Cables - one of the most taboo subjects in audio

Ghost said:
Alright friends. Some brainstorming for the group here:

I'm currently trying to chase a buzz/hiss out of my system that becomes audible near the top of my typical listening range. Its not something that I can focus on during the music but I can hear it between songs lightly and I imagine it colors some of the sound I hear.

Currently my set-up is limited in the sense that my TT, my amp, and phono all need to live on the same surface, the Sutherland seems to be picking up a good deal of interference and ambient noise from the new amp and I've pushed it as far away as possible but am limited in what I can do.

I'm asking here for ideas because I've noticed the buzz noise increases when I play around with the cables behind my rig, I've been able to lessen some of the buzz by taping the blue jeans to the back of my cabinet on one side, but I'm wondering if upgrading the cables running from my phono into my amp would be a good thing to do? Or upgrading the phones power cable? Not sure, dont have a lot of experience with power supplies or cables.

Also, wondering how much of the buzz might be a result of all my gear sharing a power strip? If so, how could I start upgrading in a way that negate that? Here's a pic, brace yourselves lol

Currently I have one pair of BJCs running from my TT to my phono and everything else is a hodge podge of cheapies from Amazon :$.

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Have you tried removing the lamp from on top of YOUR BRAND NEW SHINY LOVELY AMP OMG
 
Mather said:
Have you tried removing the lamp from on top of YOUR BRAND NEW SHINY LOVELY AMP OMG
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I have no where else to put it atm but I did A/B test w the lamp and buzz still lives on but just with less light for me to find it. But it will be moving shortly, just need a new lamp!
 
MikeH said:
try changing the positioning of the amp and phono? someone here (maybe @AnthonyI ) said that they swapped positioning of separates and it got rid of a hum. had to do with where the power transformers were on the devices or something?

i have a hum that i've given up on trying to get rid of. i'm convinced that it's in my house wiring.
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I think I tried all combos except for one which I will try shortly here! Will update on results. Yeah that might honestly be a good call, I can say that the buzz seems to have a direct relationship with the proximity to the amp. I move it closer and it gets louder and you can then hear a cyclical thwack thwack thwack through the speakers, I can't remember why they aren't on opposite sides of the cabinet atm, maybe my interconnects weren't long enough. Standby.
 
I had a similar hum that had something to do with the RCA/Interconnects. I'm sure I had something crossed but all I did was unhook everything and then hook it back up. If I remember correctly, it had something to do with the one leading from my turntable to the preamp. Mine was definitely more in the left speaker and almost exactly as you described. I guess it could of been some sort of ground loop also. Either way I went crazy and just unplugged it all and put it back.
 
I have such a mess of cables behind my console it's honestly disgusting. I think the only thing that saves me from the dreaded hum is they're all shielded to high heaven. Definitely one place where the money spent across the range of RCA/speaker/AC cables really paid off.
 
Ghost said:
I think I tried all combos except for one which I will try shortly here! Will update on results. Yeah that might honestly be a good call, I can say that the buzz seems to have a direct relationship with the proximity to the amp. I move it closer and it gets louder and you can then hear a cyclical thwack thwack thwack through the speakers, I can't remember why they aren't on opposite sides of the cabinet atm, maybe my interconnects weren't long enough. Standby.
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Its crazy how some of this works, but all I ended up doing was swapping the amp and TT positions. Meaning, originally my TT was on the left, amp on the right, which put the tonearm and power supply of the amp close to each other (the power supply in the amp was located on the left hand side). Swapping them around basically changed the distance between the two from a couple inches to approx. 3' apart, hum gone.
 
Haimez40 said:
I had a similar hum that had something to do with the RCA/Interconnects. I'm sure I had something crossed but all I did was unhook everything and then hook it back up. If I remember correctly, it had something to do with the one leading from my turntable to the preamp. Mine was definitely more in the left speaker and almost exactly as you described. I guess it could of been some sort of ground loop also. Either way I went crazy and just unplugged it all and put it back.
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Interconnects are always a possibility, no matter the quality. I had a pair of Pangea interconnects for my TT at one point, started getting a hum but didn't think it would be coming from a "quality" cable. Eventually I just started swapping everything to try and narrow down the possibilities and sure enough, I tossed a cheap pair of interconnects on the TT and the hum was gone.

You just never know.
 
Y'all, I just swapped the position of my amp and turntable which means I had to ditch the BJC cables connecting my TT to phono amp and instead use them as the connect between the phono and amp and so I put some shitty RCAs connecting the TT to the phono, and now not only do I hear a buzz, but I hear what sounds like somebody's music in the apartment below through my speakers....

