Quote:
Originally Posted by TigzStudio
whats the cheater plug look like?? where can I get one to try?, does it just block the ground or something?
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If it's 60Hz ground loop hum, it should sound like low-frequency hum, 60Hz midbass sound. The sound should oscillate (peak) 60 cylces per minute, one cycle per second. If this is the noise, cheater plug may help break the ground loop. You should try it on various components to see which one's the culprit.
Unfortunately, sometimes cheater plugs don't help b/c of the often complex grounding scheme of an entire system. There are expensive devices that try to help in this situation, but one dirty way is to take a long piece of wire with bare ends and try to connect 2 components' chassis. I usually just try to press the wire to chassis by hand first to see if that kills the ground loop, say between CDP and preamp, or bet preamp and amp. If it works, using the chassis screw to connect 2 components is what I do. This gets rid of the ground potential difference between components that leads to the ground looping. This is basically what expensive ground-loop devices do.
If your noise is higher in pitch and not 60 cycles per minute, this may be an entirely different problem:
1. EMI/RFI seeping into the system
--usually via power cords and interconnects. One dirty way to check is to try a few Ferrite clamps around power cords and interconnects to see if the noise goes away. I don't like ferrites' sound, though, and a more permanent solution like different shielding or ERS paper should be looked into.
2. Intrinsic noise generated by the component
--due to faulty parts inside or mismatch in system gain structure. Too much gain in the component or mismatch with gain in other components can let you hear the usually inaudible noises that all the parts generate, especially if your speakers are sensitive.
