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amp noise
hey guys, i bought a parasouns hca 600 amplifier for my subwoofer on ebay, i didnt get a power cable for it and i used a extra computer power cable for it and when i plug it in i get a buzzing in all of my speakers , unplug and gone, weird. just for the heck i broke the extra ground off of the cable and it is pretty much gone. Could the cable be totally wrong for this amp or maybe bad amp?
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Breaking off the third pin on a power cord is an un-safe solution. The situation you describe is unlikely to have anything to do with power cords anthough you can "fix" it by damaging the cord as described.
To make things more complex, you cannot assume the problem is with the Parasound. It may be your preamp or some other component even if it only became appearent with the addition of the new component.. The root cause, if it can be found, is likely to be the internal grounding scheme in one or more components and/or the way the interconnect jacks are wired.
Solutions:
Try plugging all units into the same power strip or power conditioner. Try plugging them into different ones (limited by the practical combinations available to you).
One virtue of power conditioners is that some are designed to minimize the problem you are experiencing. Eeven an el cheapo "surgr protector" might do it.
If you MUST use and un-grounded cord as you describe, at least have an electrician install GFI wall sockets (not cheap, but less than most funerals these days).
For some very enlightening info on the whole subject read these:
http://home.comcast.net/~marcwhitney...g_whitlock.pdf
http://www.rane.com/note151.html
Note especially the comment that there are many ways to wire interconnects, but only one right way, and its been known about for 70+ years.
For my part I have resolved that all future system additions must have properly (PROPER, I say!!) wired XLR connections. No matter how expensive or exotic RCAs suck by nature.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fudgemik
hey guys, i bought a parasouns hca 600 amplifier for my subwoofer on ebay, i didnt get a power cable for it and i used a extra computer power cable for it and when i plug it in i get a buzzing in all of my speakers , unplug and gone, weird. just for the heck i broke the extra ground off of the cable and it is pretty much gone. Could the cable be totally wrong for this amp or maybe bad amp?
Sometimes you can develop a ground loop problem that creates a hum or a buzz. Breaking the pin is one method if the amp is the piece humming. Another is the use of cheater plugs, the old style plugs that accept a three way and can be used in a two way outlet. You can use one to check out each componet to see if any others are developing a ground loop problem. I have a PS Audio power cord for my int. amp and it has an unscrewable ground plug so you can use it grounded or not depending on which gives you quieter operation. I would not say it was unsafe to use the amp ungrounded unless the amp is flawed in some other way that might cause electrical failure.
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Quote:
I would not say it was unsafe to use the amp ungrounded unless the amp is flawed in some other way that might cause electrical failure.
This is like saying you don't need seat belts as long you don't have a blow out or no drunks run into you. "See, nothing bad has happened so far."
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thanks for the responses guys, i did some investigating and narrowed it down to when i plug in my parasound the buzzing occurs. I looked deeper and found out it was a problem because they all shared same circuit and parasound amps should be on their own circuit. But if u must share same circuits with other things like receivers/etc.... U get a cheater plug without that 3rd. prong on it and you have to flip the polarity (the plug itself going into the receptacle) and that did it. And where did i get this info? Believe it or not guys i read that in the owners manual. Probably 1st. time i ever read an owners manual and learned something........
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Also i wanted to add that it stated in the manual that flipping polarity doesnt affect the amp at all and is very common to many installations with their products............And i shared this with my uncle who is a electrician and he said its not good to change polarity and would probably cut half its life off and went into this big explanation why but i guess who really knows, all i know is i have no buzzing in my system now and i figured it out without him messing with any electrical in the house...........i think i will go watch the incredibles again.................
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