excessive hum-buzz in speakers

Humm is frequently caused by ground loops. This can happen in almost any system. There are a few ways to find out. My recommendation would be to unplug everything except your amps (this includes interconnects and power cords). If the humm continues with only the amp connected to the speakers, you can be pretty sure you have an amp problem and it needs repair. If not, then start by plugging in the pre-amp, connect the interconnects and listen. If there is still no humm move on the CD player. Once the humm appears this component is likely to have created ground loop between another component. You can use a cheater plug to lift the ground and see if this stops the problem. Since using cheater plugs is hardly advisable long term there are a few other things that sometimes help, which are as simple as changing where you plug the component in. In some cases I have found no other way to eliminate ground loop hums other than lifting the ground.

Abstracts response is thoughtful, try all his suggestions first. I had the same problem but caused by my cable T.V. antenna wire. I got a little groung-breaking gizmo from my dealer to put in line that made it all better. I am told this same gizmo is available at radio shack for about $3.00. (This explains why my dealer just gave it to me). Could be your problem.

I usually find that a cheater plug on the preamp (and/or antijitter box) usually does the trick unless it's one of the older Sunfires. The original Sunfires had buzzing problems and there is a fix for it. If you plug just the amp in (and speakers, of course) and still get the buzz, give Sunfire a call; they should be able to fix it for around $165.

I had a similar problem, couldn't get the damned buzzing to stop. It was driving me crazy! I switched from a 25' run of single-ended interconnect (preamp to amp) to a 25' run of Goertz Micropurl copper balanced interconnect The buzzing went away! Completely. Thank goodness, it was beyond irritating. From what I can tell, my single ended cable was picking up all kinds of garbage, acting like a very effective antenna for the nasties. Food for thought at any rate. Jeff