System feedback coming thru speakers.....help

Hi TPG,

To Jdvorak's credit, the process you descrive is exactly what he has done. He has so far determined there is complete silence with the volume on the preamp loud with teh amp on...providing there is no source connected.

So it appears to be the source of the interconnect. So he needs to connect a new source thru the same interconnect and see. If no noise, it is the source. If noise, it could be the interconnects.

Jdvorak? Any news?

wow, you ALL are amazing! thank you for your advice thus far.

UPDATE: Still not solved, but here is what I have done.
i found a grounded outlet in the house near a brand new washer/dryer my landlord recently had installed. pretty sure it's grounded, it has 3 prong.
I ran an extension cord from my strip to that outlet, still just using the amp, pre and 1 source.....still an issue. I changed source components, I also changed interconnects.....still an issue.
If I turn volume all the way off with the CD player playing, the noise goes away......but when I turn volume up, the noise/static/"pops" present. the louder I turn it, the louder the noises get.
My electrician is coming tonight, but I think less and less that it's the power source....although another grounded outlet is needed in this place! :)
could it be the tubes? i have no idea how good/old/hours there are on them. I do know that the !2AU7's are in correct place.....but not certain if they are all good or not.

HI Jdvorak,

i believe you said when you plugged in just the pre and the amp...with no source plugged or connnected...you could turn the preamp volume way up and there was no noise.

Is this correct?

Lloydelee21, correct. nothing. no hum, no nothing.

And when you do plug in either of 2 sources...from either of 2 plug outlets...into any of your preamp inputs...there is hum which gets louder with volume. And the feedback hum is in both speakers...and also in a replacement set of speakers using the same 'problem setup'.

- not amp or speakers,
- probably not grounding which does not vary with volume
- Normally, 'feedback' occurs when you are outputting sound, and there is a microphone picking it up and feeding back into the same system. i assume there is no microphone input in your CJ preamp
- is it the interconnect?
- is it possible there is a problem with preamp...but you cannot tell if there is no source attached because (as you said, if u plug in source, turn volume down, feedback goes away).

Try different preamp, or try to see if you can plug the DVD source directly into your amp temporarily...some DVD players have a built-in internal volume control...usually terrible but it should work.