2. amps-preamps
  3. 1343563333

HUM - you can catch fish in a dingy too.

You can go buy a six-figure bass boat to catch fish, but you can catch the same fish out of a $200 rowboat.

So, I had - HAD - a hum problem in my system that was driving me nuts for about a year. It started out that it was the amplifier making the speakers hum even when the source or pre-amo was disconnected. Then I got a new preamp and the amp was quiet but the hum returned as soon as I took the preamp off mute - basically the hum jumped components, which left me drooling in rage and confusion. I switched sources, switched cables, switched ICs and speaker cables, added a power supply then plugged everything directly into the wall.... Arrrggghh!!!

Finally, in desperation I did something that I don't like for a number of reasons: I stuck a 35 cent cheater plug between the pre-amp and the power supply (which is itself still grounded) and the hum FINALLY went away. $15,000 worth of audio jewelry and it took a 35 cent piece of plastic to make it work right. Sometimes we are too smart for our own good. Just thought I'd share.
grimace

Showing 1 response by minorl

minorl
1,018 posts
 
I remember a story told to me by a California Highway Patrol Officer during my traffic ticket class. Very fun and funny class believe it or not and we were laughing from start to finish, but we learned lessons. He kept interrupting his stories with the words "I think I can make it" Whereby, all traffic offenders would constantly think this before they did something stupid or foolish. Everytime, before he would recite some traffic story or horrific accident, he would say "I think I can make it" The same holds true in the case of electricity and the very foolish desire for many to bypase their home and system electrical protection by using a $0.35 cheater plug to eliminate the house's ground protection. "I think I can make it". No problem until you have that one electrical fault that you never saw coming. Does anyone ever really expect an accident or see it coming? Your equipment will fry, you, your family, pet, kids, wife, etc. will be electrocuted if you bypass your ground protection by this simple and easy $0.35 fix. it is there for a reason. You are not an electrician. Well most of you are not. Please do not use cheater plugs. It is relatively simply to determine which component is causing the ground loop or hum. this is discussed in detail in previous posts and If you desire I can give you a step by step instructions on how to find the problem. Typically, when all is said and done, it could be a home wiring problem (which is potentially dangerous anyway and should be corrected) or some piece of your system is faulty. isolating equipment like we demonstrate will tell you which is faulty. now faulty may mean simply that the internal grounding is not well thought out and the equipment should be repaired or replaced. You have to understand that some designers are very good with analog audio circuitry but are lacking on electrical star grounding techniques, or they connect the signal ground to system or chasis ground which is also a no-no, and that very good piece of equipment will cause a ground loop because of faulty internal grounding. using a cheater plug doesn't fix anything. It masks an existing electrical problem which will eventually come back to haunt you in very nasty ways. "I think I can make it"

please find and fix the problem.

enjoy
More to discover