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Tweeter hiss?

Hi, I'm new to the world of hi-fi and audiogon and was hoping someone out there could help me.

When I have my amp turned on (an integrated) with the speakers connected, but not the CD player, I hear a hiss coming from the tweeters of both speakers. This is with the volume completely turned down. Is this normal? If I turn the volume up the noise increases. It's not very loud by any means - I need to be within a foot of the speaker to notice it. Is there something wrong with my amp or speakers? If music is playing then the hiss is covered by music. I am also unhappy with my systems general "brightness" and fatigue factor and I wonder if this is related to my hiss-tweeter problem.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
(Rotel integrated, B&W 601s3, audioquest cable)
tooter

Showing 4 responses by tooter

tooter OP
85 posts
 
Thanks for the responses.

I don't think it's an electrical problem. I tried plugging into different outlets, same results. Also whether the CD player (also Rotel) was on or not (and disconnected) had no effect. As for the cables, they are in close proximity but none are touching eachother.

As for the brightness the speakers are relatively new, my guess would be less than 100 hours. Is there a "proper" way of breaking them in? Basically I just listen to music and try to avoid really loud levels.

I'm not sure if this is a factor but the speaker wire is unterminated at the speaker end. It's bare and I just pushed it through the hole in the binding post (not the banana plug hole) and tightened the nut. Could this be an issue?

Thanks.
tooter OP
85 posts
 
Thanks Jsawhitlock. My gut feeling is that it's an amp issue and not a speaker issue. Unfortunately I don't have any other speakers or amps to test my hunch.

Seperates are out of my budget right now so I'm leaning toward getting a better integrated (Creek, Classe, Bryston B60?) For now, I'm going to give the speakers some more break-in time and see if that has desirable effects.
tooter OP
85 posts
 
Thanks again for all the responses. I feel better knowing that it's probably normal behavior for the amp. My main concern was that I was doing some damage to the speakers (which I had just bought). The amp is definitely at the top of my upgrade list but for now I can sleep well knowing I'm not doing any harm to my system!
tooter OP
85 posts
 
Hi Johnmcelfresh. My integrated does have tone controls, treble and bass and a "master" switch which I have set to "off." My understanding is that when it is set to "off" it takes that part of the circuitry out of the loop. In any event, if I turn the main tone control to on and then turn the treble down to "0" I still hear the hiss. Go figure . . . . Thanks for the suggestion.
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