Hum eliminator?

The Lounge Other Gear
1

Hello,

I was thinking of buying one of these passive boxes to try to solve the hiss and hum I get from my living room setup.

I have got a xone 23 with 4 sources connected:
2x 1210s turntables, tv (headphone jack out), chromecast audio
Output to HS5 monitors

I tried shifting things around and turning them on one by one but there’s so much other stuff connected in the media cabinet, like another chromecast, the modem, the router, the ethernet switch, the ethernet mains adaptor, etc etc
Unfortunately in that spot I only have 1 wall socket available.

At the moment I get a high pitch hissing and low freq humming as well.
I noticed that sometimes when I use the chromecast remote I can literally hear it.

I was thinking of adding a hum eliminator like the behringer hd400 between the mixer and the monitors.

Has anyone got experience with these sort of things?

thank you!

2

Let me know how it goes. There’s not a plug in my house that doesn’t make noise through my hs5. I was gonna try the exact same behringer thing too. It’s been worse since I got a new computer I can hear everything, even the mouse moving makes electrical noises

3

Do you have any stuff with a grounded plug connected to a power outlet without ground?

If so, running a long grounded extension cable might help really well.

4

all the stuff is connected to a power strip which then goes into the wall, the socket there should be grounded but what do I know

5

the thing is, the monitors make a humming noise even with nothing connected to them, just the power

this noise is then doubled (+ a little high pitched hiss) when the mixer is on and the rest of the stuff is plugged in

I am thinking of trying the hd400 but all my plugs are xlr so I’d have to get new cables or adapters

so I think I’ll try with a couple of hosa xlr ground lift adapters first

6

If they hum with nothing connected, don’t bother buying a hum eliminator because it won’t cure that.

It is daft that monitors hum with nothing connected, yet the reality is some do, I’d suggest changing your monitors if it bothers you.

7

Have you tried a power conditioner? I use this one from Furman. It’s basic but works for me.

I run:
Wall outlet>“always on” power strip>chargers and anything I don’t want on a switch.
-then-
power strip>Furman conditioner>two more power strips>my entire synth rig.

I flip the switch on the Furman and my whole synth rig and lighting system comes on. Plenty of outlets (both switched and always on). If you browse the conditioners on Sweetwater, you can see that they come in all levels of fanciness. Also the Sweetwater guy told me having something with a motor (AC, fan, coffee grinder, etc) on the same household circuit as your gear can lead to hum.

8

Work backwards. Install your music gear into a grounded power source in another room, into an outlet with no lighting nearby. Does it hum? I assume no. Continue adding your other powered devices into the power bar chain until your hum returns. Eliminate your problematic device. Consider buying a cheap ground-lift plug adapter from your local hardware store. 90% of the time dirty power causing hum to audio devices comes from lighting in my experience.

9

thanks for the replies, ground loop lifter is arriving today, we’ll see how that goes

10

I tried the ground loop lifters but nothing changed. I’ll have to disconnect it all and try everything one by one but I think it might just be my speakers

11

what did you try out in the end - trying to fix a definite loop at my end -possibly with teh item mentioned in op as i have an amazon credit

if you have a hunch it’s speakers related, then direct into those with a battery powered device would take out the loop from the picture

spectrum analusis of teh noise may help narrow the source down if it’s not 50/60 Hz

12

I tried these with no luck

1 Like
13

If it hums with nothing connnectted to moitors then I doubt anything will prevent that.

I had a gnd loop issue when setting up all my gear. Took and age to suss it. Had to rip it all out and start from scratch to find issue. Ended up being when plugging my rane dj mixer’s main out into the “master” xone mixer input. All I did was put one of thse gnd loop isolators between the 2 mixers and it solved it.

Was a mission to suss out and i tried all sorts of mains filters and isolating main transformers etc. Been good ever since.

14

the thing is, I don’t mind the humming from the monitors that much. it’s annoying but I can live with it.
what I really mind is that other high pitch noise, if I could solve that one alone it would be a game changer, I’ve grown to hate that noise

15

Just going to have to start with just the speakers. Add the mixer, check, add something else check etc.

Try listening to master on mixer headphones at same time to see if shows up there once shows up on speakers.

Also might be worth testing your mains socket with a socket tester to make sure wiring and grounding is ok. Should not be humming with just speakers unless they faulty or something

1 Like
16

is it safe to do this? bypass each device’s dedicated on/off switch by keeping everything on and turning the power strip on and off? i always felt a bit uncomfortable trying this for some reason, but i have pretty much 0 electrical experience so i’m probably overreacting.

17

Yes, it’s fine. When the gear is flipped on but the conditioner/power strip is off the circuit is broken and therefore ‘fully off’. Flipping the switch on the conditioner completes the circuit and everything is powered.

It’s the same concept as lamps. People generally leave each lamp ‘on’ but the light switch off. They are disconnected from the grid so to speak until you flip the light switch and complete the circuit.

1 Like
18

Probaby even better as any DC power supplys are actually off in thiis scenario.

19

If you’re getting audible hum or noise from your monitors with nothing connected to them (not even your mixer), then your monitors are in need of repair.

Such things do happen: I had a powered monitor start making noise on me once; I sent it back for repair, and it came back fixed.

20

I would recommend to start to switch off all power groups coming in your house except the group your equipment is connected too. Unplug all other devices in that group (fridge, floor heat pumps, led/halogen dimmers, central heating or ventilation system, solar power inverter if any). Then listen if it’s gone. Then switch other power groups on one by one to determine if the high pitch returns. If so you narrowed the search down to equipment on that group.