Need suggestions please! Electrical noise in my system and it's driving me crazy!

There are many reasons for this...Noise SUX!! I have had some problems myself with noise that lasted for almost a year! Then I finally narrowed it down to my turntables cartridge leads, one had lost some insulation and showed some bare conducter! Prior to this I had my phono pre amp checked out and replaced some tubes in the line stage pre amp. I had all kinds of things going through my head....its maddening. What kind of source are you using? Please describe system better. Please describe this noise better ..is there ever any popping? or other strange sounds? What cables? Power Conditioners Suc too ( thats another subject) I would take that out of the loop until this is fixed. how many outlets are you currently using?  Have you tried to use any cheater plugs temporarily? This can help identify a ground loop problem. 

Sorry to hear of the problems you’re enduring. All is not lost. It sounds possible you have more than one issue. Let’s find out.

Is the home a free standing block house? Or a manufactured home? Manufacturered homes have a weird grounding scheme some times. Local NEC codes too say at times the grounding and neutral bars at the service box have to be wired together. Sounds stupid but it is what Code is in my area.

My only solution was to lift the grounds from the dedicated circuits I had for my audio gear, either within the outlets or with ‘cheater plugs’.

This will as well, be the shortest path if the below steps seem to be too much to do.

Having been an electrician, I know they usually are not inclined to look at anything but what is ‘code’ as you said. Is everything working? No one is getting shocked? Tehn all is just fine in their opinion.

Do you have CATV? It could be introducing a ground loop into your home, even if it is not connected to your audio rig.

It si the most likely suspect for making life hard for audio enthusiasts.

Try these things, ONE at a Time.
Get a crescent wrench or pliers and locate each of the three electrical service grounding rods uncouple their acorns or the device which connects the rod to the #4 bare ground wire.

Additionally, uncouple the CATV grounding clamp which will be on the main service pole usually. Just follow the coax wire off the telephone pole to your service pole and you’ll find it. Its usually a #10 AWG piece of bare solid wire.

Don’t worry. These are just temporary moves. We’re trying to isolate who is the culprit.

Turn off the mains for each breaker box. The 200 and the 100. Briefly. Maybe just a couple three or so mminutes. This is a belt and suspenders move and may not be necessary.

Once the grounds are all lifted, and you’ve waited a few minutes then hit the mains, and re energize the house.

Now having another person is gonna help out tremendously going forward.

Find out which breakers control the power to your audio equipment ONLY.

Turn off ALL of the rest of the breakers where ever possible, barring of course medical gear. At every breaker box.

Fire up the audio rig. Listen. Any issues now?

Have someone Start engaging each breaker one by one. Go slow.

Keep listening.

If all the circuits get turned back on and the issue is not present then its time to return to the grounds for the final part of this hunt.

Beginning with the CATV ground, Recouple each ground one at a time and listen. One of these or more will likely show you where the concern is.

One last item could be that a charger, or appliance in the home or garage is kicking back noise into the wiring system. I had a new dryer installed and it gave me fits. It ran gbut it was causing noticeable issues with my system. It needed to be wired differently. It needed a different four wire plug. Not just the standard 3 wire 30a type.

It could be too some audio gear says to use wires to short XLR inputs if SE inputs are being used. This did not help me with a previous Krell amp I ran SE. again, but using cheater plugs did.

If all of these steps don’t work. Make sure the insureance premiums are paid up and well, , once all the audio gear has been sent to storage and everybody is out of the house, spontaneous combustion remains a mystery of science still today. lol

Very good luck. Let us know what you found out if you please.

Do you mean you are getting a hum through your speakers, or that the equipment is mechanically humming?

Best,

E

Could be DC voltage in your power line, some dimmer also caused problems.

Move the circuit that your system is on to the opposite side of the  breaker panel. See if that fixes the problem!

Have you tried using a pure sinewave power source like an apc type battery backup or the PS Audio Powerplant? Not cheap, but it will most likely solve your hum problem.  Fixing the power coming into your house will not be easy.

@gearheadmac Had the same problem many years ago. Had a letter published in Stereophile at the time about the solution described below.

The solution was opening up the breaker box and tightening down ALL of the ground wires for each circuit. Some of the ground wire screws had barely been tightened at all. You MUST be careful doing this and you should turn off the main breaker before proceeding. If you do have the main breaker off, tighten ALL connections. It's easy to do.

BTW... I would recommend this procedure to all A’Goners who have not done so. It was an absolute solution to the noise issue. Your sound will improve in every way.

