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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
hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5
1,832 posts
 
@gearheadmac Had the same problem many years ago. Had a letter published in Stereophile at the time about the solution described below.

The solution was opening up the breaker box and tightening down ALL of the ground wires for each circuit. Some of the ground wire screws had barely been tightened at all. You MUST be careful doing this and you should turn off the main breaker before proceeding. If you do have the main breaker off, tighten ALL connections. It's easy to do.

BTW... I would recommend this procedure to all A’Goners who have not done so. It was an absolute solution to the noise issue. Your sound will improve in every way.

I would love to hear how this works out for you. All the best!
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cleeds
6,011 posts
 
hifiman5
The solution was opening up the breaker box and tightening down ALL of the ground wires for each circuit. Some of the ground wire screws had barely been tightened at all. You MUST be careful doing this and you should turn off the main breaker before proceeding ...
Excellent advice. I would add only that the electrical connections throughout the house should be similarly tight, including the hot and neutral connections not only in the service panels, but in every electrical box and on every device connected within the boxes. If terminations to your devices use the push-in connectors, they should be disconnected and firmly attached to screw-on terminals instead. A compromised connection anywhere can send noise throughout.

If you're uncertain how to do this work safely, it's best to hire an electrician.
hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5
1,832 posts
 
@cleeds    Good point about checking all of the outlets in the home.  I had that done by an electrician in 1997 after our house suffered a direct lightning strike.  Interestingly, he found a couple outlets that were wired incorrectly. Amazing how lightning causes damage throughout the house in a random manner.  Example:  In a second floor hallway ceiling light fixture that accepts three candelabra base bulbs, two bulb inputs were fine, one was fried.
sbrownnw
709 posts
 
I've fought DC transformer hum since I've moved into my house 7 years ago with 3 different preamps and multiple conditioners / filters. The only one that I found to help the DC situation without killing system dynamics is the Emotiva CMX-2 DC Blocker and Line Filter. Is the right price on Amazon for $100 with free shipping both ways and trial period if you are a Prime member. I use it in front of everything excep my amp which is plugged into the wall Porter Port directly. I use the wiremold power strip L10320 downstream of the CMX-2 but they are more expensive now vs when I got them. I should make sure all my grounds are tight in my mains box also. I know everything is tight coming into the mains box as the electrician checked those when he installed my Environmental Potentials EP-2050. Check my system page for more details. 
dorkwad
548 posts
 
Brian,
    This is very simple and seems stupid in light of all the technically great suggestions, BUT...I had an Edge amp and never got any noise (hum) in my system.  Bought a nice Nuforce Ref 9 V3 SE mono pair and all of a sudden I had a hum in my system like you described.  I had an extra Maestro outlet sitting around and I ran a line to it from my panel.  Plugged the amps into it and no more hum.  My house is about 12 years old.  I've since installed Maestros to replace the needed outlets near my equipment.  Been a year and a half since and still all is fine.
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