Transformers humimg........again

There are two things that cause transformers to hum, both on the AC line.

This BTW is especially true if you have toroidal power transformers.

The first is what is often called 'DC on the line' which is usually caused by a heater of some sort operating on half power so it is only drawing power when the line goes positive. This causes one half of the AC sine wave to have slightly less voltage.

This can be blocked by a fairly simple circuit- a diode and capacitor arrangement (several members have mentioned one already on this thread), that blocks the DC and thus corrects the waveform. Toroids saturate fairly easily so only a very small amount of DC (less than 1/4 volt) can make them pretty noisy. It is possible to install the DC Blocker on the line that feeds the audio room.

The second thing that can cause transformers of all types to become noisy is the 5th harmonic on the line- in the US we use the 60Hz line frequency so this would be 300Hz. The harmonic is caused by a transformer that is being used above 1/2 of its full rated capacity. This might be a transformer on a telephone pole that you and your neighbors all use. There are two solutions- have the utility replace the transformer (good luck with that, but I've seen that happen) or get a power conditioner that can block the 5th harmonic.

In regard to the latter I don't know of a 'high end audio' conditioner that can do that (OK the regenerator types can but you have to be really careful with their use to not re-introduce the same problem), but there are commercial/industrial units made that can. Elgar used to make such some years back and they are quite effective. You can find them used on ebay (the series 3000 and 6000 are the best examples). BTW they can block DC on the line too.

I had taken a couple of the pieces down to my local hifi shop. We plugged them in, no hum. And that was straight into the wall socket, no filtering of any kind. I just happen to be cursed with bad ac into my home. I will take all suggestions here, apply them, and hope for something to work.
03-29-15: Shawnlh

Shawnlh,

Did you have the electrician check the mains voltage measurements as I asked?

To high of a mains voltage can cause transformer to hum louder than normal.

As Atmasphere said in his post odd harmonics can also cause a transformer to hum louder than normal. Where your BPT 3.5 isolation transformer unit will not pass DC on the mains from the primary winding to the secondary winding it cannot block odd harmonics from the primary to the secondary.

You need to first isolate the things in your home that may be causing the problem.

Quickest way to do so is turn off every branch circuit breaker at the electrical panel except the 20 amp dedicated circuit feeding your audio equipment.
****Caution**** If the electrical panel is a bulldog or ITE pushmatic panel where you push in to turn off the breaker and then push it again to reset do not perform this test. Pushmatic breakers are notorious for not being able to reset.

For what it's worth most odd harmonic problems are caused by electronic devices within the home. Anything with a microprocessor such as a refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher, washing machine, cloth dryer, furnace, ect. Variable freq drive on a furnace can cause big time harmonics back on the mains.

Dimmers are terrible. They can even radiate RF through the air several feet, not to mention on the wiring in the home.

Check this video out.
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCK5W9vlAE0


CFL and LED lights that screw into a regular 120V socket have an electronic transformer that put crap back on the mains. Do you have a lot of them in your home?

The list just goes on and on. But many people have these device in their homes and are not experiencing the problems you are.

Sorry for the detour, back to the test.....
Plug in just one piece of audio equipment directly into the wall receptacle outlet and check for the louder than normal hum from the power transformer of the piece of equipment. Best to pick one of the piece's of equipment you took down to the local hifi shop.

If no abnormal hum, start to turn on one breaker in the electrical panel at a time. Check the piece of audio equipment each time after a breaker has been turned back on. Continue until you find the circuit that is feeding the culprit causing the problem. Next check the loads that are connected to that circuit. Isolate the problem.

IF, with all the breakers turned off you still have the louder than normal hum go outside and look up at the utility transformer that is feeding your house. You should be able to follow the secondary side wires of the transformer and see what others houses are fed by the same transformer.

Are they just houses? Any small commercial or garage businesses? Are you fairly close to any commercial or industrial facilities?

If just houses, no businesses, do you know any of the neighbors that are fed from the same utility transformer as your house? If so see if they will let you plug the piece of audio equipment in a wall outlet in their home. Check for any abnormal Hum? No abnormal hum? If no abnormal hum your problem is somewhere after the power leaves the transformer and your house.

If you take the time to do the tests I outlined, post back your findings.

Here is some stuff I found searching the Net. You will have to copy and paste. For some reason the Agon [url] xyz [/url] thingy wouldn't work right.
.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul03/articles/mainsproblems.asp

http://powerelectronics.com/site-files/powerelectronics.com/files/archive/powerelectronics.com/mag/410pet20.pdf

http://www.psihq.com/iread/harmonic.htm

Jim

Great information as always,

Link 1

Link2

Link3

Good Listening

Peter

I posting in this thread to save it for myself... Great info here so far. Thank you.

Did the original poster’s issue ever get solved? I’ve been fighting humming preamp transformers since I’ve moved into my current house and have posted here and other places. I’ve had 3 separate preamps and all hummed. I’ve tried a lot of things attempting to troubleshoot:

1. Only having my dedicated line breaker on with all of the others off (current preamp still hums, does not at a local electronics shop).
2. Replacing my current preamp’s power supply with another one that was cosmetically challenged but hummed less (hum has gotten worse over time, will check tightness of power supply mounts when I integrate the PS Audio Power Plant in to my system).
3. A Humbuster previously and an Emotiva CMX-2 now, neither eliminated the hum, the humbuster seemed to hurt dynamics and the CMX-2 seems to be doing better with the hum and persisting dynamics, plus the minor power filtering might be helping with my multiple dimmers RFI.
4. I’m getting a PS Audio Power Plant Premier on Friday to try out. Might try with the CMX-2 in front of the Power Plant.
5. I should have those measurements done on my panel where the mains come in also.  I need to find a good and experienced electrician that I can trust.  I had one but he retired.

The hum isn’t horrible but would sure like to get ride of it. My neighborhood’s substation is powered by very high voltage lines running to eastern WA and I suspect they are the culprit. Hopefully the Power Plant with maybe the CMX-2 in font of it fixes things...