Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Emotiva MPS-2 Amp hum/buzz questions

My LPA-1 is as quiet and buzz-free as it should be. So your top-o-the-line MPS ought to also be hiss & buzz free too.

As others have said, the problem is in the amp, not the speakers. Emotiva should help you out with this. Have you been talking to Lonnie? I'm sure he'll be thrilled to talk to another Axiom owner.

Curiously though, one of the key reasons I returned the Emotiva LMC-1 (their inexpensive prepro) was that it *did* have a pretty high noise floor. Even at moderate volumes, from about a foot away from the speaker I could hear hiss and background noise. At high volumes, it was loud enough to hear from my seating position. Enough to be annoying, anyway. And no question it was being produced by the LMC, as my Pioneer Elite AVR on its own or paired with the LPA-1 is quiet (with the same M80's, obviously).

But do keep in mind that a 3808 will set the 'quality bar' pretty darn high.

Sheesh! What's up with all the Emotiva-love around here lately?

Is this the amp with modules, each module with it's own tranformer?

Try pulling out modules to see if the buzzing stop. It may be just one module.

Hi, again.

Thanks, Bugbitten, but I am hearing the sound from at least 3 or 4 of the modules and now I am getting frustrated, so will probably send it back and suck up the lost shipping money.

Sirquack, I have a room about 18ftX15 or so and about 9 foot ceilings. I think I wanted an amp to try to upgrade the quality of sound on my analog rig. Also, for "easier" amplification that wouldn't seem to strain. The denon didn't ever really strain, but psychologically (therein lie all the problems!) it seems better to have higher volumes at equal previous denon settings. I thought this would be a step up toward more audiophile listening. My jolida phono preamp did make my rega sound better and so did other tt upgrades, so I thought a system wide thing would be cool. What's not fun about new toys? So, now I'm actually trying to think before leaping and considering a dedicated analog preamp and amp and specifically the belles 21a and maybe an odyssey amp. Seems like they might mesh well with my wonderful axioms and then maybe down the road find a way to give the rest of my axiom channels some better amping for m/c sacd's and dvd-a's. But - I could be chasing a small improvement for big headache. The denon does sound good, I would just like some more oomph. Any thoughts, anyone, on the belles and odyssey type situation? If this seems like a good path, would an ss preamp be less troublesome than tubes? I have heard opinions about tubes, but was curious about what y'all thought.

Sorry I'm not too articulate about what I'm after, but it really comes down to getting the most out of the music in a realistic way and I wouldn't mind being able to crank it without fear of messing up something in the denon or speakers. I listen to pop, rock and jazz and usually either vinyl or hi-rez, though I also want to eventually get a music server in the system. I do stream via the denon and via Pandora, but usually as background music. I like to listen to albums, one after the other triggering different dj sides of myself and not getting fatigued as if I'm listening to cds. That is how the vinyl hit my ears last weekend, but I believe my mood was sufficiently pissed that not much would have sounded great. But never heard Fagan sound sibilant before. I could not get that buzz off my mind and it is grating on my as I type right now. It's not quite like fingernails on a chalkboard, but the background buzz is in the same category to my ears. Then, I also hate the hd-dvd sound and had to move one of my units to another room. Well, any insight will continue to be appreciated. Oh - and I get the feeling Emotiva is not too happy to deal with another axiom owner. I revealed this to them prior to the purchase when emails were returned quickly. Now that I have a problem, we are working at glacial speed, though Lonnie did just let me know it is indeed he who is responding to me and that emails would be returned faster from here on. Thanks everyone!
Laura

Randy loves him some Odyssey amps.

There is no reason an amp should buzz, regardless of the price. Since the amp is modular, it should be easy for Emotiva to send you replacement modules, and you can send the defective ones back.

I really do love my Odyssey monoblocks, they are darn heavy.

chapin99,
Sad to see you go through this,Emotiva will help you out and I don't think it matters to Lonnie that you are an Axiom customer because you are not having shut down issues.That being said I agree with you in your pursuit to improve your system.I'm on the side where 'I feel and so do my audio buddies' that my amp (Emotiva LPA1) has improved my system.We played the Dave Matthews/Tim Reynolds bluray in Dolby TrueHD through my buddies Marantz 6003 with and without the amp hooked up.We used an SPL meter, a blind fold, and also played the Marantz at higher volumes to dispell the louder is better theory.The presence and clarity that comes out with the amp is noticeable.The guitar strums and plucks really come out at you and when you switch to the receiver it still sounds nice but seems to recede back into the speakers,this is the best way I can describe it.I had similar results with my Denon 3300 which is why I kept the amp but it was nice to try it with a new receiver also.There are already many posts and opinions on this just thought I'd share mine and that there is nothing wrong with trying to achieve more Oomph!

And Gumption. What we need is oomph and gumption.

And a beer. In a tree.

Well. You've got a lot of gumption asking for a beer in a tree!!

And, I think if you ask for a beer in a tree, you should get it! Ha! Thanks all for supporting my quest for oomph. I finally got another email from emotiva and they say the buzz is normal for amps like this. So, I will be sending it back. I feel like I've read 4 books-worth of information online this past week and am still in pursuit of oomph, and a beer in the sun in 80 degrees on a pontoon boat. My newest thought today is that perhaps a very nice 2 channel amp would be good to start with and I believe I will have to ask about whether or not it is silent from now on. Do Bryston's (like 4bsst) play nicely with m80s? Interesting that they are both Canadian, but are they rivals? I have heard that the Bryston's are quiet and now I may be looking to that as a main feature (plus powerful). I use a Jolida tube phono preamp, so a nice ss amp might be good. Lots of choices - but scared to mess up again. Still - opinions are very helpful! Thanks! More beer and oomph for all!