Cables make a difference friends, holy cow. Definitely getting some new BJCs.
 
Ghost said:
Y'all, I just swapped the position of my amp and turntable which means I had to ditch the BJC cables connecting my TT to phono amp and instead use them as the connect between the phono and amp and so I put some shitty RCAs connecting the TT to the phono, and now not only do I hear a buzz, but I hear what sounds like somebody's music in the apartment below through my speakers....

Cables make a difference friends, holy cow. Definitely getting some new BJCs.
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Hahaha! Yeah RCA cables can pick up radio waves. The two things that are likely to exacerbate it are poorly shielded cables and too long runs. If possible have the phono in the middle of the amp and table. It maximises distance between amp transformer and table and means two small cable runs. Other things to look at are making sure power cables are connected after audio ones and cross them at 90 degrees.

Annoyingly even after all of this it can still happen…
 
Ghost said:
Y'all, I just swapped the position of my amp and turntable which means I had to ditch the BJC cables connecting my TT to phono amp and instead use them as the connect between the phono and amp and so I put some shitty RCAs connecting the TT to the phono, and now not only do I hear a buzz, but I hear what sounds like somebody's music in the apartment below through my speakers....

Cables make a difference friends, holy cow. Definitely getting some new BJCs.
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Going through my mind right now
hfwq3P.gif


I would pick up a >$10 surge protector too.
 
Ghost said:
Oh lord, I’ve turned my hissing noise into a buzzing noise now.
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And this is the part where; on this unassuming Tuesday in January, your wife walks into the room as you're scampering about, cables strewn across the floor, clothed in white cotton gloves and muttering about radio waves; that your wife seriously starts to re-evaluate her life choices.

We've alllll been there.
 
Mather said:
And this is the part where; on this unassuming Tuesday in January, your wife walks into the room as you're scampering about, cables strewn across the floor, clothed in white cotton gloves and muttering about radio waves; that your wife seriously starts to re-evaluate her life choices.

We've alllll been there.
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Oh yeah, that happened about 5 minutes ago… she caught me wedged into a space behind the cabinet about a foot and a half wide covered in dust bunnies untangling cords with a glint of madness in the eyes. She didn’t say anything which is what I find most disturbing and worrying.
 
I settled on the following for now:

Amp is far left on my console, TT is middle, phono is far right. I'm not getting the "thwack-thwack-thwack" cyclical sound from the amplifier coming through the speakers which is a step in the right direction. Still getting a hissing noise and from my experimenting I suspect the hiss is coming directly from the quality of my interconnects. The hiss becomes a rogue radio station with lesser cables and the hiss disappeared altogether with a slightly better set of interconnects but then replaced the hiss with a buzz. So I'm going to call this set-up fine for now as the hiss is only distracting at loud volumes and get some BJCs for the run from my phono to the amp, I'm getting the feeling that that may cure the hiss or at least reduce it drastically. I also reorganized all my cables to make sure power cords weren't crossing left and right over each other and unplugged everything/replugged it in. I want to say somehow my system is louder now? Like, my listening level on the amp was at like 55 - 65/100 on my amp, now its at 45 - 55? So thats cool.

Anyways, the saga continues. Now I have to get to the bottom of that pesky IGD I've been noticing on the last 1-2 songs of each album that my new amp has apparently revealed. I should’ve never moved on from my little Urban Outfitters LP-60 and Beats Pill sound system. I’d probably live longer.

 
Ghost said:
I settled on the following for now:

Amp is far left on my console, TT is middle, phono is far right. I'm not getting the "thwack-thwack-thwack" cyclical sound from the amplifier coming through the speakers which is a step in the right direction. Still getting a hissing noise and from my experimenting I suspect the hiss is coming directly from the quality of my interconnects. The hiss becomes a rogue radio station with lesser cables and the hiss disappeared altogether with a slightly better set of interconnects but then replaced the hiss with a buzz. So I'm going to call this set-up fine for now as the hiss is only distracting at loud volumes and get some BJCs for the run from my phono to the amp, I'm getting the feeling that that may cure the hiss or at least reduce it drastically. I also reorganized all my cables to make sure power cords weren't crossing left and right over each other and unplugged everything/replugged it in. I want to say somehow my system is louder now? Like, my listening level on the amp was at like 55 - 65/100 on my amp, now its at 45 - 55? So thats cool.

Anyways, the saga continues. Now I have to get to the bottom of that pesky IGD I've been noticing on the last 1-2 songs of each album that my new amp has apparently revealed. I should’ve never moved on from my little Urban Outfitters LP-60 and Beats Pill sound system. I’d probably live longer.

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Welcome to Audio Nervosa. It’s a fine line between genius and madness.
 
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