Speaker Hum


I just moved into a new (to me, actually built in the mid 60s) house where no matter which outlet I use I get an audible hum through the speakers when the volume of the integrated amp is pushed past 50%. Would any power conditioners improve or eliminate this severe of a problem? Any thoughts would be appreciated!

jdm11

Showing 7 responses by jdm11

Yes same hum regardless of input. Also I thought of the tv so I unplugged everything except the amp. With just the amp plugged in the speakers hum starting at just over 50% volume and get the hum gets pretty loud as you get near max volume.

I do have both a modem and tv nearby but all of those outlets are plugged into one dedicated strip. So I unplugged the strip while testing the hum. The only things I left plugged in were the amplifier and the speakers, which have powered subwoofers. My other components - turntable, phono stage, streamer, etc. were plugged in but powered off. Maybe I need to disconnect them all from the amp as well or that doesn't make any sense? 

Thanks jetter appreciate the feedback I'm going to follow your steps and see how it goes.

Thanks for all the input everyone I appreciate it there's a lot to look into here. In terms of the specifics they are: 

- All equipment is on one wall. 

- On the video side I have a single wall (not gang) outlet and am using a 6 outlet surge protector power bar plugged into that. That bar has hdtv, roku, cable box, modem and 4k blu ray player plugged in. 

- The audio side and video side are about twelve feet apart.

- On the audio side I have another single wall (not gang) outlet and am using a 6 outlet surge protector power cord plugged into that. That bar has:

1) Rega Planar 3

2) Rega Phono MMK M3

3) HiFi Rose 250 Streamer

4) Marantz SACD 30N

5) PrimaLuna EVO 300 Integrated (stock tubes haven't been touched)

 

- The speakers may be a bit of a wrinkle here. The speakers are Goldenear Triton OneR's with powered subs. I'm running each sub directly to the second wall outlet receptacle. Due to distance I have to plug one in on the audio side and one in on the video side.

- So on the two wall outlets (twelve feet apart) one single wall outlet has all of the video components on a power bar plugged into outlet one and a speaker plugged into outlet two. The other single wall outlet has all of the audio components on a power bar plugged into outlet one and a speaker plugged into outlet two.

- Just to try something I unplugged everything except for the amp and the speakers. Then I plugged the amp into an extension cord and plugged it into about ten different outlets throughout three rooms. Hum stayed exactly the same.

- The amp, speakers, marantz and streamer are 3 pronged. Everything else is 2 pronged I believe.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Yes thanks - all RCA cables connecting the audio. The speakers have 3 prongs in the socket. They do still play with the subs unplugged. I'm going to run through these tests. I just can't unplug the cable coax at the moment because all of the house feeds off this cable box so I'll start a riot. When I can I will run the tests and report what I find. 

Also when I moved in I had every outlet in the house with new GFIs - would the electrician have noticed if the box /  grounding in the house was off or not necessarily?

 

 

 

 

Hi everyone thanks for all the input. Since my last post I:

1 – Unplugged HDMI cable - no difference

2 – Unplugged COAX - no difference

3 – Unplugged powered subs - no difference

4 – All RCA ins and outs unplugged - no difference

5 – The hum is still there with the headphones plugged in (through the headphones)  

6 – Checked - there are no labels on any of the outlets regarding grounding

So since I know nothing about electric I'm assuming the next move is to contact an electrician? 

Thanks everybody