Literally turned my amp on today, heard the hum and it was enough for me to think I should o something about this. Looked up a few videos on KZfaq and here 20 mins later is one from Paul on the same subject. The Universe is really weird sometimes.

I've got tinnitus, there's nothing that gets rid of this hum

Paul… wonderful info. Great to have you helping..

Absolutely brilliant advice....👍🏽

Thank you so much for talking about the sources!! I was losing my mind thinking my receiver wasn’t working but turns out it was just comcasts crappy cable box deciding to change grounds or otherwise inject my system with a hum. Cheers!

I agree with Paul here on everything except the outlet not being the issue. I had a "buzz" coming from the tweeters on my LR mains, I had tried everything suggested here and some other ideas I had read about. I had determined the buzz was amplified by some of the programmable light switches in my house, if the lights were on, the buzz got louder and could only be heard if my XLR cables were connected to the amp. Very long story short (months of troubleshooting lol), it wasn't until I ran an isolated ground receptacle that I was able to eliminate the noise from the tweeters. The outlet was from PSAudio, powerport I think it was called. Just something else to consider as you are troubleshooting. Good luck

Paul. as always, great information. Only true experinence shines through!! You may have Snow On The Roof, but it's that Snow that Melts into Knowledge. As an attestment to the Source creating HUM info, a quick personal Stereo story: NAD 1300 Preamp, NAD 2600 AMP, Dual 5000 CS TT and a pair of KEF 104/2 Tower speakers all purchased in 1987. Played beautifully then and Still Today. A few years ago after not playing my Vinyl LPs for awhile, I heard a very loud HUM. Checked and saw that from moving the cabinet, the Ground wire form the TT was disconnectd to the NAD Preamp. That helped initially, but after playing for awhile - it returned. I then gounded the TT ground wire to the electrical outlet - no improvement. Brought the NAD to a repair shop. he replaces and show me , burnt out diodes, a number of them. After bringing it home, after playing for awhile - TT only- the HUM returns. Return it the repair shop, where he keeps it for a week running constantly hooked up to TT he had in the shop. Replaced a few more burned out diodes, as he shows me the old parts. Bring it home and the same thing. I start fooling with all the Connectiions.....Bingo a bad RCA cable connection form the Dual TT to the input on the NAD Preamp. Googelm it, and it turns out the RCA cable is fixed and attached direcly form the Tonearm of the Dual and it's a common problem !! I didn't replace the RCA cable,but purchased an RCA extender (2 female and 2 male connections), fastened the new cable securely to the existing RCA cable form the TT and attchaed to the NAD - the HUM is gone. It was simply a faulty RCA cable attachment Plug on the TT. It is a Process of elimination as Paul describes. In the midst of this, a curious thing is that I purchased a separate NAD P4 Phone Preamp, and when attaching the TT RCA cables to that Phono Premap, there was no HUM. It could be that the faulty RCA cable did actually contribute to burning some diodes. BTW, the Audio repair shop was terrific in that he only charged me $100 with 2 Bring Backs !!

Love seeing Mr. Meseeks in the shop!

This is a good one because if u step back for a minute and just think how much money is spent on trying to eliminate this unimportant little noise

Hello Paul, thank you for taking the time to address this HORRIBLE situation !! So START from SCRATCH..........GOT IT !! Just kidding ;)

Important distinction: nothing connected including the antenna that is the cables on either end. Induced voltage in cables is a possible source for hum. They can pickup emi from other air gapped and unrelated devices by acting as an antenna.

Process of elimination always works so this video is like practically a common sense solution that we always overlook.👍

If your amp hums, it forgot the words.

haha "I doubt that's coming thru your tweeter, but we'll talk about that later."

The only time you should hear either hum or buzz is at very high volume, more specifically from your phono preamp. My system is dead silent except when I experiment and turn the volume on my phono preamp above 95 DB. I think that’s pretty damn good.

Great explanation... but i still love hear little hiss in my system, like play cassette in pass ;)

This is a perfectly timed video for me. I currently have a thread going on the ps audio forum. I’m trying to track down a hum. This helps, and I will look up the other info on the site that Paul referenced!

Thank you so much, simple clear solid advice!

I had hum in a subwoofer, turned out to be a dimmer switch on the same circuit, goodbye dimmer switch

Yes, you can hear noise of some sort if you listen Right At The Speaker, but that doesn't matter because it isn't how you listen to music. If you can't hear the same sound from your normal listening position, Forget About It.

