It’s normal no effort needed.
Speaker static/hiss?
I’m noticing a static/hissing sound from my speakers on all inputs and when the volume is all the way down. You really have to put your ears right up on the tweeter to even hear it. It’s not noticeable at all when the volume is tuned up just about 5-10%.
But I’d like to see if this is something I can rid myself of.
‘’I’ve got two dedicated 20amp outlets with two Audioquest 20amp outlets. All of the source gear is plugged into a Furman SPR-20.
Not sure what else I could do.
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- 16 posts total
It’s caused by suboptimal gain structure. You have way too much active gain after the volume control (this means your combined preamp and amplifier circuitry - which generates higher noise floor per extra dB of gain even if signal-to-noise remains the same), relative to your needs determined by listening level and speaker sensitivity. I have this situation myself, with very sensitive 96dB / 2.83V Tannoys. I easily notice the signal-to-noise ratio differences between preamps. I need to keep the preamp gain below 14dB, and even at that level the preamp’s signal-to-noise ratio has to be VERY high to avoid an audible "hisssssss" at volume = 0. The ARC Reference 6 has a stellar signal-to-noise. VAC Master also excellent. Some other preamps...are not so great. Often inserting signal attenuators (e.g. Harrison Labs) to the tube of ~ 10dB is recommended to push the noise floor down while utilizing more gain from your circuitry. However, if you have the Parasound amps, as @russ69 mentioned - turning down the gain pots should be the best solution here. |
Your speakers have slightly higher than average sensitivity. A21+ is a good amp that looks like a reasonable pairing here. That Marantz though - a 13.2 channel preamp? Holy cow! That thing is so chock full of multi-channel features they don’t even bother to list a gain spec. But that would be the most suspect component here. Maybe it has a variable or selectable gain feature you could play with? But really, the easiest solution should be to lower the gain pots on your A21+ until you reach a good balance. You're lucky to have an amp with that feature - most modern hifi amps don't (some of us get antsy about extra potentiometers in the signal path - same with balance controls). What do you currently have those adjusted to? Are they at max gain? |
- 16 posts total