Speaker humming.....PLEASE HELP!!!

Yeah it makes sense. But if I could get it down to just that hum I can easily live with it if it’s not hurting anything. I literally have to almost put my ear on the speaker to hear it.

The pre hum I would like to fix if I could but I have just never been able to figure it out. I’m gonna dig out my cheap old one again and see if it’s silent like I remember.

Stupid question....but if I try the cheater plug test, right into the wall right? Not the surge protector? I tried that with the pre before but it was into a different outlet, can’t hurt with the same one I guess.

 

Sorry in addition to the above, to answer your question the phono pre, it’s the Vincent Phono 8 so separate power supply.

The preamp is a shelf below the TT, a little more than a foot away from the arm.....and then the power supply is on an even lower shelf at least 2 feet from the pre and 3 from the TT

 

I'd put the cheater plug on the AC cord of the device whose chassis ground you want to lift.

 

Thanks. I am gonna try both the hafler and the Vincent, they are the two 3 prong plugs I seem to be getting noise. Should I go directly into wall outlet or is strip ok? Sorry for all the questions but I really do appreciate the help!

 

Check the Marantz speaker terminals anyway. It is possible a strand of wire is caught between the + and - terminals and the cause of the unit shutting down intermittently, then finally shut down. Use a bright light, maybe a magnifier.. the fine strand may be hard so see. A cheap VOM is a valuable tool for checking cables and terminals for opens and shorts. (highly recommended)

 

Putting it on the hafler, it wouldn’t even power on

Didn’t make a difference on the phono pre. I’m probably just gonna disconnect the pre and dig out my cheap one for now until I can redo everything.

Assuming I get nothing else when I hook everything else back to the TV. Cable and PS4/WiiU

 

Welp....basically after all that, no luck. The phono pre still hums/buzzes whatever the fudge it is.....the tiny bit of noise from the hafler is barely noticeable, ok with that.

And now my sub has a hum coming from the equipment itself and it isn’t even turned on.

I am just gonna blow up my house and start over....

I give up for now. It’s stressing me out too much....Music is supposed to be my stress reliever and relaxation

As long as I don’t get the chaos I had last weekend and part of this past week where the noise was intrusive I’ll just live with it for now until I figure something out. I haven’t seemed to get that today or last night.

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions. Really do appreciate it

 

Funny....not funny story

As I am cleaning up I hear a noise. The power strip with my computer and related stuff (router, modem, etc) was making that exact noise from the first video someone posted on here for me on that 60hz hum with all that noise overtop. That was my external hard drive....which I need plugged in unfortunately. It’s my backup and has several terabytes of music on it. Really weird.....Unfortunately unplugging that had no impact on anything else.

I’m going to bed!!

 

I only hear the hum when i change times in the video sounds like clicks

 

.

Why?

Lifting the safety equipment ground conductor, that connects to chassis of the amp, should not stop the Hafler amp from powering up. If the amp would not power up when using the 3 prong to 2 prong ground cheater between the 3 prong plug of the power cord for the amp and the 3 wire receptacle you plugged the cheater into, that would indicate an electrical problem of some kind.

1) The power cord used for the Hafler amp is wired wrong. The neutral conductor and safety equipment grounding conductor are miswired at one end of the power cord connectors. The neutral conductor is connected to the equipment ground connection terminal on the connector, and the equipment grounding conductor is connected to the neutral terminal on the connector. Usually the miswired mistake is found at the IEC connector end of the power cord. What happens in this instance is the wall outlet equipment grounding conductor becomes the current carrying neutral conductor to power the piece of equipment the miswired power cord is used on.
If this is the problem then using the ground cheater broke, opened, the neutral connection for the Hafler amp. Is the power cord the original OEM cord that came with the Hafler amp?

2) The receptacle you plugged the ground cheater into is either worn out or has really poor contact pressure. The Hot and neutral blades on the ground cheater are thinner than most descent plugs. If the receptacle you plugged the ground cheater into has poor contact pressure it will not make the low resistance electrical connection needed to power up the amp.

.

 

If caps are are sufficient value and quality they should be OK even after 25 years. This is a Naim thing because they used crappy caps. Anyway you can open the case and do a visual check. Hum is more likely an earthing thing but I'm not clear what it now sounds like or level from OPs description.

