[skeeb23]

Alright, so I just got the Cayin HA-3A and I love the sound...of music ha! I'm getting terrible hum and buzz. I thought it was from my Bifrost 2/64 USB connection as I get worse buzzing when I move my mouse on my desktop through my headphones. I'm sure that's also part of it.

Last night after hours of researching and reading, I decided to unplug all sources from the amp and just have it plugged in to the Furman Surge Protector that I have. Well, buzz was still there and plenty loud. It's the worst on SE and XLR output and not as bad on 4.4. Makes sense due to the power draw. I even tried another outlet in a different room...again cheap electrical work is obvious.

I know this is not the amp because my Bottlehead Crack exhibited this issue too. My electrical in my house I'm sure is not the greatest. Hell we run a vacuum in another room and sometimes a light in a separate room dims for a sec. House was built in 2019 but these houses go up so fast I'm sure there is no extra quality put into the electrical work........but I digress.

So now I'm trying to decide upon the least costly way of helping my issue. I've bought a better USB b cable for my DAC to hopefully cut out some extra noise from the PC. Do you guys think I need a Transformer Isolator? I've read about those on other posts but it's been a while. I've also seen things like HumX and such that just adapts to the power to the wall.

Follow up to that also: can a transformer isolator be plugged in and then the surge protector to that so I can have my PC and other audio components to it, or is that a no no? I'm sure my PC has the same ground issue which would mean getting a ground fix to the amp may not resolve all the issues.

To be clear, this just happens to my tube amp. Every so often I will notice it on my iHA-6 on the SE connection but never the XLR. Again it's power draw I'm sure.

I'd appreciate any advice!

 

[David A Silva]

As far as a transformer isolator, FWIU a surge suppressor is not needed after the isolator. Transformers do not pass surges by design.

 

[skeeb23]

As far as a transformer isolator, FWIU a surge suppressor is not needed after the isolator. Transformers do not pass surges by design.

Thank you. My reasoning for the surge protector was basically because with the transformer it typically only has 1 plug. So if I plugged a power strip to it I would ideally have a few devices isolated only if that is safe to do.

 

[David A Silva]

Makes sense to me!

 

[skeeb23]

Ok update if someone happens to read this..but I just took the amp downstairs to a different outlet/circuit and plugged it in. I got no humm or hiss at all.

So at least I've narrowed it down to either the room, outlet or interference from my PC (monitor, router or something else). The problem is I need it in that room with my equipment.

I'm wondering if a HumX is what I need. Also it's plugged straight to the wall.. possible that I need to plug it in separately from the power strip? I had it on the Furman with my other amp and DAC. I moved it to my UPS which has just a couple of things...but yeah maybe just on its own though I feel unsafe doing that for a power outage that could blow the amp.

 

[David A Silva]

A UPS should protect your gear from damage during / after an outage - I’ve seen a UPS sacked during a storm outage, connected gear was ok.
Either a balanced transformer, or run a dedicated circuit from you electrical panel would do the trick too.

 

[Danger]

I had tube amp buzz and simply moved it away from my internet router and that resolved the issue

 

[dougms3]

It sounds more like the interference is caused by radio or cell phone.

I'm having a bit of issue with that myself.

I have good power conditioning in my system so I know its not the power as none of my other amps have the same issue.

I also found through tube rolling that some tubes pick up more noise than others.

I've been meaning to test out something like this faraday tape. I was going to tape a cardboard box and place it over the amp to see if it does anything.

Will eventually get around to doing it.