Most Variacs are not isolated.
Living with unsolvable hum - Any audio detectives out there?
For over a year I have put up with a hum in my system, coming through the speakers (not chassis hum). I cannot make it go away. It seems to be related to the preamp because it stops when I replace the preamp. But I had my local tech hook up the preamp on his bench and it is quiet as a mouse. I've also corresponded with its designer, David Berning, who has been very responsive and helpful. But no luck solving it. I thought it may be related to the separate power supply's umbilical but David Berning said likely not. Earlier this year I even bought a star grounding component from Granite Audio and connected everything to it. Didn't work. After trying everything the engineer at Granite could think of (he was great), he was stumped too. These people have forgotten more than I'll ever know about the subject, so I gave up at that point and just lived with it. I had also tried everything they and a few knowledgeable friends have suggested (see below). But now I would like to take another swing at solving it. Any ideas? What kills me is that now I can't recall when it started, which would be very helpful to diagnose. The system sounds as good as I've ever had it now, and I LOVE the Berning preamp. So replacing it or other major components is not an attractive proposition for me.
For any intrepid detectives, here are the facts:
- Hum is typical 60 cycle sound- both channels equal volume of hum- loud enough to hear at the listening position, but just barely. Quite noticeable when standing at the rack.
- Hums with any source, not volume dependent, still hums with no source components attached (I even tried unplugged them from the wall too). But the hum stops if preamp is disconnected from amps.
- System plugs into a dedicated 20 amp line with eight plugs. Nothing else is on this circuit except my audio system. I had an electrician verify and tighten all the ground connections. The service is a relatively new 200 amp service. The electrician tested and found no ground issues or noise in the dedicated line.
- Tried shutting down all breakers in the house except my dedicated audio line. No effect, surprisingly. I had high hopes for that one!
- Tried cheater plug on everything including the preamp. No effect.
- Tried different interconnects between pre and power amps... No effect.
- Replaced all linestage tubes. No effect.
- Moved components around, moved the power supply, even used long interconnects to move the preamp three feet in front of the rack. No effect.
- Tried an extension cord to plug the preamp into a different AC circuit. No effect.
-The only thing I know of that could try, but have not tried, is replacing the power supply tubes, but I didn't bother because on the bench it made no noise for my tech.
My system:
- Power: Temporarily I'm using a Shunyata T6000 distributor (the hum existed prior to this, and the Shunyata didn't solve it). All Cardas Golden Ref or Golden power cords, except T6000 is plugged into the wall with Shunyata Sigma HC cord.
Analog: Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum, Jelco TK-850, Cardas Golden Cross phono cable
Digital: CEC transport and Audio Logic DAC, Golden Cross interconnect.
Preamp: Custom Berning Octal tube preamp with separate tube rectified switching power supply, built-in Jensen transformer MC stage at 24x gain (on the high side, I know, but it sounds amazing compared to other winding options)
-Power amps: Quicksilver v4 monos with KT150 tubes
-Two REL G2 subs (hum existed before them, and persists when they are disconnected and unplugged)
Somehow the interaction between the preamp and other components seems to be creating the problem. Source components don't seem to matter, but amps are Quicksilver v4 monos. Speakers are Verity Audio Parsifals. Interconnects, speaker cables and power cables are Cardas Golden Cross.
Speakers: Verity Audio Parsifal Encores. No surround sound or home theater.
For any intrepid detectives, here are the facts:
- Hum is typical 60 cycle sound- both channels equal volume of hum- loud enough to hear at the listening position, but just barely. Quite noticeable when standing at the rack.
- Hums with any source, not volume dependent, still hums with no source components attached (I even tried unplugged them from the wall too). But the hum stops if preamp is disconnected from amps.
- System plugs into a dedicated 20 amp line with eight plugs. Nothing else is on this circuit except my audio system. I had an electrician verify and tighten all the ground connections. The service is a relatively new 200 amp service. The electrician tested and found no ground issues or noise in the dedicated line.
- Tried shutting down all breakers in the house except my dedicated audio line. No effect, surprisingly. I had high hopes for that one!
- Tried cheater plug on everything including the preamp. No effect.
- Tried different interconnects between pre and power amps... No effect.
- Replaced all linestage tubes. No effect.
- Moved components around, moved the power supply, even used long interconnects to move the preamp three feet in front of the rack. No effect.
