Noise-I wish I read this before I went nuts for 3 months in 2021

[marpow]

I was absolutely crazy trying to get my rig to be zero noise back in 2021/2022 when I put my room together.
I can't even explain how obsessed I was, the most you could be, I did make progress, but after professionals said "at some point you have to let it go man" I did, but I bet I spent 3K on fruitless noise chasers, me being the chaser.
Once I let it go, it went away, go figure.
Note, never once, did my noise, low hum, ever get louder when turning up volume. Never once did I hear it when listening to a recording, Nuts I am.

These two articles come from Upscale Audio in Southern Calif.
A DISCUSSION ABOUT IDLE HISS
In-Line Attenuators

 

[4-earredwonder]

I was absolutely crazy trying to get my rig to be zero noise back in 2021/2022 when I put my room together.
I can't even explain how obsessed I was, the most you could be, I did make progress, but after professionals said "at some point you have to let it go man" I did, but I bet I spent 3K on fruitless noise chasers, me being the chaser.
Once I let it go, it went away, go figure.
Note, never once, did my noise, low hum, ever get louder when turning up volume. Never once did I hear it when listening to a recording, Nuts I am.

These two articles come from Upscale Audio in Southern Calif.
A DISCUSSION ABOUT IDLE HISS
In-Line Attenuators

As I'm currently redoing my entire system [after 6 years of just talking about it], we discovered a ground loop issue and temporarily resolved it. I am happy to report that my system is now dead quiet [except when I FIRE it UP]. I was experiencing distortion when my Marantz SACD/CD SA113S player analogue outs were plugged directly into my Meridian 861 v.8 pre/pro and my installer said it was probably due to a faulty ground loop which affects analogue more so than digital. Now NO issues, thankfully. And I also had a surge protector installed in my main power panel. Living in New York [35 miles from Manhattan] the power is sketchy, at best.

Hope you resolve your issue, permanently. Extremely Frustrating especially with the level of high end McIntosh equipment you have in your system, Markie!

 

[marpow]

my installer said it was probably due to a faulty ground loop which affects analogue more so than digital. Now NO issues,

What was the fix Ralphie?

 

[4-earredwonder]

What was the fix Ralphie?

Something about attaching a ground wire and he has to come back to install a metal 'box' in lieu of the existing plastic one. All I can say, Markie, is that the system is DEAD quiet! All I need now is a 200 hour break in period to get everything up to snuff!

 

[jimfisheye]

Just as an aside. The thing I absolutely love about digital is you only have to worry about the fussy analog connections on the ends of the signal chain. Everything in between is just shuttling ones and zeros around. No ground loops there!

But now that someone mentions it, I could probably do well to refurbish the power supplies in my Genelecs.

 

[4-earredwonder]

And I'm now able to fully unfold all my MQA discs thanks to Meridian's unique HDMI 722 switching box which processes/refines all incoming signals with my existing MQA equipped OPPO 205 ..... The 861 v.8 pre/pro now has MQA installed and it really sounds phenomemol!

 

[barfle]

I’ll probably be recapping the power amps in my Emotiva Stealth 8s this week. The woofers are playing quite low volume, and almost any cranking will result in some nasty distortion. Audessy has helped for about a year, but it’s to the point where I really ought to get off my butt and git ‘er done.

 

[marpow]

Gee, what started as a simple thread is now getting exciting, love it when I learn stuff.

First, Ralphie, PLEASE keep us updated on all thing related to your new listening space, pictures and text would be great. I know you and I know it will be fantastic.

I will add just a tiny bit as it makes me sick as to all that I did. I have a low level hum, it does not turn up or down with volume. As soon as speakers are engaged with sound I cannot hear it at all.
My only analog is the RCA cables that come out of external Exasound MCH DAC to my 7.1 section in back of my McIntosh MX122.
My McIntosh C1 1100 Pre Amp is hybrid tube and digital. But I bought that after so that does not count.
I disconected everything. I have a dedicated eletric panel just for my equipment.
I even bought a new MX122 with a $1200.00 restocking fee, because it was convinced it was the MX122, I paid the restocking fee.
I have all the connectors, cables, blah, blah.
My room 12' X 14' is very quiet, dead quiet. When I do my meditation in morning I hear the hum of the Niagra 5000 power supply, when everything is off.
Do not buy a Niagra 5000 powersupply. In the instruction list, it says" This unit will have a low level hum and is considered normal", something like that, WTF, that pissed me off.
However I connected two speakers to MX122 only, no amps, no power supply, no nothing, no music, and still got low level hum.
I have a dedicated fanless PC in the chain, and added a Furman power supply just for the PC and that helped.

