humming interconnects

I had the same problem with a pair of vdH The First. Couldn't do much about it so had to change to other cables.

Set the multimeter to the R x 1 resistance scale, or whatever its lowest resistance scale is. Touch the two test leads from the multimeter to each other, and adjust the meter so that it reads zero ohms. Then touch one lead of the meter to the ground shell of the rca connector at one end of the cable, and touch the other lead of the meter to the ground shell of the rca connector at the other end of the cable.

The reading should be close to zero ohms, and should certainly be well under 1 ohm.

While you are at it, make a similar measurement between the center pins of the two rca connectors. The reading might be slightly higher, because of the relatively narrow gauge of the inner conductor of the cable, but will most likely also be well under 1 ohm unless the cable is particularly long.

Regards,
-- Al

You can check that easily if you have a multimeter or ohmmeter.

Excuse my ignorance, can you please describe how this is done exaclty?

Thanks

I had a hum problem with a set of Kondo silver interconnects. If I wiggled the interconnect, the hum disappeared. I gave the interconnect RCA plugs and the female plug on the amplifier a good cleaning with some very, very fine steel wool, and I swear the problem went away. Tarnish on the connections causing a grounding issue? I don't know, but it seems fine now.

does open shield mean "no shield" -- so its picking up some interference from the sub or amp?

No, assuming it is a conventionally designed unbalanced interconnect with rca plugs on each end. By open shield I mean that electrical continuity is not present from the ground (outer shell) part of one rca connector to the ground (outer shell) part of the rca connector at the other end. Which would be caused by a defect in the cable. You can check that easily if you have a multimeter or ohmmeter.

Regards,
-- Al

does open shield mean "no shield" -- so its picking up some interference from the sub or amp?

thanks for trying to help.

I did notice the hum was lessened when I unplugged the sub.

Again, none of this was an issue with the cheaper audioquest interconnects.

Once I swapped the cable the hum went away.

I understand, but I was suggesting that there conceivably could be other contributing factors, which the Klyne's may bring out to a greater extent than the other interconnects, perhaps due to having higher shield resistance. Although I would guess that the likeliest possible cause would be an outright defect in the Klyne's, such as an open shield connection.

Regards,
-- Al

I had the exact same problem with a low cost set of NBS cables between my table and pre. I was very supprised as even though these were low end, NBS, they were still pretty spendy.

hi -- I was using the interconnects with my Pro-Ject turntable. I thought it was a ground issue, but its the interconnect.

Once I swapped the cable the hum went away.

Not sure what you mean by having checked the ground. Is there a separate lead to connect turntable ground to preamp ground/chassis? If not, that figures to be a contributing factor, even if one was not present with the other interconnects either.

Are the ac power cords of the turntable and preamp plugged into the same outlet strip or outlet duplex, with no isolation or filtering between them? If not, that could also be a contributing factor.

Also, if the turntable has a two-prong non-polarized ac plug, you might try reversing its polarity. If it has a three-prong plug, you might try isolating the safety ground prong with a cheater plug (a 3-prong to 2-prong adapter).

Beyond that, the most likely cause is high shield resistance (or an open shield connection) in the Klyne interconnects.

Regards,
-- Al