Noise Goblin


I moved into a 44 year home three years ago and it still had the original electrical box.  I had an electrician put the outlet I use for my audio system on a separate circuit.  Even still I was getting some noise through my speakers and when my wife was using the hair dryer in our bedroom upstairs I would get a buzz through my stereo amplifier.

Fast forward:  I just had a brand new electrical box installed with the latest grounding etc.  My audio system is on a separate circuit.  Low and behold this morning I started to hear the buzz through the stereo amplifier again.  I ran upstairs and my wife was using the hair dryer.  I am still getting a slight noise through my speakers. When I turn the volume up the noise gets louder.  

I don't understand how this is occurring.  Not sure what to do.  Are there any electricians or others who have had this same issue on this forum who might have an idea what is going on and how to correct this issue?
thankful
What are you running as far as gear?

Are you running a voltage maintainer, cleaner?

Are you running digital and analogue?

Are you running your modems and digital stuff on the same circuit, as your analogue stuff?

Does the noise vary, go up and down with the volume?

Does it change (yo yo) when you move cables?

These answers will help a lot?

You said "Hair dryer", maybe you need to look at that circuit also. The hair dryer, and where it's plugged in. Fix the outlet, and the dryer, do those things come with a ground on the plug? I think they do... FIX it...
Maybe the ground and common at the dryer plug have a contact issue, not good enough, or not at all? Back to the main see if the hair dryer circuit even has a ground..

Simple stuff, loose connections, because of the dryer being used on the same plug all the time.. Change the outlet to a HD 20 amp plug, a tighter plug for the appliance.

Happy hunting..

Regards


The audio circuit should be on the opposite leg in the box from any motors. Washer, fridge, garage door, hair dryer etc.
Common sense to replace all loose outlets.
A friend’s house almost burnt down caused by that Thursday.
Answers:
What are you running as far as gear? Odyssey Kismet stereo amp, Candela preamp, Suspiro phono

Are you running a voltage maintainer, cleaner? AudioQuest Niagara 3000

Are you running digital and analogue? Analogue

Are you running your modems and digital stuff on the same circuit, as your analogue stuff? NO

Does the noise vary, go up and down with the volume? YES

Does it change (yo yo) when you move cables? NO

You said "Hair dryer", maybe you need to look at that circuit also. The hair dryer, and where it's plugged in. Fix the outlet, and the dryer, do those things come with a ground on the plug? YES-grounded





OMG your system is not dead silent? You can hear a noise when you turn the volume up? Send it back its defective. Either that, or normal. All depends on how much you have to turn up the volume and how easy or hard it is to hear. If you crank the volume to the most you ever use and can just barely hear it from where you listen that is normal, or certainly nothing to complain about.

My system is way noisier than that. If I spent even half the time trying to track down and eliminate noise that I do working on making the signal better my system would be quieter, yes, but sound nowhere near as good. You have a turntable. Is that dead silent? Is there zero groove and surface noise? I don't think so. Big picture. How bad is it, really?
The electrical issue and the buzz that comes from my amp when the hair dryer is on upstairs is a mystery to me.  I am going to talk to my electrician again.

In regards to my turntable, when I have a record on but not playing and I turn up the volume up it gets louder-very noticeable. It also gets louder when I am playing a record.

When I am playing movies through 2 channel and I turn up the volume it remains dead quiet.  I have a little $99 Schitt DAC for this purpose.  I am purely analogue for music.  
Ahhhh.  Well, turntable preamps are very high gain devices.  That is, they'll amplify the signal, and the noise, much more than others. You could be picking up EMF, but that usually needs to be closer, or picking up AC noise which the other components reject well enough.

Try a Furman power strip with SMP and linear filtering (they make lots of models without these features) which may clean up the noise enough for you.
How old is the hair dryer?  The old ones are  great source of the 'DC offset' problem. The would put a diode into the AC power line, that resulted in half-wave rather than sine wave power.
The audio circuit should be on the opposite leg in the box from any motors. Washer, fridge, garage door, hair dryer etc.
Have you checked the service panel? If audio is on the A leg, then the hair dryer circuit should be on the B leg. They should also have distance between them, ie, audio at top of panel, dryer at bottom.



OP, do you have another hair dryer, or something with a motor, you can plug in where the hair is plugged in. That will eliminate a funky hair dryer (though it may work great.)

I mean how often is that hair dryer on? Could it be just a noisy hair dryer, AND high gain on your TT, like Erik said.

Then for good measure move all the STUFF with motors, SMPS, goofy Christmas lights, cell phone charger, all the STUFF, to one rail in the main and your stereo on the other. Unplug the house and start plugging back in.

I’ve done it, a cell phone charger, and leds took me a while to figure out, but both made some noise that drove me crazy... I unplugged the hole house. The LEDs in my security system box were the problem.

I upgraded the SMPS charger to the cell phone and the CP to 4k or something like that. An installer for the security company, gave me the tip. ZERO floor noise. The second noise was a cable box PS, it took a ground loop device to kill the noise. I tried a few different ones. Just noisy.

EVERY other noise I’ve had, routing, takes care of it.. No cables touch each other, and there is at least 1/2 inch between them..Cross at 90s and still no touching...

Get yourself a new hair dryer for Christmas? :-)

Regards
Thanks all.  I will share this with my electrician.
To start I will be changing the gfi plug this week in th.e bathroom.