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
not meaning to hijack this thread, but I have another question about hum. When I touch the volume dial on my pre, I get a pretty significant hum, but its not there when I am not touching it. Any ideas?
Swampwalker: Your preamp is poorly designed and lacks stability. Adding the conductivity of your body to the electrical characteristics of the preamp via chassis ground is enough to alter the performance of the circuit in what is an audible manner. If audio components were properly designed, their chassis wouldn't be connected to the active circuitry in any way, shape or form. Sean
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Sean:

Once again, you have proven to be 'da man! That's exactly the thread I had in mind. Looks like I've got some work to do. Thanks very much for your valuable input and advice.

Max

PS... I'm not offended in the least. The US and Canada, despite recent disagreements, have one of the closest relationships between nations on Earth. Some humour in the relationship can help keep it healthy. To paraphrase: "A bit of foolishness now and then is cherished by the wisest of men." Not that I'm wise, far from it, but I think the message is pretty wise itself. All the best.
Just thought I'd provide an update. I checked the outlets on the MR1200 power conditioner with the polarity-checker-plug, which indicates the hot and neutral are reversed for all three duplexes. Arrrrgh! So, do I open up this $750US piece of equipment and try to properly wire the damn thing or do I return it to Blue Circle? Seeing as how I'm not technically/electrically qualified, I'm tempted by the latter option.

Max
Max: Why don't you call up Blue Circle and let then know what is going on. If you don't have a local dealer that you purchased it from, BC should cover the bill on shipping both ways since this whole mess was due to their lack of quality control to begin with.

Other than that, i'm glad that you were able to figure out what was going on without losing too much hair or sleep : ) Sean
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