I would love to hear how this works out for you. All the best!

hifiman5

The solution was opening up the breaker box and tightening down ALL of the ground wires for each circuit. Some of the ground wire screws had barely been tightened at all. You MUST be careful doing this and you should turn off the main breaker before proceeding ...

Excellent advice. I would add only that the electrical connections throughout the house should be similarly tight, including the hot and neutral connections not only in the service panels, but in every electrical box and on every device connected within the boxes. If terminations to your devices use the push-in connectors, they should be disconnected and firmly attached to screw-on terminals instead. A compromised connection anywhere can send noise throughout.

If you're uncertain how to do this work safely, it's best to hire an electrician.

@cleeds    Good point about checking all of the outlets in the home.  I had that done by an electrician in 1997 after our house suffered a direct lightning strike.  Interestingly, he found a couple outlets that were wired incorrectly. Amazing how lightning causes damage throughout the house in a random manner.  Example:  In a second floor hallway ceiling light fixture that accepts three candelabra base bulbs, two bulb inputs were fine, one was fried.

I've fought DC transformer hum since I've moved into my house 7 years ago with 3 different preamps and multiple conditioners / filters. The only one that I found to help the DC situation without killing system dynamics is the Emotiva CMX-2 DC Blocker and Line Filter. Is the right price on Amazon for $100 with free shipping both ways and trial period if you are a Prime member. I use it in front of everything excep my amp which is plugged into the wall Porter Port directly. I use the wiremold power strip L10320 downstream of the CMX-2 but they are more expensive now vs when I got them. I should make sure all my grounds are tight in my mains box also. I know everything is tight coming into the mains box as the electrician checked those when he installed my Environmental Potentials EP-2050. Check my system page for more details. 

Brian,
    This is very simple and seems stupid in light of all the technically great suggestions, BUT...I had an Edge amp and never got any noise (hum) in my system.  Bought a nice Nuforce Ref 9 V3 SE mono pair and all of a sudden I had a hum in my system like you described.  I had an extra Maestro outlet sitting around and I ran a line to it from my panel.  Plugged the amps into it and no more hum.  My house is about 12 years old.  I've since installed Maestros to replace the needed outlets near my equipment.  Been a year and a half since and still all is fine.

The only one that I found to help the DC situation without killing system dynamics is the Emotiva CMX-2 DC Blocker and Line Filter.

+1

@gdhal, glad the CMX-2 worked for you also.

I’ve tried furman, a custom made DC blocker, PS Audio humbuster and upc-200, plus others. PS Audio helped cut the DC hum but all killed dynamics except the CMX-2.

“Power lines are underground”


Thinking about this some things came to mind….

Is your 100a box fed by the main 200a service? Usually sub boxes or sub feeds have something from the main service being used in common… such as the ‘common’ or neutral side of the ckt. Also, it is not uncommon for the sub fed service to used the same ground conductor. And if only one conductor, neutral or ground is being split off to feed that 100a panel, the issue if it exists in either service will extend into the previous or latter service.

The advice to firm up connections in the service panels on the main busses and neutral or ground bars is very good info. Use good sense. Turn off the power before removing the security or safety plate and exposing everything.

The main feeds in a 200a svc can have either allen screws securing the two hots and one neutral, or a more standard fastener.

If the ‘main’ lines are at all loose, and the incoming cables are aluminum there is a goop that will aid connectivity and reduce oxidation.

Aluminum can be squeezed down to nearly nothing with some fasteners, make it tight and a wee bit, but no more.

Tightening the leads on each breaker may require a different type than a standard screwdriver depending on who made the panel itself.


Differences in potential even between ground rods can cause trouble in the home.

The Electrical contractor I worked for when we were building a Honeywell electronics engineering, manufacturering and testing facility many years ago had to have many power lines spec’d out and or dedicated. This meant a lot of ground rods were inserted too. Most rods were in the same general area. Some just a few feet away. Honeywell techs said they were getting feedback voltages on open circuits under testing. One of the older more exp’d Electrician foremen came up with the idea of checking each ground rod to each other rod. After the laughter the process ensued. Eventually we found between some of the rods as much as 5 or 6 volts disparity. We made make shift ‘inductors’ for each ckt/ground rod. And as non scientific as that sounds, it was enough to prevent the once found aberration, to being found no longer.

Even the density of the moisture within the ground can affect how well your grounding circuit will work. Keeping it damp helps. Trust me here. Its why GRs are 8ft long. They used to be 12. Then 10. Formerly copper, not just galvanized steel as so many are today. Grounds need to be firmly connected too. The moisture in the dirt is doing the connecting.