 

If I knew how this stuff worked and could answer that question I wouldn’t be asking for all this advice

The outlets were tested and fine. I don’t know why it wouldn’t turn on, it’s just what happened. I highly doubt the cord is wired wrong, it’s been used by my buddy for years (Who knows this stuff) without any issue what so ever. But I have no idea....maybe

He just got back from traveling yesterday....he thinks with how I described the hafler noise that it’s just dirty power....but like I said before, the noise that gives off I need to go out of my way to hear, not too concerned about that by itself. All the loud **** from last week didn’t happen yesterday but late last night I plugged everything back in and put it back in place. I’ll see what happens when I get home tonight and try to play something

 

It really depends. Electrolytics will dry out and they may cause hum without any sign of bulging or electrolyte leaking. 25 years is a long time for an electrolytic, but a lot depends on operating conditions -- hours of use and especially heat. If there's slight hum from just the amp and speakers with nothing else plugged into the amp and everything else electronic switch off and unplugged from the circuit, there aren't too many most likely causes of that hum -- amp power supply noise possibly from a dried up electrolytic is one of 'em. But it's hard to troubleshoot hum from afar.

 

WHY?

I answered the why in my response.

So the power cord is not the original factory OEM power cord that came with the Hafler amp?

Is it an aftermarket power cord?

By chance did your buddy build it? Is there a chance the IEC connector is wired wrong? Or a chance the plug is wired wrong?
IF you have a multimeter or even a cheap continuity tester you can easily check the cord and see if it is wired correctly.

 

I know you were....I was joking, hence the emoticons.

No he didn’t build it and it should be the original cord, but I will ask him when I speak with him again

 

I haven't read much of the thread so this may be duplicative

I use Pho 8 as my phono pre.
Last time I put a record on I got 60hz hum. I swapped out my Shure Phono Pre and hum went away. When I reconnected the Vincent, hum gone. I attribute the hum's disappearance to taking the RCA plugs out and later reinserting them into the Vincent and/or to unscrewing the ground wire and later re-screwing it on. Something was either corroded a bit or loose.

 

Food for thought (ignore the thread title, just read the post):

The Brand New Adcom 555SE and 585SE Sound Great

 

I am suggesting at this point to unplug equipment. Have an electrician or tech with a voltmeter, check for voltage on the cases of your equipment.
Any electrician can do this.
This is for your safety, and not to scare you.

 

When you say unscrewing the ground wire, do you mean just the screw on the back or an actual wire you had connected?

Only reason I ask is because I don’t have a ground wire connected because I have no other piece of equipment with a ground screw. At the time I got it I tried a wire to the screw on the outlet, tried touching different screws on the receiver/amp and they seemed to make it worse. It’s aggravating because most of the discussions I saw regarding the Phono 8 said it was quiet. And there were a couple with the same TT as me and they had no problem and didn’t need to ground it

I disconnected it for now so I can try plugging the RCAs back in and see what happens

 

I don’t remember mentioning the spark....but I had one that had nothing to do with the hafler.

Like I said, the hafler alone is giving off a very low level of noise that can’t be heard unless you cover the tweeter with your ear. I would like to get rid of it if possible, but I have touched and handled the thing many times in the past few weeks and didn’t have an issue. The only weird thing with that was using the cheater plug. I will look into all these suggestions, I appreciate it, but I am not convinced something is wrong with the equipment itself. There was no problem with it from the person using it literally a couple weeks before I used it.....it would have to be an awful coincidence that something went in those two weeks.

 

pls disregard or delete the above post.. I had you confused with another person from Sweden with a similar problem.
But do have your equipment checked for possible 115 volts to the case.. possibly the Hafler.
<or> The Hafler may have a flipped neutral and ground, an internal wiring error.
<or> (edited) the outlet may be mis-wired. An electrician can check that, and also the service panel.

 

There is a knob on the back of the PHO8 where the turntable ground wire goes. Losen the know, wrap the ground wire around the "post", tighten the knob. That is where the grounding connection from your turntable should take place. That cured my problem (ungrounding and then regrounding, probably some oxidation got removed in the process or a more secure connection was obtained). Knob is located in the center, see left image, gnd = the knob

 

Thats what I was saying and why I was asking, my TT does not have a ground connection. (I just mistakenly said screw instead of knob) Its internally grounded. So there was nothing for me to connect this to. I dont have a wire on it at the moment. A few people I talked to online didnt need to connect it to anything when using with my specific TT.

I had tried a wire on there to the screw on the outlet and a couple screws on the old marantz at the time I got it but it just made things worse. I could try that again, might have been a similar issue to yours.

 

A quick google of the TT brought up a similar problem that was solved by changing the power supply on the TT.

OP, does the hum go away when using the TT's internal preamp?

 

Ahhh, I guess I didn't read clearly enuf. Good luck