Oh lord. There are a few different reasons you can have hum or buzz, not just from equipment it self. Yes sometimes equipment or tubes can introduce hum, but the bigger issue is ground loops. This is caused by two or more components plugged into different phases of a AC line and sharing a common ground. All most all homes have 220v line coming into your main panel and then is split on each side of the panel providing 115 v to each side. The thing is each side of the 115v side are 180 degrees out of phase with one another. Soooo if you have two or more components plugged into different phases and sharing a common ground you will get a ground loop. So make sure that all components are plugged into the same phase or on low voltages sources I suggest lifting grounds. I have lifted grounds all the time and never heard of an issue, but if your uncomfortable with that then just make sure they are all on the same phase. The other things that can cause hum or buzz is dimmer switches, refrigerators or other appliances on the same circuit.

"Stop, don't even talk to me." oh damn, Paul mad 😂

the good news is that all hums and buzzes can be *fixed* in the analog domain 100% of the time and long as the equipment isnt broken. there is always hope

I live in an apartment that has no grounding. My system is also not grounded. I only use a line filter on the amps. The power cable runs alongside the audio cables, but these cables are shielded. Even so, the speakers are absolutely silent at any volume.

What about having all the separate components of a system at the same GROUND Reference? Run a wire if necessary?

Thank you for the great advice! As always! In my experience, a common source of noise is having a Wi-Fi Router connected in the same or adjacent power outlet on the wall, even if you are using a voltage regulator; just move the router to a different outlet on a different wall, in my personal experience it doesn’t have to be on a different circuit breaker. I used to have a Furman PST 8D (Advanced Level Power Conditioning) that could handle the noise but it stopped working after less than a year, now I use “quality voltage regulators” from reputable brands with my stereo systems. Also voltage regulators for medical equipment are better than the ones for office or regular computer use; and they are not as expensive as audiophile gear.

The transformer in my PS15 hums wildly.

I disconnected the ground wire to the chassis inside my amp, cleaned the surfaces then reconnected the wire. I also soldered the nut and lug to the chassis. The hum totally disappeared.

I currently live in an appartment that has no grounded wall sockets. Oh the sweet hum. Doesnt matter because it's all about the music (L)

I've noticed that all amplifiers regardless of its purpose or power source produce some level of white noise if you look hard enough. If it has a volume control turn it all the way up, you will hear something.

I have lived in Vietnam for 10 years. One of the surprising things about being here is that the residential power system is only two wires. No grounding for the house. I built a home here 5 years ago and added grounding. Not sure it helps but it should not hurt either. I have never had hum in Vietnam either renting our in my new residence.

I've got this issue. Interestingly, only noise when rcas connected. Even if they are connected to the amp, and not to the preamp. Almost like they are an antenna. Tried multiple rcas with same result. Tried the buzz x device as well. Nothing works.

After using the process of elimination the problem is my turntable transformer. The turntable has on off switch which doesn't effect the signal from the needle or the external phono amp. The volume on the power amp and phono amp can be turned all the way up with no sound at all but when tuning on the turntable then the hum (60hz) is very loud and causes feedback in needle but only at near max volumes which is never used. The humming gets louder as the tone arm is moved closer to the center near the motor or transformer, the corner where the belt for turntable is attached. This turntable was around one or two hundred dollars on Amazon and must have poorly insulated transformer, and also the turntable has no ground terminal. The cartridge is a moving coil "Grado" cartridge. Can the transformer be fixed or grounded somehow? Can the transformer be shielded so not to be so noisy?

60hz hum is usually caused by ground loop (simply to say there is two or more ground paths coming into the same device). Lets say you powering your amp and preamp with same 24V AC power supplly. So you connect +24 and ground (-) to preamp and amp then you connect an amp and a preamp with an aux cable together so that aux cable (3 wires) shares ground between an amp and a preamp (L-GND-R), so this becomes a loop as ground (-) comes from power supply to a preamp then into an amp through an aux cable and returns from an amp into a power supply. Here comes a voltage difference because of different resistance between the two paths witch causes hum. To solve that problem you should try to: 1) Remove unneeded ground paths. 2) Ground all devices to one point (star-ground) 3) Use shields 4) Use ground isolating transformers 5) Connect all your audio equipment to same AC socket (audio source too)

Great video thanks

My Klipsch THX ULTRAII external Sub amp is dying I believe. It sometimes makes a Very Loud sqealing sound through both Subs. If I cycle power on it I get No output & No spealing. Cycle power again and output & loud squealing comes back. Also the same thing sometimes occurs when I unplug & replug the sub out cable from the reciever. I dont have another reciever to test it with but Ive tried several sub cables w/ the same result. Wish I had experience fixing amps, too broke to send it in for repair at the moment. btw it just started doing this after years of being in the same room w/ the same equipment. Any Thoughts?

