Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater More amp woes

Annnd... the hum can't decide how loud it wants to be. Thanks for giving me things to try.

My theory about that involves impedance differences between the output circuits of the various devices.

Is there a hum when nothing is connected to the amp other than the speakers? And does the hum vary with volume?

No hum when only speakers are connected. The hum doesn't seem to vary with volume, but the hum changes how loud it is on its own. Right now it's being really annoying, but it was somewhat quieter just a minute ago.

Reminds me of someone I know.

Oh it changes over time while the same piece of gear is connected? Then it's not my theory from above.

Well we are past the Skynet goes sentient date as someone recently pointed out. Perhaps your amp is simply trying to hum along to the music?

I haven't used a ground isolator since we don't have cable TV. I messed with all of the ground screws on my subs when I was getting hum from them. I still get a little hum from them, but not like before.

As for keeping everything on the same circuit, I know that's not happening right now, but I can't say for sure how many circuits are represented since I don't know how it's all wired in the walls. I really wish everything had been wired in the most logical way possible when we had our electrical re-done. So why do multiple circuits cause problems? I'm just worried for when I have multiple dedicated circuits for my home theater. All of my gear has a lot of potential power suckage, so I want to be prepared. Between the multiple amps I'll be running for my speakers, the amp in each EP800, my computer, the ButtKicker amps (I say amps since I'll probably run two to shake the riser I build), display, and whatever else I happen to have running, it could potentially want quite a bit of power. How would you (you as in anyone reading this) do this? I want the power to be there, but I also want my system to be as dead-silent as possible except for the signal.

It's not that multiple paths to ground are a bad thing, it just can be a bad thing.

The problem arises when one circuit's ground isn't as good a path as going through an interconnect, and then to ground through another component. As long as you have good, clean ground connections on each different circuit they will be preferred over the inter-component path.

Ahh, thanks for the explanation. Hopefully my dad can have an answer for me on that one.