Focal Kanta No. 2 Speakers hum with speaker with speaker cable disconnected


Hi folks,

I'm a new member, and I couldn't find a solution for the specific issue I'm having on google. I'm thinking maybe someone here has any ideas on this weird issue.

As the title states I've stated noticing a hum emanating from the speaker's mid range woofer, specifically the left speaker. I only noticed it after upgrading my phono stage, which had a hum issue from the get go (not a ground loop or line hum evidently). Took about 2 months for my dealer and Pass Labs to send me a replacement unit. Long story short, same hum is still there, so it obviously wasn't the phono, though rotating the phono 90 degrees relative to the speaker reduced the hum. Did a bit of cleaning last week and noticed that the left speaker was humming at a very low volume, only noticeable when your ear is close to the woofer. The preamp, phono, power amp, and turntable are all turned off, yet I'm getting a hum that's unexplainable.

I disconnected almost all of my components' power and interconnect cables (Pre/Pro, Phono, DAC/Streamer, Turntable power supply) one by one hoping that any source of interference/hum could be identified. I also disconnected a separate power strip that powers the Router, TV, Philips Lights, and Apple TV with no change in the hum. For reference, my audio gear is fed by a Puritan Audio PSM 1512 mains purifier, pretty clean power.

For some reason I decided to disconnect the speaker cables to switch them around and there I noticed that the speaker is still humming very faintly with no speaker cable connected. My thinking at that stage that it might be some sort of wireless interference, so I unplugged anything that has bluetooth/wireless functionality. All of the audio components were disconnected from power as well. I noticed then that it's the exact same hum that the phono has been plagued wit all this time, but amplified at a much higher level. Maybe the phono cart is picking up this minute hum and sending it to the phono. I left the speaker for an hour to see if it discharged any of the crossover components that might be causing this, nope, still humming. 6 month old speakers so I'm thinking it's unlikely a bad cap, although possible.

I'm really out of ideas on how to sort this out. I did experiment with grounding wire paths, and ground lift adapters/DC blocking adapters when I thought the issue was with the phono stage, was not successful. Anyway any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

daielf

Is there construction work or other environmental noise in your neighborhood?

There have been situations where home alarm systems have cased issues 

with individuals equipment. If you have one try shutting it down.

Thanks for the suggestion, no home alarm either.

It’s specifically the left speaker, even with no speaker cable connected. It being the left speaker makes it a bigger issue, as it’s closest to the analog setup. So any noise generated by the speaker (plugged/unplugged) is causing a sort of feedback with the phono.

Right speaker is dead silent, even when connected to the amp. Is it safe to assume that this rules out any power leakage from the power amp (Parasound JC-5) to the speakers?

SKW OCC speaker cables, QED reference 40 RCA and XLR interconnects

 

That is very odd! I’m sure you tried it but it goes away when you unplug the phono?