Speaker buzz

[vibes]

I'm hooking up some new Klipsch SP-3 speakers to my father's system for him, and now that they're all hooked up, there's a lot of buzz coming out of these speakers, but none coming out of the four Infinity satellite speakers. What could be causing this problem? I can't imagine it's the speakers themselves, but since I'm not getting the buzz out of the satellites, it makes me wonder. The cables going from the receiver into the speakers are probably not the best. Looks like they're 16-gauge or so, and are at least 10 years old. Would an upgrade help fix this? Thanks in advance for any insights.

[jazzbo]

There's a strong possibility that what you are hearing is the hum or buzz of the amp or preamp or other equipment upstream from your speakers. Speakers of high efficiency will reveal equipment noise such as amplifier or preamplifier hum, tube "rush noise", etc. quite well, noise not previously heard with speakers of medium or low efficiency.

[vibes]

The previous speakers were Infinity speakers, and I believe they were actually better than these new Klipsch speakers. Any ideas on how to get rid of the buzz? Is it possible that it's coming from the speaker wire coming in contact with other wires, such as power cables? I was thinking that better surge protectors, such as something by Monster, might help out...but I really don't know. Ideas?

[jazzbo]

The Infinitys may have been better, but were they more EFFICIENT? I. e. did they get more volume out of a watt of power? If they were not as efficient as the new speakers it is possible the new speakers are revealing these sounds for the first time.

If it is not a noise from the circuitry of your components it could be a ground hum or a ground loop noise from the antenna for the tv receiver, etc. . . . It's hard to isolate these things, and I'm not a good resource for ways to do so. A good power conditioner MAY help.

Edited December 22, 2003 by jazzbo

[jacknife]

My experience with the "buzz" has been from the ground loop. To get rid of it, I used the "cheater plug"....those 3 prong to 2 prong adapters which you can get from the hardware store for less than a buck, not the safest solution but it might be worth a shot. Another alternative is to take a piece of wire and tie it to the case of all your components..ie receiver, cd player etc. There's also a cheap radio shack fix if the buzz is from your cable tv.

[wolff]

Is it a high frequency buzz or a low frequency hum???

High frequency buzzing...what Jazzbo said.

Low frequency hum....what jacknife said.

Edited December 23, 2003 by wolff

[vibes]

The frequency sounds low to my ears. If I were to tie wire to each of the components, what type of wire would I use? Small pieces of speaker wire?

Thanks for the insights!

[vibes]

What is the "ground loop," by the way? I'm totally inexperienced with this sort of thing, so I don't have the lingo down.

[CJ Shearn]

Ground loop is the 60 cycle frequency hum right?

[7/4]

Ground loop is the 60 cycle frequency hum right?

Yep.

[Ron Thorne]

I'm certainly no audio "expert", vibe, but I've experienced what you seem to be describing several times in the past. What Jazzbo and Jacknife suggest is probably very good advice. It sounds like a 60 cycle hum, which would likely be related to an AC source nearby. Are the speaker wires running to the new Klipsch speakers following a different route than the ones to the Infinity speakers? If so, and especially if they're in close proximity to a wall outlet, power cord or extension cord, that could be your culprit.

On the subject of speaker wire, I'd recommend heading to your nearest source for some 12 or 10 gauge speaker wire (not Monster cable), then to Radio Shack for a couple of pairs of their banana plug speaker terminal ends. They offer them both as a one-piece unit and as separates. Monster cable prices are ludicrous in my estimation. However, heavier speaker wire will only enhance your signal to the speakers, provided that you've also properly installed good quality connections at both ends of the cable.

A "ground loop" refers to something in your chain of components which is not properly grounded, so it acts as a "receiver" for the ever-present 60 cycle frequency inherent in standard AC power sources.

[vibes]

Ron, thanks for posting that info. The wiring to the new speakers follows the same path as it did to the old Infinity speakers. It's possible that the wires got moved around a little bit when I was messing with my father's system. In setting up the speakers, I looked at the back of the receiver and the preamp and discovered there were a number of cables that did nothing, so I pulled a bunch of stuff out.

The speaker wire is definitely close to the AC outlet and runs over several AC power cords. The speaker wire is heavier than 16 gauge, but I'm not sure exactly what it is. All I can say is that I was very surprised at how cheap the interconnects and speaker wire appeared, considered the quality of the components in his system (all Sony ES). I tried convincing him to upgrade to at least Acoustic Research or Monster Cable (I get a huge discount at Best Buy), but he didn't believe that he'd get better sound quality. I did convince him to get a Monster clean power surge protector, and that seemed to help a little bit, but the buzz is still there. I'll have to pass along some more recommendations so that he can try and figure it out. Thanks again!

Edited January 5, 2004 by vibes

[Ron Thorne]

You're welcome, vibes. Hum is one of the most annoying things imaginable within a sound system.

If you run new, beefier speaker cable, remember to keep it as short as is practical, and use the best terminal end hardware you can find.

Here's what I use from Radio Shack. They're $5.99 per pair.

Catalog #: 278-306

They also offer dual gold-plated banana plugs for 10-12 gauge wire for the same price.

Here's a link for some really affordable, fine quality audio interconnect cables I recently purchased. To me it borders on insanity to pay $50-100 (or much more) for a pair of interconnect cables. This is one of the most clever profit-making schemes I've seen in years.

http://store.yahoo.com/mediasource1/phauar.html

These Phoenix Gold ARX610 cables are very nicely built of excellent materials. The one meter length is available at that site for $5.99/pr. before shipping. I've seen those exact cables sold online for $30.00/pr.