Help with hiss
Hello Friends,
My speakers have developed an audible hiss that I am trying to chase down. The hiss can be heard from across the room and while music is being played. Sometimes, the hiss is pulsating and sometimes constant. It occurs at all hours, perhaps less so in the early morning. Sometimes there is no hiss at all and everything is silent. It is an intermittent issue that is unpredictable.
My speakers are powered by mono block amplifiers. Both speakers exhibit the exact same behavior. The monos are plugged directly into the wall outlet. I also plugged them into a PS Audio AV Power Center with no relief. I changed power cords with no relief. No other piece of gear is on, although all are plugged in and some are in standby. I turned one mono off of course stopping the hiss in that speaker. The other continued to hiss. In reverse, same result.
This is not a “hum” (like from a ground loop). It is the same hiss that you can hear with your ear next to the tweeter but much louder.
I’m happy to answer any questions at all to help me resolve this. Thank you in advance.
Speakers do not hiss. Amps, preamps and source components do. Especially tubed ones. Disconnect your preamp from your amp and turn the amp on. If you still hear hiss thru your speakers. your amp is the culprit. If the hiss stops, power it all down, connect your preamp to amp but don’t connect sources to preamp. Turn on the preamp, then amp. If it hisses now, it’s your preamp. Repeat this for each link in the signal chain. |
Also, you stated the hiss is constant no change in hiss loudness with volume variations, that says it’s the amp. If the source for the hiss was upstream, the amplifier would amplify it, as it does with any incoming signal. So your amplifier is most likely the culprit unless your speakers work like antennas and pick up static from some unknown source which is extremely unlikely. |
+1 @audphile1 Also, with the amp off and interconnects unplugged, insert RCA shorting plugs so that no signal is possible as an input. Turn amps on. Hiss OR no hiss its the amps. Regards, barts
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@campoly Similar story. These monos started life as Stratos and later upgraded to Kismet status. I think. I brought them to Klaus and said “do something”. He did. They sound great. @boxcarman Thank you for that. I do have a couple of pieces I could swap out and I had thought of that. But I don’t have another pair of monos and I have a passive preamp. So, not apples to apples. @ditusa These were upgraded to Kismet status in August of 2021, same time as my Candela preamp was made. @audphile1 I agree that the hiss is a symptom of a problem and not a problem with the speaker. I will do a systematic elimination of components as you (and others) have suggested. I appreciate it. I also can’t eliminate a power problem as they are monoblock amps exhibiting identical behavior. The amps themselves are silent (no buzzing, humming, hissing) coming from the amps. I agree that the most likely suspect at this point is something with the amps, as no other component is on. Some are in standby (Oppo BDP 105D), but I shut everything down if I’m not playing music (except the amps). Thank you so much for your valuable input! @barts Thanks for that! An easy thing to overlook! @rockadanny Thanks! I’m humbled. If there were a problem with, say, my CD player but the player wasn’t on could it still cause the symptoms I’m suffering? Or any other component, for that matter? I might suspect a capacitor in the crossover (good call), but it’s doing it in both speakers identically. I’m really not leaning towards the speaker(s) being the culprit, just a victim of whatever the real problem is.
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