Grounding to plumbing used to be a good idea too. Back when it was all metal.

Hums or worse still, loud buzzes indicate an electrical issue usually surrounding grounds.

Loose or weak connections, are ‘resistive’ connections… not grounds. They will merely limit conductivity or prevent it altogether. They won’t introduce hum or buzz into the circuit which can be heard via very sensitive audio speakers or it could otherwise be seen with an O scope.

Grease, oils, heat, dampness, even invisible to the eye can cause grounds.

Underground cable runs are susceptible to lots of stuff. Even when ran thru conduit. Standing water. Critters. Bruised dialectrics or insulation can cut or scrape just enough off the main feeds to allow some conduction thru what is left of the insulation. Poor terminations at the feed down the block or where it juts off into your property could be a place that needs greater scrutiny.

Any yard work lately where something was planted altered or changed even slightly? Signs? Mail box? Trees? Sprinbkler system? Plumbing issues? Pool? If pool is present, don’t forget to remove it from the circuit. Timers? Exterior lighting changed or installed?? Fencing?

A ‘megger’ is used to determine the quality of an insulator on a conductor. Did your electricians Meg ohm the lines to check the insulation of each phase.?

One solution for a power line was stated, for CATV there are transformers that can be inserted into the line feeding the home, or at the modem. As with the previously mentioned power line fix, RWV.

Good luck.

Have you been able to solve the problem?

A TII 220 ground loop isolator put in between the cable line and cable box did it for me. Best $22 I ever spent. 
This was after checking grounding, electricians that found nothing and adding a hydra 8 into the system.  
Good luck. 

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone! Lots of great information and after reading everything I'm feeling like this is going to be more of a needle in the haystack than I thought. Problem isn't fixed yet. And it's weird because it's not steady. Some times it's worse that others and I'm going to start logging it all. When it rained really hard the other night it was noticeably worse. 

Some of the suggestions I've already eliminated, which number one... is equipment causing the noise, however my mono amps might be the culprit of some speaker buzz because I hadn't heard that until I added them to the system. I'm going to test that further. 

Second, I did have an electrician tighten all grounds and connections in both boxes, but I never checked all the outlets. That might take me forever so I might try some other things first. 

I do have internet coming in over Coax wire and then have CATV going into my OPPO 105D but I've unplugged it and plugged it back in with now change. I don't have cable, just internet, so only the OPPO is hooked up. 

An important thing to note is that I have two systems. I have a home theater room in one of my bedrooms and I have my two channel system set up in my living room. I'll list components at the bottom of this reply. 

One question that was asked, do I hear the humming and buzzing through the speakers or the equipment. It's both! My Furman Reference has a low audible hum and has a huge transformer (2 channel system), my Furman Elite has a loud audible hum (home theater). I have two amps for my home theater system and both have large transformers in them. They won't hum if they are hooked into the Furman but will hum if I have them plugged into the wall. With everything hooked up either through the Furman or not I still get buzzing through the speakers in both systems. I also get noise through my cheap garage stereo system and a small stereo I have in the basement in the work out room. 

Each system is on a different breaker but they are not dedicated breakers... unfortunately. 

****Now one thing to note is that is very different about my house is that the heating system is radiant heat floors throughout the entire house and garage using hot water and a commercial hot water heater to run it. I'm not sure if this would make a difference or not. Or could it have an effect on grounding. 

My 2 channel system:
Redwine Liliana mono amps converted with a digital power supply instead of the battery packs.
Rogue Audio Perseus Magnum Pre with Mullard tubes. 
Furman Reference conditioner
Toshiba SD-9200 (CD/DVD-Audio)
OPPO 105 (CD/SACD)
Magnepan 1.7i
All braided style interconnects and speaker cable from high end cable manufacturers. Upgraded power cords. 
**Tekton DIs are on the way! 

Home Theater:
OPPO 105D as the Blue Ray player and processor
Audio Refinement Muti5 and Multi2 amps
REL S2 Sub
Furman Elite conditioner
Same for cables as 2 channel, just a step down.
Polk Audio speakers
Samsung LED flat screen

Blindjim,

I'm going to go through your list of things first and see if any of it helps. I have some time this weekend to check some off. 

Thanks!

Two things to try:

1 - Turn off every other circuit in the home. You could have a dimmer somewhere that is putting DC on your line.

2 - Not sure about the exact Furman units you have, but try using the balanced outlets on the Reference model. Use power strips to extend them if necessary.