A long time in the business! "You can't be around the stable very long before you get some on your shoes."

I have 2 tannoy studio monitors connected to my small mixer, to my RME Fireface 400 soundcard which is connected by firewire to my pc. The power to the computer was suddenly interrupted even though connected to a battery backup. (Landlord has bad insulation and does his own "work".) Now I can't turn the left speaker on (5 inch woofers) without a very, very loud hum (woofer slamming at about 120 hz or so. I turned off the mixer, disconnected the audio - and also tried switching from one power outlet to the other, nothing has worked. The volume doesn't change even when the volume is off and it's not connected to any audio source. (If I leave the audio connected to the audio source and disconnect the power to the speaker it stops. ) Something like this happened to me with a half rack digital guitar amp once - the resonance (or whatever) seemed to have been coming from the internals - like some kind of capacitance build up and discharging - I left the unit off for several hours and it resolved. It's been an hour & he hum may have reduced in volume, but not much. Any ideas?

what if the hum isn't coming through the speakers, but is originating from a toroidal transformer inside a piece of equipment. naim audio puts out equipment that routinely does this

Like Paul I just wouldn't worry about inaudible (from the listening position) hum. Far more important in any Audio system is avoiding Ho-Hum

Have you tried turning it off and back on again.

I have a doozie. My 4 channel Linn C4200 is 2 x 2 channel boards in a box (4 channels total). If i use one channel from each board i get a slight hum. If i use both channels on the same board no hum no matter which board I use. Yes tried it with only the pre amp connected (in fact 2 different pre's and even without the pre plugged in to the mains (thinking ground loop) and it still hums. Right now as I only use single wire I just use one board so no hum but still bugs me.

Hi picked up a pyle blue tooth amp so i can use my phone and computer .when my computer is connected i hear a buzz sound when disconnected its gone.any fix for this

Hi. I’ve followed your instructions and hum appeared when I connected my pre amp to the power amp with two different interconnects between pre and power amp. What’s your advice please. Thanks.

Thanks!

i have a similar problem, system so revealing it picks up noise.....static? EMI? It also picks up hum from another unit but that depends if the AC is on. No idea how to diagnose what in the pre-amp is picking up the noise, everyone just says its a design flaw and to accept it.

lol *follow the frickin instuctions to the letter...*... gold.

Ground loop?

I had a buzz/hum in my P12 for so long it happened to be caused by a table lamp on a seperate circuit. Does that mean noise is getting back in by the common ground?

Maybe I'm a little sensitive to unwanted background noise! But it's taken me years of trial and error to get rid of all my noise (noise floor) or should I say cable interference noise. From my listening position, I don't pick up on any noise anymore. Just to make it clear. Nothing to do with grounding / distortion or any kind hiss or buzz. What I'm referring to is the sound of the room! In fact, I would imagine the vast majority of HT owners are probably not even aware of the faint background signal noise, and that's ok. And there are probably a few who are aware of it, and yet it doesn't bother them, and that's ok too. But for me, getting rid of the background signal noise has been a journey within itself. After all, it's not as if one can pinpoint where the noise is coming from. It's almost as if there's a faint electrical current sound buzzing around the room. (Poor description) Even after I auditioned three separate mid-priced AVR's, the same unwanted noise was still present. It was only after I changed my cables for a third time. My noise floor came down to such a level, my sensitivities we're finally satisfied. I'm running an arcam avr20 with a couple of matching high-performance 4 channel power amps (front stage/Atmos) which are driving my Sonus Faber speakers in a 5.2.4 configuration, which also includes a stereo pair of Rel subwoofers for my 4 × 3.5m (13 × 11.5ft) livingroom. I have to say it was only when I purchased quality shielded speaker & RCA cables. The room became exceptionally quiet! My room is now so quiet their are occasions without opening my eyes, I'm actually unable to differentiate whether the system is switched off or if it's switched on. The room is really that quiet. If one is looking to get rid of that so-called ambient sound of the room. IMO, shielded cables are the only way to go. And btw they don't necessarily have to be expensive. Bear in mind this is coming from someone who's changed his setup and cables multiple times. It was annoying at times, but hey, isn't that part of the journey 😁

Octave records… BUT HOW CAN IT BE PLAYED ON MY HOME STEREO??? My streamer is a Sony HAP-Z1ES going into Krell preamplifier, will your highest dsd play on my system?

