Not a ground loop hum???


I thought I had a ground loop hum, given that with my pre, cdp and amp all on, without any music playing, there is a hum emanating from my speakers. Following the advice seen here and elsewhere, I went out and got some cheater plugs to try and hunt down this annoying and, at times, distracting hum.

My system comprises: Anthem CD-1 (with DH-Labs power cord), Blue Circle BC21.1 tube pre (with BC62 pc), BC22 amp (Zu Cable BoK pc), Rune loudspeakers by Zu Cable (hooked up with Zu Cable Libtec speaker cable), Blue Circle MR1200 balanced power line conditioner/distributor (Zu Cable BoK pc), and van den Hul D102 MKIII interconnents.

Well, with the three components' power cord fitted with a cheater plug and all plugged into the power conditioner, the hum was still present, same intensity, volume, etc. Removing the cheater plugs one by one starting with the cdp, then pre, then amp, there was no reduction in the hum. In fact, I think I may have heard it get worse at one point.

Any ideas out there as to the cause of the hum? Maybe the tubes in the system are the culprit. There is a pair of Siemens CCa (6922 type) with Pearl tube coolers installed in the pre, and the tube in the cdp is a Telefunken CCa with a tube cooler.
mghcanuck

Showing 1 response by brooksl

Max, I have one of those devices that you plug into outlets to diagnose several problems. When I plugged it into my Balanced Power Technology 3.5, it told me that there was a faulty ground. I called Chris Hoff. He said that balanced power confuses the device. He also said the most common results are reversed polarity and improper ground. So, your Blue Circle unit may be functioning properly.