SL-3 Hummmmm :-(

[VinylSound]

Been a long time since I visited here, but I know you can will help out of you can!

One of my SL-3s hums. I have eliminated the monoblock as the problem, the preamp as the problem, the snaking of the power cord to the unit as the problem, the speaker cable as the problem, even the tubes as the problem. The only thing left that I can imagine is the speaker itself!

Any reason why this could be so or how to remedy it? It occurs after the power amps are nearing full power. It is ruining the blackness-experience for me ! (LOL)

Could the speaker itself somehow short out? Musically, it seems fine.

Thanks to one and all!

Doug

 

[Cherian]

You may want to look at a Ground loop as a cause of the Hummm. I had this happen to me when I hooked up my CJ Premier 140 amp for the first tme into my system. The amp and the LFE cable to my Depth was causing a ground loop. To fix this I had to remove the LFE RCA from my pre-amp to the depth sub.

Good luck.

 

[VinylSound]

solution

turns out it was the IC from pre->amp

 

[roberto]

Been a long time since I visited here, but I know you can will help out of you can!

One of my SL-3s hums. I have eliminated the monoblock as the problem, the preamp as the problem, the snaking of the power cord to the unit as the problem, the speaker cable as the problem, even the tubes as the problem. The only thing left that I can imagine is the speaker itself!

Any reason why this could be so or how to remedy it? It occurs after the power amps are nearing full power. It is ruining the blackness-experience for me ! (LOL)

Could the speaker itself somehow short out? Musically, it seems fine.

Thanks to one and all!

Doug

Hola...if only one speaker is causing the hum, then it is not a ground loop problem. To track it better, turn the power amplifier off, and disconnect the input cables...just leave connected to the amplifier the speaker cables. Turn the amplifier on and listen if you have the hum. If you do, then swap the speaker cables, left to right. If the speaker with hum is the other, then the amplifier's channel is humming. The speakers itself can not hum. There is not way that this happens. If you have the amplifier clean, then you know it is coming from the preamplifier. You have to track from where it is, disconnect all the input cables to the preamp and leave only the output cables to the amplifier...then swap right cable preamplifier output for the left. Remember to do the changes with the amplifier's power off. You do not want any heavy transient to the speakers. Try to do this swapping the cables until you find from where it is coming. Hope this might help to track it better...happy listening,
Roberto.

 

[amey01]

You may want to look at a Ground loop as a cause of the Hummm. I had this happen to me when I hooked up my CJ Premier 140 amp for the first tme into my system. The amp and the LFE cable to my Depth was causing a ground loop. To fix this I had to remove the LFE RCA from my pre-amp to the depth sub.

Good luck.

Can you please explain this further? How did you get singal to the Depth if you had to remove the cable to it? You shouldn't have to disconnect your stereo to get rid of hum.....

 

[MiTT]

I'm not intimately familiar with the Depth, but my REL has independent LFE, Line and Speaker level inputs and I could use all 3 concurrently if I so desired. Perhaps he was using line level inputs from his pre-amp as well as an LFE input from his surround sound processor, in which case I would certaily suspect a ground loop.

 

[Cherian]

Tim is correct.

I was running line level from my CJ Premier 16ls to the Depth and also using to LFE in from my Onkyo receiver. I use the Onkyo and my ML Scenario for HT applications. However once I hooked up the CJ premier 140 I got a very low hum from the bass drivers of the Monoliths. I played around till I disconnected the LFE RCA cable and then it was dead silent.