My subwoofer (connected by LFE rca) used to hum like crazy. When I disconnected wired ethernet to my "system" and went full wifi, it largely went away.

Hi Paul. Thanks for this. Actually, I have a hum coming from my Pro Ject RPM4 turntable. I’m using Audioquest cables on my system to reduce noise (the phono cable is a Yosemite 72v DBS and the hum persists… Any ideas? Should I take my turntable to the “doctor”?

U will never have a completly silent set-up. If u turn that volume max Up, u will always hear some "noise". No matter how much ground, cable lay out and so forth. It is the nature of current and electricity. I have never heard a total silent set-up, when u do that "test". Don't get me wrong, me myself have spend a good amount of securing ground, with a Gigawatt PF-2, with 6 sockets. It's a power filter. I have decent cables, like from Chord, Audioquest and Lavardin for my Lavardin amps. So iv'e tried many things, thought i could remove ALL noise, but i don't think it's possible and one should focus on the music 🎧 I do now ✌️ Also keep in mind that, there is a big different between hum and hiss, and other terms used in this category. Put your best track on, turn the volume up for pleasent listening, in that favorit listening chair of yours 😊 🥁🎚️🎧 ✌️❤️🇩🇰

I’ve found that there is no such thing as a “perfectly silent” system as far as hum and hiss is concerned. The only thing that can be done is to keep them at bay when listening from your seat.

Ok I have hum threw my center, I have 3 separate breakers. I have a hum coming there without my speaker even not connected to any amplifier!! Center is right under my 83 lg oled.

More likely a ground wire has come loose somewhere or some unit needs grounding.

Hi Paul, I’m a subscriber. My class A amp, (adcom gfa5802) just recently developed a slight buzzing hum on the left channel. Do you think the filter capacitors for the left channel are bad? I checked the DC voltage at the speaker terminals and they’re at 0.025V, so I think the coupling capacitors are fine. Or do you think it’s something else? Thanks in advance.

Haha 😂 “Well, did ya disconnect the sources? Stop! Don’t even talk to me…” - Paul McGowan 2022

What happened with the tweeter making hum? Well, one thing about hum at 50 or 60Hz is that it’s hard to hear where it comes from as audio at such frequency really can’t easily be located by hearing. Usually it comes from a woofer or subwoofer.

Exactly, what I did. Disconnect everything ! Now amp and speakers only power up NO HUM! Proceeded to add the dbx 2X15 EQ and then the 60 Hz came in, stopping there to find out why the EQ has hum.

Fixing hum? Easy. Get pro audio gear with XLR and ground loop switch as modern hifi should have too at this point and be done with it.

Ha, "follow the frickin' instructions."

In Tweeter its switching power supply

Finding and fixing humbug.

The letter writer doesn’t say the hum is coming from the tweeter, he says he hears the hum when his ear is NEAR the tweeter. If PS Audio’s reading comprehension is this poor what does that mean about listening and engineering skills?

I had a hum on my system recently, took pre-amp and power amp for a service, and even a small mod on the power supply to the pre-amp. Also had the interconnects re-terminated with special solder. Turned out to be RCA's to the two subs on the second line out of the pre-amp, as soon as I disconnected these RCA'a it went quiet again. Did not help to just switch the subs off. So now no subs till I figure something out.

Hummm.. I just use good old batteries. No humming. Well only humming birds in the speakers humming now. Hmmm... Class d 🤷‍♂️

Look, I have fixed this problem that was plaguing my system bad. I discovered by eliminating the earth ground on all my cables, by modding my cable's the hum and hiss has COMPLETELY disappeared. I simply opened up the ends of the cable plugs and added the earth ground wire to the live hot on BOTH ENDS!!! (adding AWG to the live wire) and i have never since had any issues with hum or any kind of noise. There are 1800 watt heaters putting out red hot heat that dont even have an earth ground so why would a stereo system putting out far less amps and watts have them at all? They are not necessary. Some foks wont be able to open the cable ends, this is best done on homemade aftermarket cables . This method is virtually 100% guaranteed to eliminate all noise in your system, i have never had any issues after this mod and ive been doing this for the last 15 or more years.

this vid is all about my new 300's. small hum. probably caused by my speaker cables. i didnt have any interconnect connected before i switched on. its looking like ive crossed the terminal's..! just got my email from kev to try new fuses. looks like my brand new 300 may be going away for fixing..! 1 very sad person here..

