Hum from Silversmith interconnect


Just purchased used Silversmith interconnect cables to connect my Pass Labs pre-amp to my Art Audio amplfier. One of the cables is creating a loud hum and the other is fine. When using it between other components there is no hum. All my components including my powered speakers are connected to a BPT 3.5 power conditioner which is connected to its own 20 amp line. Any suggestions?
slingshot

Showing 1 response by mwilson

Swap L/R channels with the cables and see if it follows the cable.

I've also seen cases where the depth at which a plug mates to the jack makes a difference, but that's usually a sign of marginal jacks or poor mounting of the jacks/backplate design.

I've also chased this type of problem and found a bad joint in the terminations of interconnects before - visually looked perfect upon inspection, but upon mild flexing of the cable near the termination (while hooked up) it would "bzzzt" - it could have easily been the ground conductors touching the signal conductor only when flexed a certain way. Of course, "touch it where it hurts" debugging like that can be risky to your system... ideally, you have an old receiver+source, and some dusty old speakers somewhere so you can test them in a parallel system.

If the terminations unscrew, visually inspect the terminations/solder work.