i am getting a buzzing sound from my frontspeakers


Please help. I have had my home theater/music setup for about six or seven months in my new home. I have never had a problem with buzzing before, except a light buzz in my rear speakers, which was hardly noticeable. Today the front ones started buzzing really loudly when my amp is on. It disappears when the amp is turned off. The only thing I did different was to switch the front left and right connection at the preamp today because I realized I connected them wrong when I changed interconnects a couple of weeks ago. I did not turn the amp off when I disconnected the cables today. Could this cause any damage and be the reason for the humming? I know all manufacturers recommend turing everything off before connecting or disconnecting anything. I also blew a fuse a couple of days ago in the room but I don't think this had anything to do with it. Am I going to have to send in my preamp or amp for repair or will this go away? Thanks for your advice.
musicmannj

Showing 1 response by indiana_jones

Your problem could be the interconnects, (most likely a broken internal shield connection) or a ground loop has formed between your pieces of eqiupment. A ground loop is a differance in potential between equipment grounds. The culprit is usually cable TV or sattelite hooked up to your preamp or processor. Totally disconnect it from your system and TV. If the buzz or hum is still present, disconnect one piece of equipment at a time from your preamp or proccessor, if still present disconnect your preamp from your amp. This will leave you with just your amp and speakers. If the noise is still present chances are you have develope a faulty power supply filtering capacitor.
If you find that the cable or sattelite is causing your problem, you will need to ensure that you ground the cable to the same potential that your home is grounded to (Main AC Pannel), or ground rod or main water pipe supply.
You can also play around with cheater plugs bought at your local hardware store, what you will do is float the ground on the power cord of each piece of equipment this will also help you find the piece of equipment the noise is coming from.

Once again your problems will be 1) Bad interconnect, 2) ground loop, 3) Bad capacitor in side power supply.

You practice of disconnecting and connecting equipment with your equipment power on is highly not recommended but doubtfull that it caused your problem.

Good Luck,

Mike