I've already turned all the circuits off in the house. I eve did it one by one to see if I could pinpoint the issue circuit. Only thing I gained by doing that is I made a diagram of which breaker is hooked up to what in the house. 

I'm not sure what you mean by number 2?

Well, if no house circuit helped, that sucks. One of your power conditioners has balanced outputs, right? I just don't know how many.

Are all the outlets balanced? If not, move everything over to the one's that are.

Listen again.

E

You don't by any chance have multiple ground rods placed far apart?

My home seems to be prone to dirty AC, in the past causing variable and intermittent hum/buzz through my loudspeakers.  I have dedicated 20A lines to my listening room and have tried many line conditioners over 20 years. What proved a near revelation for me, about 3 years ago and still proudly standing, is the Torus AVR 20 balanced line conditioner. It required an electrician (in my case) installing a 240V Balanced AC line to my listening room, but all my upstream electrical issues seemingly vanished without more time consuming, expensive, and potentially nerve racking whole home diagnostics and solutions. My highest recommendation!

Sorry to read about your noise issues. Perhaps defining the noise will lead you to the issue faster.

Step1: Do you know someone with an oscilloscope? If so I would connect to the ground of your power conditioner or one of your devices and see how many volts and at what frequency (most likely 60 cycles).

Step 2: Measure the noise on the ground inside the 200 amp main panel. If the noise is present, unplug all appliances in the entire house and garage. Also unplug all stereo gear in the entire house and garage. Re-measure the noise. If gone connect one appliance or device at a time.

Step 3: Measure the noise on the ground inside the 100 amp garage panel. If it is there, you may want to disconnect the 100 amp feeds and ground from the main breaker. This will eliminate it entirely from the problem. I suspect they are connected to the bus bars of the 200 amp main breaker. The main 200 amp breaker must be off to do this. Deadly voltage is involved and you should hire an electrician.

I hope thess ideas prove helpful.

I've had similar issues more than once -  the first time - I narrowed it down to the cable tv box -  so I just don't have it hooked up anymore -  but to nail it down - I removed every component from the system one at a time - power as well as any ground or interconnect that connects any single component to the system - this at least identified the culprit component.  

The second time was a lot more complicated -  i had an annoying hum in one speaker ( ml Clx ). I switched my mono blocks from left to right - hum stayed with the speaker -  i switched boards from one speaker to the other - stayed with the speaker -  removed all Inputs from the amps - still had the hum - now I was convinced that I needed to buy a new panel - and was going to swap the hf panel from left to right to see if it moved with the panel - or stayed with the speaker - I had just bought a new rack - so was plannning on tearing it all down and rebuilding the layout -  getting rid of any redundant wiring connections -  example - having one source hooked up to two different dacs -  or to the same Dac in different ways - USB as well as spdif etc. so I go rid of a lot of redundant cabling -  I took each component into my workshop - took the covers off - blew everything off with an air compressor -  then spent time cleaning every connection on the outside of the chassis with deoxit and pipe cleaners - then again using the gold version of deoxit - do this on all your IC's and power cords as well 
 
Put it all back together -  and the hum was completely gone -

im just suggesting that although it's a lot of work - cleaning the connections is necessary maintenance at some point anyways - and by doing this - you can pull out - and put back in - each component one at a time to nail down the culprit ( if it happens to be a single component -  and benefit from knowing every component now has no oxidation issue that might be contributing -  and when putting it back together 
 

I also recently eliminated a hum by disconnecting my CATV from my system. After 
re-grounding it, removing the ground and trying power conditioners, I could not eliminate it until I unhooked the coax from the system. 

N

nutty
1,212 posts 09-03-2017 1:29pm

I also recently eliminated a hum by disconnecting my CATV from my system. After
re-grounding it, removing the ground and trying power conditioners, I could not eliminate it until I unhooked the coax from the system.

By re-grounding it I assume you are referring to the CATV coax cable grounding block. Please explain in detail how you re-grounded it.

Sometimes even though the grounding block is well grounded to the main grounding system of the electrical service a difference of potential, voltage, may still exist between the shield of the coax cable and the wall receptacle outlet safety equipment ground where the audio/video equipment is located, and plugged into.

