Insane ground loop; anybody wanna try?


I have a ground loop that's been killing me for weeks. I've tried several things to limited or no success. I've written to Mike Sanders at Quicksilver, but I'm a little chagrined to keep asking him questions that aren't really the fault of his gear.

Anybody want to have a go at solving this puzzle? It's driving me nuts, and I'd be grateful for any help.

Relevant equipment:
Rowland Capri preamp
Quicksilver Silver 60 mono amps (EL34)
Sunfire True Sub

Amps, preamp, and sub are all plugged into a Monster 2000, so everything shares a common wall outlet.
Plugging the amps into separate wall outlets has little effect either way.
Amps are damn near dead-quiet with no input, so it's shouldn't be the transformers or the tubes.

Amps plugged in to the preamp (shielded DH Labs RCA cables) hum, and the sub does too. Swapping cables has no effect.
Unplugging and reconnecting sources (a turntable and a Mac Mini via a Schiit DAC) has no effect.
Unplugging the sub has little effect (except it eliminates the hum in the sub, haha).

Lifting the ground on the amps reduces the hum — by about half, but definitely not completely.
A Hum-X has no (or very little) effect, whether placed on the preamp, an amp, or the sub.

For obvious reasons I don't want to lift the ground on the amps permanently.

I'm not an electrical engineer, but I'm a logical guy.

Ideas? I'm open to any with two requests: First, if you don't know something for sure, please say so. I don't want to play in electron traffic because somebody just guessed at a solution. And second, if you disagree with somebody, don't call him names, okay? There's more than enough gratuitous meanness in the world right now without insulting people over stereo equipment. Thanks.
pbraverman

Showing 2 responses by cleeds

Very puzzling!

Have you tried your preamp in another system to ascertain that it's not a problem with it?

Lifting grounds is a good diagnostic tool - obviously it's not a safe remedy - and if that doesn't cure the hum, then it's likely the hum is caused by something other than a ground loop.

Do you have any other equipment near the audio gear that could be causing the hum? Are dimmers turned off, LED lighting turned off, CATV disconnected from your gear?
+1 to what Al sez. ^^^^^^^^^

also:
No dimmers, LEDs, TVs on the same circuit.
These devices can leak noise to neutral and ground, which are bonded together at your service panel.  You'll want to defeat those devices to make sure they're not contributing to the problem.