I have a humm in my system, need help troubleshooting

[Joeteck]

From my sitting area it is dead silence. At my highest listening lvl I have to be about 6in away from the speaker to hear it. When the amp and preamp are maxed out in my sitter area it is still dead silent, I then have to be about a foot away to hear it.

Could just be line noise... Maybe you should get a line conditioner or UPS...

 

[sparky77]

What your hearing is the noise floor of your equipment, if you can't hear it from the listening position when both are maxed out, don't worry about it unless you can hear the noise between songs at your normal listening volume.

 

[sparky77]

If it's any consolation, I start hearing the noise floor of my el-cheapo $130 receiver at about 87% of peak volume, and I normally listen quite loudly at about 80%. I think your system is probably working normally.

 

[Lordoftherings]

I have a Sunfire Theater Grand 2 pre amp, Parasound HCA-855A Amp and I am using my PC as a audio player. I am coming out of my PC's motherboard optical output as of now. I get the Humm when I have the pre-amp and amp turned all the way up and nothing is playing.

What I have Tried
-Tried different RCA cable(Humm still there)
-Unhooking the optical cable from the pre-amp(Humm still there)
-Trying all the 5 channels on the amp(Humm still there)
-Shutting off the Pre-Amp and keeping the power amp on(Humm Gone)
-Hooking up different Amp and keeping pre-amp on(Humm Gone)
(This is obvious but the second amp is a audio source amp and seems to idle power when no input is being sent to it)
-Hooking optical cable back to pre-amp with new amp and playing a song and muting it with power all the way up.(Humm still there)
(I think that I get noise from my PC to start with, which I also am trying to figure out. But cant figure out why I get Humm with no PC connection?)

It seems it is the pre-amp but is there anyway for sure to test it? I am stumped.

Mmm... Is that humm bothering you at normal playback level (your usual listening level volume)?

I have four systems (connected) in my home, and when I turn the volume control to max. and nothing playing, the four systems all humm.
But when I normally listen, no problem at all.
My subwoofers constantly humm. I must have try about 100 of subs in my home. They all humm.

All my TVs humm.

My computers humm.

My fridge humm.

My microwave ovens humm.

My stove humm.

My life humm. And I sing the blues with humm too.

My electric guitars and my amps humm.


I don't know what else to say. I try everything; connect all my audio components to the same circuit breaker (wall plate) ...

LOTR

 

[roshi]

If it annoys you, you might want to try some ferrite filers, you can get them at RadioShack. Put those between your pre-amp and amp, they should take care of radio interference and also some bad power noise. But then, if you can only hear it when you are right next to the speaker, why bother?

 

[Lordoftherings]

If it annoys you, you might want to try some ferrite filers, you can get them at RadioShack. Put those between your pre-amp and amp, they should take care of radio interference and also some bad power noise. But then, if you can only hear it when you are right next to the speaker, why bother?

Yeah, Marantz love to put lots of these in their receivers.