"Well grounded"? The least resistive path, best conductivity path, possible?
The connection made at the grounding block must clean and tight. Both the wire and the inside of the lug of the grounding block must clean and free of any corrosion. Corrosion can add series resistance. The best place for the other end of the ground wire to be connected is as close as possible to the electrical service main disconnecting means equipment. Sometimes that may be on the outside of the house or on the inside the house, on an outside wall. NEC code requires that the ground rod/s, for the earth connection of the electrical service, be driven outside the house in close proximity to the main service panel. So whether the main electrical service panel is outside or inside you should see a bare copper, #6awg minimum (maybe #4) wire that exits the metal enclose and goes down into the ground where it connects to the ground rod/s. Connect the ground wire from the CATV grounding block to this bare ground wire where ever it is convenient above earth grade. At least a foot or so if possible. To make the connection to the bare ground wire use what is called a split bolt.
Example: http://www.elecdirect.com/split-bolts-grounding-products/split-bolt-connectors/copper-alloy-2-conduc...
This one has a max conductor size for #6 copper. If your bare ground wire is #4 go to the size for #4 copper.
Note: Clean the bare copper wire with sand paper first to a new shiny copper color.

You’re not done yet.... Every "F" connector from the CATV grounding block to the one that finally screws on the CATV cable box must be free of corrosion and tightened wrench tight. (Snug) Everyone of them. Again, to eliminate any series resistance in the coax cable shield conductor from one end to the other.

After all that you still experience ground loop hum.

That can be due to the continuity, conductivity, integrity, of the in wall receptacle outlet branch circuit wiring safety equipment grounding conductor, wire.
If the branch circuit is a standard 15 amp convenience outlet branch circuit every outlet box the branch circuits passes through the wires were cut and then connected together again in "some fashion" to feed the next outlet. Every equipment grounding wire connection could be adding just a little series resistance to the equipment grounding conductor. Not a problem if the wall receptacle outlet for your audio/video system is closest to the feed end, but if it’s closer to the end of the run that could be a problem.

The only way to find out for sure is to open up every single outlet box and inspect the wiring connections. Not only receptacle outlet boxes but there may be ceiling lights on the same branch circuit.

Or you could buy one of these,
http://www.jensen-transformers.com/product/vrd-1ff/

Jim

+1 on the drop isolator recommended by @jea48

I don’t have the Jensen, but I do have an Extreme. When I traced a hum to my cable line, the cable company (Cablevision, Long Island) installed an Extreme drop isolator http://www.extreme-broadband.com/hardware.html and the hum was completely gone.

Edit: My cable company provided the part and installed it free. Also, I was told there is no degradation of the picture/sound quality, nor did I detect any degradation. I think this is one of those "can't hurt and can only help" kind of parts.

jea48,
By re-grounding-  I removed the old grounding connectors, (both phone and CATV) at the grounding rod and at the exterior (outside) cable junction box. I Cleaned the stake with a wire wheel, (to remove rust or oxidation) and reinstalled new 12 awg solid ground wire and connectors. 

I still had the (((hum))). With the system on and the volumn at a reasonable level, I disconnected the coax from the cable box and the (((hum))) disappeared. 

This was my particular situation. I hope it helps.

N

nutty
1,213 posts                                                                  09-03-2017 5:10pm

jea48,
By re-grounding- I removed the old grounding connectors, (both phone and CATV) at the grounding rod and at the exterior (outside) cable junction box. I Cleaned the stake with a wire wheel, (to remove rust or oxidation) and reinstalled new 12 awg solid ground wire and connectors.

I still had the (((hum))). With the system on and the volumn at a reasonable level, I disconnected the coax from the cable box and the (((hum))) disappeared.

This was my particular situation. I hope it helps.

nutty,

Thank you for your response.

The ground rod you speak of. Did you notice any other ground wires that were connected to it? Like a larger #6 bare or stranded copper wire?
Just a guess the ground rod was originally installed for the phone and later when CATV was installed the CATV installer used the same ground rod.

Unless the ground rod is fairly close to where the main electrical service of the house is located I doubt the ground rod for the phone or CATV is connected by at least a #6 copper ground wire to the main grounding system of the electrical service.

Many people think, including communication provider companies installers, a separate isolated ground rod is all that is needed to effectively ground their systems to mother earth. It is not though. Electrical safety codes require the systems shall be bonded, connected, to the main grounding system of the electrical service. The main reason all ground rods need to be tied, connected, together is for lightning. You also want all electrical systems grounding connected to one common ground.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPWmULYgONA

Coaxial ground isolators are fabulous ideas, I always use one just in case, but easy to test. Just disconnect any and all incoming coaxial leads.

http://amzn.to/2wzJ3Cq

There are also specific one's for satellite antennas, which need power injection. Also, cable/satellite antennas should be bonded to the house ground, a step installers conveniently skip.

jea48,
The main rod was installed when the house was built. It was installed as the main ground for the home. However as you suspected, it is within a few feet of the main service panel and the Phone and CATV service is all there as well. The main rod is grounded with a large solid wire, 8 or possibly 6 awg. I ran new leads for the phone, CATV within the exterior boxes as well as hard wiring it directly to the main rod. The results were the same. The (((hum))) was present until I removed the coax from the system. 

