Help with hiss
Hello Friends,
My speakers have developed an audible hiss that I am trying to chase down. The hiss can be heard from across the room and while music is being played. Sometimes, the hiss is pulsating and sometimes constant. It occurs at all hours, perhaps less so in the early morning. Sometimes there is no hiss at all and everything is silent. It is an intermittent issue that is unpredictable.
My speakers are powered by mono block amplifiers. Both speakers exhibit the exact same behavior. The monos are plugged directly into the wall outlet. I also plugged them into a PS Audio AV Power Center with no relief. I changed power cords with no relief. No other piece of gear is on, although all are plugged in and some are in standby. I turned one mono off of course stopping the hiss in that speaker. The other continued to hiss. In reverse, same result.
This is not a “hum” (like from a ground loop). It is the same hiss that you can hear with your ear next to the tweeter but much louder.
I’m happy to answer any questions at all to help me resolve this. Thank you in advance.
Speakers do not hiss. Amps, preamps and source components do. Especially tubed ones. Disconnect your preamp from your amp and turn the amp on. If you still hear hiss thru your speakers. your amp is the culprit. If the hiss stops, power it all down, connect your preamp to amp but don’t connect sources to preamp. Turn on the preamp, then amp. If it hisses now, it’s your preamp. Repeat this for each link in the signal chain. |
Also, you stated the hiss is constant no change in hiss loudness with volume variations, that says it’s the amp. If the source for the hiss was upstream, the amplifier would amplify it, as it does with any incoming signal. So your amplifier is most likely the culprit unless your speakers work like antennas and pick up static from some unknown source which is extremely unlikely. |
@forestg good luck cause this sucks! |
What power issue would cause an audio component to hiss? We are still talking about hiss are we? Hiss as in ssssssss type sound. Not the hmmmmmmm sound. Correct? Amplifier or preamplifier hiss can go unnoticed or may not be as noticeable if you have inefficient speakers. Once you move to a pair of speakers that are above 91 or so db efficiency from an 85db speaker the hiss will be more apparent. There’s something fishy going on here that sounds like some sort of a user error or a faulty piece of electronic equipment in the signal chain or a pair of new very efficient speakers is revealing this hiss. Very curios now…. |