Running two subs one hums amp is few months old

This video should be named "How to find hum" not "how to fix hum". So, yeah I know exactly where my hum is coming from, it's the cables from the turntable to the phono stage. I've tried five different cable and ground combinations so far and the hum always returns the second I plug in to the phono stage. I know there is a cable that will work, I've just not found it yet.

I am getting my Humm from satellite coax

I think Paul does an excellent job here trouble shooting sources of "Hum". And I agree with him that it can be a difficult thing to define and mitigate. Definition of "Hum": Generally defines a 60Hz low level presentation of sound at the speakers. The amount of Hum may, or may not, increase or decrease with volume level setting. Sources can be found in power supplies, failing circuits like old power supply caps. "Hum" many times is caused by an AC power feed "Ground Loop": Ground loop (electricity) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_loop_(electricity) These can be especially difficult to find and remedy. If you've gotten this far: I share a source of HUM that was very difficult for me to find and resolve. The Hum only came when the arm/cartridge of the turntable was placed on the record surface. Lift the arm off the record surface the hum stopped. Put it back on and the hum returned. The turntable was well insulated for mechanical vibrations and the floor was a cement slab. Ultimately I found that it was a mechanical vibration created by a nearby electric power company power transformer. That was at least 50 meters away. But if you stood next to it you could clearly hear that it was vibrating and putting 60Hz mechanical vibrations into everything around it. Even more exotic turntable isolation minimized the problem. But didn't fully get rid of it.

my diy class-B amp hums like a fridge...

bad audio cable(s) is my guess.

A useful , though costly , addition is to plug every piece of gear into a balanced AC power supply . Eliminates power supply hum , rejects common mode noise & dramatically lowers the noise floor . It is CRUCIAL to follow instructions that no piece of gear be plugged into any other source of power . No power "conditioner" will do what a BPS does .. I bought Equitech Q 1.5

We call a bumblebee in german Hummel… Do you have a Hummel in your system ?

Hum, yeah. Sometimes you just end up with two bits of gear that just don't like being together, both fine In your system without the other, but when brought together, nothing but trouble. Quite often involving how they are earthed. Connecting some laptop's (with power brick attached) to a system can induce so much hash it's not funny, even connecting them to supposedly pro mixing desks brings in heaps of trouble. Usually there being a truck-load of common mode crud on the outputs. Tell the owner, they look perplexed, they connect their headphones, nothing, it must be your 100K sound system.

I replace my SS pre amp with a tube pre amp fed by a SS amp and immediately got the “humming blues” After going thru the process described in this video I determined it was the tube pre amp. I replaced the RCA interconnect cables with a budget pair of XLR cables and the hum disappeared! So this begs the question - was the issue a GROUND fault or a MY fault ? 😝

Follow the fricken instructions guys lol

The logic of troubleshooting escapes some people. In the automotive world, some mechanics will "fire the parts cannon" at a problem that involves a corroded connection.

Going through a bunch of tests, I actually found the hum was coming from the HDMI between my projector and the rest of the system. And following that, I found the sound is coming from the ground in my house. Pulled out the third prong on the power plug of my projector, and the hum was gone when I put the HDMI back in.

Ppl get so lost so easily 😂 Does it sound good!? - yes - then leave it alone & enjoy it. Delete the app that’s using crappy iPhone mic lol

Fixing hum is easy, learn the words. 😄😄

It hums cause it doesn't know the words.

Cut the ground pin on the power amp.

"Follow instructions" - Paul, c'mon, you need to be more realistic.

can someone help me PLEASE? HUM/HiSS problem when I pull out speaker cable (3.5mm to 2Rca) from speaker hum disappears. when connect to pc and playing any kind of music, hum disappears BUT when I stop the music after 5 seconds, hum instantly comes back. when I volume up, hum increases. I have been searching for a way to fix it for weeks. For dear God's sake someone help

60hz out of the tweeter…😂 I think it must be caused a phase problem…🫣👍