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

There are many reasons for this...Noise SUX!! I have had some problems myself with noise that lasted for almost a year! Then I finally narrowed it down to my turntables cartridge leads, one had lost some insulation and showed some bare conducter! Prior to this I had my phono pre amp checked out and replaced some tubes in the line stage pre amp. I had all kinds of things going through my head....its maddening. What kind of source are you using? Please describe system better. Please describe this noise better ..is there ever any popping? or other strange sounds? What cables? Power Conditioners Suc too ( thats another subject) I would take that out of the loop until this is fixed. how many outlets are you currently using?  Have you tried to use any cheater plugs temporarily? This can help identify a ground loop problem. 

Sorry to hear of the problems you’re enduring. All is not lost. It sounds possible you have more than one issue. Let’s find out.

Is the home a free standing block house? Or a manufactured home? Manufacturered homes have a weird grounding scheme some times. Local NEC codes too say at times the grounding and neutral bars at the service box have to be wired together. Sounds stupid but it is what Code is in my area.

My only solution was to lift the grounds from the dedicated circuits I had for my audio gear, either within the outlets or with ‘cheater plugs’.

This will as well, be the shortest path if the below steps seem to be too much to do.

Having been an electrician, I know they usually are not inclined to look at anything but what is ‘code’ as you said. Is everything working? No one is getting shocked? Tehn all is just fine in their opinion.

Do you have CATV? It could be introducing a ground loop into your home, even if it is not connected to your audio rig.

It si the most likely suspect for making life hard for audio enthusiasts.

Try these things, ONE at a Time.
Get a crescent wrench or pliers and locate each of the three electrical service grounding rods uncouple their acorns or the device which connects the rod to the #4 bare ground wire.

Additionally, uncouple the CATV grounding clamp which will be on the main service pole usually. Just follow the coax wire off the telephone pole to your service pole and you’ll find it. Its usually a #10 AWG piece of bare solid wire.

Don’t worry. These are just temporary moves. We’re trying to isolate who is the culprit.

Turn off the mains for each breaker box. The 200 and the 100. Briefly. Maybe just a couple three or so mminutes. This is a belt and suspenders move and may not be necessary.

Once the grounds are all lifted, and you’ve waited a few minutes then hit the mains, and re energize the house.

Now having another person is gonna help out tremendously going forward.

Find out which breakers control the power to your audio equipment ONLY.

Turn off ALL of the rest of the breakers where ever possible, barring of course medical gear. At every breaker box.

Fire up the audio rig. Listen. Any issues now?

Have someone Start engaging each breaker one by one. Go slow.

Keep listening.

If all the circuits get turned back on and the issue is not present then its time to return to the grounds for the final part of this hunt.

Beginning with the CATV ground, Recouple each ground one at a time and listen. One of these or more will likely show you where the concern is.

One last item could be that a charger, or appliance in the home or garage is kicking back noise into the wiring system. I had a new dryer installed and it gave me fits. It ran gbut it was causing noticeable issues with my system. It needed to be wired differently. It needed a different four wire plug. Not just the standard 3 wire 30a type.

It could be too some audio gear says to use wires to short XLR inputs if SE inputs are being used. This did not help me with a previous Krell amp I ran SE. again, but using cheater plugs did.

If all of these steps don’t work. Make sure the insureance premiums are paid up and well, , once all the audio gear has been sent to storage and everybody is out of the house, spontaneous combustion remains a mystery of science still today. lol

Very good luck. Let us know what you found out if you please.

Do you mean you are getting a hum through your speakers, or that the equipment is mechanically humming?

Best,

E

Could be DC voltage in your power line, some dimmer also caused problems.