Sometimes I wonder, if it is the speakers themselves, but I don't think so? I have all matching B&W Diamond series, 9 of them.

Off subject: I am seriously starting to reserch Kplisch La Scala AL5's, not because of anything, but having my B&W 804D3 as my main two fronts, I am strating not to like the brightness of that little dome tweeter. I think my Tinitus gets activated with certain speakers. Anyway I always do lots of reserach before anything.

Back On Subject: Can your crossover settings create a low level hum?
I think I don't like Audessy anymore? Maybe a DIRAC room correction would be better?

Ask me anything, likely I did it.

The best success was that I let it go, and for the most part it is gone. When I first got tinitus, mostly in my right ear, it made me crazy, I heard it all the time, now 3-4 years later I barely hear it at all, unless I want to.

 

[mandrix]

I don't know what will cure the hum, Markie. On equipment that has, e.g., a phono ground, you can run a wire from it to the electrical ground and it's been known to fix the problem on AVR's that don't have the 3-wire cord.

As for the tinnitus, I've had it since I was in the service, non stop now well over 50 years. A real PITA.
At night I sleep with one of those air purifiers running, just enough to help drown out the constant hum in my head. Some drugs like aspirin can exacerbate the ringing, and probably others as well.

 

[kcrimson]

In my experience, at least with Klipsch Forte 2s (with horn tweeters) vs dome tweeters (such as the NHT 2.1s or the McIntosh LS360s), the Klipsch speaker sounded brighter and harsher to my ears.
It would be recommended to listen to the Klipsch La Scalas for an extended duration before making that switch.

 

[MidiMagic]

Reminds me of the time I tried to get hum out of a client's stereo and it turned out to be an electric clock on the other side of the wall.

 

[Horbus]

I once had also a slight hum problem and really invested quite some time to solve it. Although it was not loud and you couldn:t hear it when listening to music but you know when you have identified a problem you concentrate fully on this. The low noise hum only appeared when I used my seperate amplifier for my passive subwoofer. When I switched it off, hum was gone. But then I identified the small TV, connected as Monitor to my AV-Receiver as a possible source. I switched HDMI cables, and from one input/output to the other. Sometimes it helped for a short period of time but then appeared again. But in the end I could really identify the TV as the problem. I tried numerous settings/outputs, etc, etc.. Then by coincidence I switched off thr eco mode of the TV and that's what it was!!! The eco mode produced this slight hum which ran me crazy!!! Who would have thought of this???

 

[Owen Smith]

Reminds me of the time I tried to get hum out of a client's stereo and it turned out to be an electric clock on the other side of the wall.

A strange hum started appearing randomly at my place about 10 years ago. To cut a long story short it was the neighbours' power shower, the pump was vibrating through the walls. I'd never heard it with the previous neighbours as they either never used the shower or did so at times I was asleep or out of the house.

 

[mandrix]

A strange hum started appearing randomly at my place about 10 years ago. To cut a long story short it was the neighbours' power shower, the pump was vibrating through the walls. I'd never heard it with the previous neighbours as they either never used the shower or did so at times I was asleep or out of the house.

Well I just learned something again on QQ. I had never heard of a power shower before.

 

[barfle]

Gee, what started as a simple thread is now getting exciting, love it when I learn stuff.

First, Ralphie, PLEASE keep us updated on all thing related to your new listening space, pictures and text would be great. I know you and I know it will be fantastic.

I will add just a tiny bit as it makes me sick as to all that I did. I have a low level hum, it does not turn up or down with volume. As soon as speakers are engaged with sound I cannot hear it at all.
My only analog is the RCA cables that come out of external Exasound MCH DAC to my 7.1 section in back of my McIntosh MX122.
My McIntosh C1 1100 Pre Amp is hybrid tube and digital. But I bought that after so that does not count.
I disconected everything. I have a dedicated eletric panel just for my equipment.
I even bought a new MX122 with a $1200.00 restocking fee, because it was convinced it was the MX122, I paid the restocking fee.
I have all the connectors, cables, blah, blah.
My room 12' X 14' is very quiet, dead quiet. When I do my meditation in morning I hear the hum of the Niagra 5000 power supply, when everything is off.
Do not buy a Niagra 5000 powersupply. In the instruction list, it says" This unit will have a low level hum and is considered normal", something like that, WTF, that pissed me off.
However I connected two speakers to MX122 only, no amps, no power supply, no nothing, no music, and still got low level hum.
I have a dedicated fanless PC in the chain, and added a Furman power supply just for the PC and that helped.

