Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

MikeH said:
I've had some issues recently with my speakers having a little bit of a hiss...the sound does not go up when I turn the volume up. It's not super noticeable, but if I am close up to them I can definitely hear it. Sounds more like a breeze/static than a feedback kind of hum...

I bought a panamax (which I was going to do anyway) but the hiss is still present. Others on here thought it might be a ground loop hum...but not entirely sure how to fix it. I live in an old, pre-war apartment building with bad electricity. We only have two circuits in our apartment, lights, fridge and most outlets are on one, and there's one dedicated outlet for AC...my question is, does anybody know how to fix this? My gear is the following:

TT: Vinyl Nirvana Thorens TD-150 w/ Ortofon Bronze cart
Amp: Rotel RA-1570
Pre-Amp: Musical Fidelity - LX-LPS
Computer plugged in via USB using the Rotel internal DAC
Speaker Cables: Zu Audio Libtec
Speakers: KEF R300s.

The TT ground wire is attached to the preamp's grounding post. Any thoughts? Is it just something I might be stuck with for now in my current living set up?
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Hiss doesn’t sound like a ground issue to me. Would make me think you had a gain stage issue, or a piece of equipment just being noisy.

I assume you have a way to isolate each piece to see if one item is doing it?
 
VMPKJ said:
Hiss doesn’t sound like a ground issue to me. Would make me think you had a gain stage issue, or a piece of equipment just being noisy.

I asunder you have a way to isolate each piece to see if one item is doing it?
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@HiFi Guy gave me some ideas. My best guess as of now is that since I’m in an old building, and since fridge and overhead lights are on the same circuit, something like that is introducing noise. The noise is there on all inputs so it’s not any of the input devices to my amp. Might have to live with it for now or look at a cheater plug.
 
MikeH said:
@HiFi Guy gave me some ideas. My best guess as of now is that since I’m in an old building, and since fridge and overhead lights are on the same circuit, something like that is introducing noise. The noise is there on all inputs so it’s not any of the input devices to my amp. Might have to live with it for now or look at a cheater plug.
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Do you have another amp to try?
 
VMPKJ said:
Do you have another amp to try?
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Good call! I actually just took a listen to the receiver and speakers in my living room and I’m hearing the same thing...so it must be something creating noise on the circuit. I’ll do some more research on it. Thanks for the ideas!
 
MikeH said:
Good call! I actually just took a listen to the receiver and speakers in my living room and I’m hearing the same thing...so it must be something creating noise on the circuit. I’ll do some more research on it. Thanks for the ideas!
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If the amp were noisy moving rooms wouldn’t reveal that. I would trade each item in and out first for an alternate if possible and including different speakers.

That would be my first step.
 
VMPKJ said:
If the amp were noisy moving rooms wouldn’t reveal that. I would trade each item in and out first for an alternate if possible and including different speakers.

That would be my first step.
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Yea I mean a diff amp and diff speakers in a different room also make the same noise so it appears that something (like the fridge) is introducing noise onto the circuit.
 
VMPKJ said:
I dunno. How committed is @MikeH to Hifi? Sounds like it's time for one of those Yeti coolers.
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I’m a music junkie. And can’t live out of a cooler.

You should have seen the look on our contractor’s face when we bought this house.

Me: I want a dedicated line for these outlets here to their own circuit breaker.

Contractor: Why? What for?

Wife: Don’t ask questions. Just do it.
 
I mean if you find a problematic appliance you can consider other options. It may be possible to isolate/filter at that outlet. At the very minimum you’d know exactly what was causing it instead of wildly wondering where the issue actually is. If you unplug everything and still have the hiss you can resume hair pulling,
 
debianlinux said:
I mean if you find a problematic appliance you can consider other options. It may be possible to isolate/filter at that outlet. At the very minimum you’d know exactly what was causing it instead of wildly wondering where the issue actually is. If you unplug everything and still have the hiss you can resume hair pulling,
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Agreed. The thing is at the end of the day, there’s nothing @MikeH can do. He has two circuits. One for everything but AC and one for the AC.

One for everything but AC sounds really messed up. I’ve never seen a circuit breaker box with 2 circuit breakers.

The best he can do is isolate the cause. The fix is moving.
 
science.howstuffworks.com

How the Hum Works

Hummmmmm. Annoyed yet? Imagine if you heard that sound every night no matter what you did. Likened to a diesel engine idling in the distance, the Hum is a sound some people can never get away from. It's even caused suicide. But is it real?
science.howstuffworks.com science.howstuffworks.com
 
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