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Hiss and Hum in a system newly put together

A friend of mine recently acquired his system with the help of a friend who advised him to get following components:

Audio Analogue CD Maestro
Unison Research Integrated Amp S-6
Sonus Faber Grand Piano Speakers
Silver Audio Hush Wire Interconnects
Straightwire Rhapsody Speaker Cables

The poor guy is having sleepless nights since his system is plagued with hiss and hum. Since he is almost down under in Jakarta Indonesia, I could communicate only with email rather than physically inspect the system. From the explanation that he gave me, I could suggest to him to check his cabling and see if the system is properly grounded, secondly I also suggested to check the valves if they are properly seated and locked.

Is there anything else he should be checking?

I will send the link to this post to him so that he could try and trouble shoot his system with any help from Audiogoners.

Thanks for any help you can provide to someone who has just spent a lot of money and is having trouble from the word go.
128x128quadophile
briweve
123 posts
 
I have had several systems that I had to trouble shoot humming out of. The first had to do with a Ground loop at the Wall Plug, that was easily fixed by a 3 prong, 2 prong adaptor. The second problem I had, dealt with a hum from Cable TV coming into the house, not being grounded. You can get a Adaptor at the Rat Shack for that. The 3rd and most difficult problem I had with my new system, was a halogin light and a Flouracent(sp) light being on the same Circuit as my amp and speakers(I have built in Subs plugged in). A line conditioner didn't work. I had to rewire a special dedicated curcuit. Hope this helps.
quadophile's avatar
quadophile OP
418 posts
 
Briweve,

That is good information, very much appreciated. Sometimes we are so oblivious of our surroundings that a simple trick like checking things you mentioned is overlooked.

The checklist is getting bigger and bigger but that is what is required here.
jond's avatar
jond
5,948 posts
 
Also, don't forget to chech the tubes on the Unison, sometimes tubes can sort of spit and squeak at the end of their lives or if they've become microphonic. As far as hum, the grounding ideas above sound good, cheater plugs are an inexpensive way to start. Good luck!
bomarc
501 posts
 
Before we start looking for culprits outside the system, maybe we ought to look for culprits inside the system. First, is the noise in both channels or only one? If only one, it's pretty easy to figure out the component that's causing the problem by switching cables from left to right.

Assuming it's in both channels, I'd suggest borrowing alternative components and swapping individual items out of the system. Once it's clear what component is causing the problem, he would do better to return it and look for something that actually works. For 10 grand, that's the least you should expect.
dannylw's avatar
dannylw
172 posts
 
I'm having the same problem in a system pieced together while my room is under construction. I think the culprit maybe the cable TV. It did not hum before I installed cable in this room.
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