Sometimes I wonder, if it is the speakers themselves, but I don't think so? I have all matching B&W Diamond series, 9 of them.

Off subject: I am seriously starting to reserch Kplisch La Scala AL5's, not because of anything, but having my B&W 804D3 as my main two fronts, I am strating not to like the brightness of that little dome tweeter. I think my Tinitus gets activated with certain speakers. Anyway I always do lots of reserach before anything.

Back On Subject: Can your crossover settings create a low level hum?
I think I don't like Audessy anymore? Maybe a DIRAC room correction would be better?

Ask me anything, likely I did it.

The best success was that I let it go, and for the most part it is gone. When I first got tinitus, mostly in my right ear, it made me crazy, I heard it all the time, now 3-4 years later I barely hear it at all, unless I want to.

There are two ways hum (power frequency, 60 Hz or 120 Hz in north America) can get into a system. Ground loops, which are unlikely in a single-room setup, or power supply filtering.

Ground loops are caused by the fact that “ground” is a poor conductor of electricity, and there can be voltage differences between “grounds” on pieces of equipment that are connected to earth in multiple locations. As I nored, not likely in a single room configuration, but if you end up with a distributed system, it might be worth disconnecting the remote gear one at a time and seeing if that helps. There are two ways to fix ground loops, and they are re,arkably different. One is to lift any ground from the remote location, so the circuit causing the voltage difference between the pieces of equipment is broken (no ground loop current through the shields of your connecting cables). The other is to provide a large ground connection between the pieces of equipment, thereby shunting that shield current. I suspect you already know that, but I’ve run into experienced CCTV installers who were clueless.

There are other possible sources of interference, but it’s unlikely they would be confused with hum.

Power supply hum is caused by ripple that isn’t filtered out by the filter capacitors. If it’s in a low-level processor, it probably won’t change much with volume, but a power amp will definitely increase hum as the load on the supply increases. You can add capacitance, or you can regulate the voltage so the hum is chopped off.

And then there’s the possibility that it’s acoustic. The sound is leaking in from outside. Unplugging everything in the room and measuring the result could reveal an issue leaking through the walls, floor, or ceiling of the room.

My room is not all that soundproof, because it’s a “bonus” room over the garage with part of the wall/ceiling only 6” from the roof, so it’s not unisual for traffic, aircraft, or even weather sounds to show up from time to time. It’s impractical to add more soundproofing, so I live with it.

Some of my older gear is suffering from dried-out electrolytic capacitors, and I have several projects ahead of me to address that fact. Nobody’s room is perfect, but it’s something we all strive for.

 

[Sal1950]

Off subject: I am seriously starting to reserch Kplisch La Scala AL5's, not because of anything, but having my B&W 804D3 as my main two fronts, I am strating not to like the brightness of that little dome tweeter.

If you have some low level hum coming from your McIntosh MX122, be warned the La Scala's are seriously efficent speakers and any hum you have now will likely be 10db louder with them.

 

[Sal1950]

Well I just learned something again on QQ. I had never heard of a power shower before.

Is that like the power-washer I use to clean my house, driveway, etc?
It should get you very clean but it just might hurt a bit.

 

[Owen Smith]

Well I just learned something again on QQ. I had never heard of a power shower before.

They are common in the UK where we don't always have enough mains water pressure for a good shower. So you add a pump from the hot and cold water storage tanks.

 

[Owen Smith]

Is that like the power-washer I use to clean my house, driveway, etc?
It should get you very clean but it just might hurt a bit.

They're similar but lower pressure and plumbed in as part of the house.

 

[mandrix]

They are common in the UK where we don't always have enough mains water pressure for a good shower. So you add a pump from the hot and cold water storage tanks.

Thanks, Owen, that is what I surmised after googling them. Ah city living. Not my way of life. Someone on the other side of the wall? No, though I did my fair share of apartment living in my youth.
I have my own well/pump set at 30 psi (pump starts)/50 psi (pump quits) and a 100 gallon tank. Of course by the time it gets inside the house the pressure is reduced intentionally, but more than adequate. I used to have a fair sized vegetable garden every year, so the increased water pressure for watering the garden.
Still, my way of life isn't everyone's.