2. tech-talk
  3. 131169-89505

Need suggestions please! Electrical noise in my system and it's driving me crazy!

So I have been battling with an electrical noise in my home since I moved in over a year ago. I've had two electricians check it out and have done hours of trouble shooting myself. 

I'm getting a hum or a buzz from anything with a transformer and a buzz through my speakers. Standard driver speakers and my Maggies. The house was built ten years ago and has everything up to code. Underground electrical lines. 2 ground rods outside the house. Just added a ground to all the copper plumbing and gas lines. I have a 200 amp panel in the house and a 100 amp panel in the garage. 

I have a Furman IT Reference 15 power conditioner and it's not doing jack. It's actually humming too. As far as trouble shooting I've mixed and matched equipment, speaker, and cables to eliminate that factor, I've also turned every breaker off one by one to find if it's something in the house that's dirtying up the electrical but even when I only had the one breaker that powered me system on, the noise was still there. 

I'm going crazy because my relaxing time is sitting and listening to my music in a dead silent room with a dead silent background and I no longer have that anymore. I can hear the buz, hum, and even a high pitch noise and it's ruining my hobby. Both electricians I've had in the house have no clue and and think I'm nuts anyway. 

Has anyone had an issue like this before? Could you fix it? How did you fix it? Please help! I'm about ready to sell all my equipment because it's annoying to listen to. 

Thanks,
Brian
gearheadmac
jea48
4,489 posts
 
Edit to my post above.

When I spoke about cleaning the connection of the electrical service’s #6 copper ground wire at the ground rod I should have mentioned with extreme caution. There could be a lethal difference of potential, voltage, between the disconnected ground wire (the Grounding Electrode Conductor) and the ground rod (Electrode) as well from the #6 ground wire to the soil you are contacting with your knees or any other part of your body contacting the earth. Especially if the soil and or grass is moist/wet.

Jim

nutty
2,946 posts
 
jea48
Jim,
For your guidance, I shut down the main breaker located in the main box before any of the connections were repaired...All new connectors and new solid 12 awg ground wires were routed from the CATV/Phone junction boxes.

All CATV/Phone junction boxes have separate ground wires and all lead to the main 6-8 awg main ground wire. I cleaned the main rod and the main ground wire on all sides with a wire wheel using a cordless drill and installed a new main rod clamp. 

N
gearheadmac OP
5 posts
 
Update on my problem. 

I had two electricians at the house with no help. Did most everything from this post with no luck. I tried a UPS system to see if completely regenerating the AC would help... NEVER EVER hook your system to a UPS. It makes everything worse. 

I finally fixed the issue with buying a Granite Audio Ground Zero. It seriously fixed everything and gave the lowest noise floor I've ever heard from my system. It took me a while to find the right impedance match, but I was jumping up and down in compete bliss after I heard silence. So the whole thing was a ground loop/ground issue. I also realized I have a noisy tube in my preamp that I could hear after I hooked everything up. I still want to figure out why my entire house has a ground loop and get it fixed. But at least I know what the issue is. I seriously listened to music for 48 hours straight after the noise was gone. 

Thanks for everyone's input. I learned a lot from this post!

Brian
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,907 posts
 
Great news. This product is important to note.  
More to discover