
Primare CD31 --> Madrigal AES Cable --> Wadia/Mytek DAC/preamp --> Chord Cobra Vee RCA --> Creek/Adcom/Carver amps --> Tara Labs spkr cable --> Thiel 1.6/B&W CDM1SE speakers
I used the same wall outlets for the DACs and amps. The same interconnects were used between components as well as from the amps to speakers.
I tested the wall outlets with a cabling tester and it said they were wired correctly.
Could there be something else that I'm missing that would be causing this? The only amp I am comfortable with using to test is the Carver as it has a variable level on the front panel.
Any help or thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.