2. amps-preamps
  3. 1209767274

Getting Rid of Transformer Hum

I just picked up a Proceed AMP5 the other day. Upon hooking it up to a power cord, I noticed an annoying pulsating hum that sounds like a lightsaber match in Star Wars. This hum is coming straight from the amp, not the speakers, so it's not ground loop. There is nothing hooked up to the amp besides the power cable. What's interesting is that the amp is even though there is a standby mode, the amp was definitely turned off!

I noticed, though, that the hum got louder as the voltage from my wall dropped below 115-ish. Lowest it got to was 109 when everything was turned on, including a halogen lamp. Well, I turned off the lamp and all the lights in the house, and unplugged them -- helped the voltage drop but didn't eliminate the hum.

Am I completely lost on this amp? Or is there a way to take care of this problem without investing thousands more on some power regenerator? Another poster mentioned a similar problem solved by tightening a "chassis ground screw", but I have no idea what/where that is.

Help!
rakuennow

Showing 2 responses by rakuennow

rakuennow OP
81 posts
 
Tvad, do toroidal transformers usually degrade with age, or is there anything specific that would make it go bad? I doubt a high-end amp would employ a cheap toroid to begin with. If amps/toroids do regularly go bad over time (5 years?), I would be more weary making future audiogon purchases...
rakuennow OP
81 posts
 
The irony mentioned by Ngjockey is what confused me. I've since read plenty of articles like the one Tvad provided (btw, thank you), on magnetostriction and DC. However, the consensus seems to be that all quality Toroids and modern electric equipment should be sufficient at removing DC. The ones proposing DC as a main problem all seem to be selling something. Still, there are people as there are here, in this thread, that says an isolation transformer, or a device like the Channel Islands Audio XDC-2 solved all their problems.

So here, I'm at crossroads with my wallet since I really don't want to spend colossal amounts of money (to me) on all these devices, which in my opinion, are being marked up ridiculously.

I'm entertaining, though, one alternative option. I could try to sell my Panamax "line conditioner", and buy a used voltage regulator, which should take care of magnetostriction, and to my underestanding, DC as well. Are there any opinions on this?
i.e. Monster AVS 2000, PS Audio Power Plant...

I'll probably end up getting the CIA XDC-2 if it turns out the Monster would be insufficient...
More to discover