N

nutty
1,214 posts                                                                      09-03-2017 8:02pm

jea48,
The main rod was installed when the house was built. It was installed as the main ground for the home. However as you suspected, it is within a few feet of the main service panel and the Phone and CATV service is all there as well. The main rod is grounded with a large solid wire, 8 or possibly 6 awg. I ran new leads for the phone, CATV within the exterior boxes as well as hard wiring it directly to the main rod. The results were the same. The (((hum))) was present until I removed the coax from the system.

jea48,
By re-grounding- I removed the old grounding connectors, (both phone and CATV) at the grounding rod and at the exterior (outside) cable junction box. I Cleaned the stake with a wire wheel, (to remove rust or oxidation) and reinstalled new 12 awg solid ground wire and connectors.

I still had the (((hum))). With the system on and the volumn at a reasonable level, I disconnected the coax from the cable box and the (((hum))) disappeared.

nutty,

But did you clean the connection on the ground rod, the ground rod clamp, and the solid #6awg copper ground wire for the electrical service? If not how do you know the connection was not corroded? You want the best possible connection you can get/make to the #6 copper ground wire. The other end of the #6 wire is terminated on the neutral/ground bar in the main electrical service panel. The neutral/ground bar is where all the equipment grounding conductors, wires, are connected/terminated.
(Assuming the main disconnect breaker for the electrical service is mounted in the electrical panel)

What you want, need, is zero resistance, (as close to zero as possible), continuity, between the safety equipment "U" shaped ground contact, (of the wall receptacle your audio video/equipment is plugged into), and the CATV coax cable shield/"F" connector that connects to the CATV receiver box.

Instead of connecting the ground wires, for the phone line and CATV coax cable, to the ground rod you should have connected them to the #6 ground wire for the electrical service.
You could use one of these to connect the two wires to the #6 wire. Install it above grade so it can be inspected. Clean the area on the #6 wire with sand paper where you will be installing the ground termination device.
http://www.gordonelectricsupply.com/index~text~5979096~path~product~part~5979096~ds~dept~process~sea...

If you are still living at the same house I would recommend you re-terminate the phone and CATV ground wires. Pick up an Intersystem Bonding Termination as shown in the link above.
You could also use a couple of split bolts instead. See my earlier post for a link.
Though the Intersystem Bonding Termination meets NEC code.

Jim

Edit to my post above.

When I spoke about cleaning the connection of the electrical service’s #6 copper ground wire at the ground rod I should have mentioned with extreme caution. There could be a lethal difference of potential, voltage, between the disconnected ground wire (the Grounding Electrode Conductor) and the ground rod (Electrode) as well from the #6 ground wire to the soil you are contacting with your knees or any other part of your body contacting the earth. Especially if the soil and or grass is moist/wet.

Jim

jea48
Jim,
For your guidance, I shut down the main breaker located in the main box before any of the connections were repaired...All new connectors and new solid 12 awg ground wires were routed from the CATV/Phone junction boxes.

All CATV/Phone junction boxes have separate ground wires and all lead to the main 6-8 awg main ground wire. I cleaned the main rod and the main ground wire on all sides with a wire wheel using a cordless drill and installed a new main rod clamp. 

N

Update on my problem. 

I had two electricians at the house with no help. Did most everything from this post with no luck. I tried a UPS system to see if completely regenerating the AC would help... NEVER EVER hook your system to a UPS. It makes everything worse. 

I finally fixed the issue with buying a Granite Audio Ground Zero. It seriously fixed everything and gave the lowest noise floor I've ever heard from my system. It took me a while to find the right impedance match, but I was jumping up and down in compete bliss after I heard silence. So the whole thing was a ground loop/ground issue. I also realized I have a noisy tube in my preamp that I could hear after I hooked everything up. I still want to figure out why my entire house has a ground loop and get it fixed. But at least I know what the issue is. I seriously listened to music for 48 hours straight after the noise was gone. 

Thanks for everyone's input. I learned a lot from this post!

Brian

Great news. This product is important to note.