There is a very faint buzz coming from speakers with amp on, but with no music stream playing. Can only be heard with ear right up to drivers. No buzz with amp off or muted. Decent amp & cabling. Is this faint buzz likely still there when music is playing? Numerous noise reduction devices deployed including dedicated circuit, robust grounding, balanced power transformer, various filters. Thoughts?
Faint Buzz from Speakers
- Thread starter MacF
- Start date
Without more details of your system (even though we can see some of your photos from previous posts), it's very hard to say what's going on.
First thing is if the amp is on but all the inputs to the amps are unplugged, can you still hear the buzz?
If so, it's probably because the amp has too high gain and the speakers has too high a sensitivity so you're hearing very low levels of noise being amplified. Probably nothing you can do without a new amp or a new pair of speakers.
But my gut feeling is as you are suggesting, that you're having a ground noise issue somewhere.
Dedicated circuit helps only if you have everything plugged into the same circuit. If you have one item in your stereo on a totally different circuit than the dedicated circuit, that component could have a significant ground differential compared to the rest of your system and that could generate the low level buzz.
Balanced power transformers can cause the same problem. If most of your system is plugged into the transformer but some are not, the components that are not can also have a significant ground differential compared to the components plugged into the balanced power transformers causing the low level buzz.
Ironically, if you plug every component into the same power bar, that would be the best way to reduce ground potential amongst components. But yes, it could potentially negate some of the benefits you get from the balanced power transformers. You could plug everything into a long power bar and then plug the power bar into the transformer.
Your system looks complicated based on the photo. It might be challenging to troubleshoot as there are many potentials for ground loops and subtle noise within them.
Thanks to all who’ve chimed in about the buzz in both speakers. Perhaps it does sound more like white noise than a buzz. No, it is not audible from my listening position 8 ft away. In fact, it is so faint you have to place your ear right up against the cone to hear it. I don’t know which is more annoying, the noise itself or the fact that I’ve been unable to track it down. I’ll be sure to try your suggestions this weekend when I have the time.
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