- Tried an extension cord to plug the preamp into a different AC circuit. No effect.
-The only thing I know of that could try, but have not tried, is replacing the power supply tubes, but I didn't bother because on the bench it made no noise for my tech.
My system:
- Power: Temporarily I'm using a Shunyata T6000 distributor (the hum existed prior to this, and the Shunyata didn't solve it). All Cardas Golden Ref or Golden power cords, except T6000 is plugged into the wall with Shunyata Sigma HC cord.
Analog: Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum, Jelco TK-850, Cardas Golden Cross phono cable
Digital: CEC transport and Audio Logic DAC, Golden Cross interconnect.
Preamp: Custom Berning Octal tube preamp with separate tube rectified switching power supply, built-in Jensen transformer MC stage at 24x gain (on the high side, I know, but it sounds amazing compared to other winding options)
-Power amps: Quicksilver v4 monos with KT150 tubes
-Two REL G2 subs (hum existed before them, and persists when they are disconnected and unplugged)
Somehow the interaction between the preamp and other components seems to be creating the problem. Source components don't seem to matter, but amps are Quicksilver v4 monos. Speakers are Verity Audio Parsifals. Interconnects, speaker cables and power cables are Cardas Golden Cross.
Speakers: Verity Audio Parsifal Encores. No surround sound or home theater.
Showing 7 responses by audio2design
To me the simple fact the volume does not change tells me this hum is not coming FROM the pre-amp, because then it should increase when the pre-amp volume is turned up. Only thing I can think of is its an interaction WITH the pre-amp. I would say Bingo! on this explanation and perhaps there is something inherently wrong with either component that only comes up when the two are connected. The issue may be masked with different components. Stick with your cheater plugs that remove the AC ground at first, and then find some nice thick copper wire and run it between the pre-amp and amp chassis as short as you can. You may need to use a screw on each one and make sure you have an electrical connection to the chassis. Do not make the connection to an RCA connector. Of course my next question is whether the RCA on either are electrically connected directly to the chassis. |
Ground zero claims that their system negates the AC ground connection impact. That assumption is based on the assumption that their ground connection is much better than the one via the AC plug. That is not guaranteed, so for test purposes to start let's ensure it is gone I am concerned that perhaps you didn't have strong ground connections to the equipment. Hope you have a meter. Take a measurement between a ground wire and a few screws to make sure. I would be inclined to try the preamp on a small isolation transformer. Perhaps there is a ground path or common mode noise path we are missing. |
The issue is the ferrite toroidals are not very effective at 60hz. More likely they take out the effects of 120Hz events, like dimmer turn on but do little about 60Hz fundamentals. Hence a small isolation transformer on the preamp as a better test. Attenuation at 60hz with that ferrite toroid will be near 0. |
Stuogawa, By "Mix 31" they mean Fair-rite 31 ferrite material. It really does not work that great at low frequencies. Here is the material data sheet: https://www.fair-rite.com/31-material-data-sheet/ Here is an example ferrite with it: https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/150/2631803802-1666141.pdf How well it works is a factor of cross-section, so the big one you listed is better, than the one I linked above, but not much better. It only has 2x the cross-sectional area. As you can see the attenuation at 100KHz is quite low. At 60Hz, there will be virtually no attenuation. The hum improvement and hence why you only got partial attenuation in your application is it attenuates the bursts of noise that typically happen every 120Hz with most electronics. It would not have attenuated 60Hz. An isolation transformer will provide huge common mode attenuation at 60Hz. There are very high permeability common mode cores, but the listed type 31 ferrite is not one of them. |
stuogawa22 posts01-03-2021 3:39pm This one is easy @stuogawa. If you look at things like dimmers, linear amplifiers, and linear power supplies, most USB chargers, etc. they draw power in bursts at 2x the line frequency, i.e. 120Hz or 100Hz. When they make that current draw, it is a burst of high frequencies. The noise spectra ends up being 120Hz mixed with high frequencies, and harmonics of both. When those high frequencies that are harmonics of the high frequency mixed with 120Hz enter your equipment, it modulates back down to 120Hz in your audio equipment. The ferrite will take out the high frequency harmonics so that they cannot modulate back down to 120Hz. It cannot remove common mode noise at 120/60Hz that is transferring from the pre-amp to the power amp if that is what is the cause. |