Cambridge 640a hum/buzz

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  • 10-05-2007, 05:08 PM
    Zhyn
    Cambridge 640a hum/buzz
    I just noticed my 640a has a slight buzz/hum. I'm pretty sure it was silent before. I just noticed it about 2 hours ago. The sound from my speakers sound fine.
    I can hear it over the sound of my laptop which is right by my head. So it's not loud enough to hear it over any other louder noises.
    I'm just concerned that maybe something is wearing out or that continued use will damage the 640a or my speakers.
  • 10-06-2007, 07:02 AM
    JohnMichael
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Zhyn
    I just noticed my 640a has a slight buzz/hum. I'm pretty sure it was silent before. I just noticed it about 2 hours ago. The sound from my speakers sound fine.
    I can hear it over the sound of my laptop which is right by my head. So it's not loud enough to hear it over any other louder noises.
    I'm just concerned that maybe something is wearing out or that continued use will damage the 640a or my speakers.

    My 640A operates silently. My first question is does this buzz/hum happen all the time or is it intermittent? Does it happen with all sources? One thing to check is to use a three prong adapter so you can plug the amp in without connecting it to the ground. This will let you know if you have any kind of ground loop noise. Have you checked your speaker connections to make sure they are tight or your interconnects to make sure they are not at fault. If you are using bare stranded cables make sure none of the individual wires are touching and causing problems.

    If the buzz is not constant you might be picking up noise from say a refrigerator cycling. Is your laptop creating the noise?

    You might want to unplug everything from the amp and see if it buzzes without any signal or output. If it buzzes while turned on without any thing going in and no speakers connected I would have it serviced.
  • 10-06-2007, 05:36 PM
    Zhyn
    Well It's gone now. My system is temporarily set up in a very unorganized way so it could be any number of things. It wasn't from the laptop though, It was one of the things I unplugged when I was searching for the cause.
    I'll definitely go through those checks if the sound does come back.
  • 10-07-2007, 07:14 PM
    NickWH
    Transformer hum can be caused by flourescent light ballasts on the same circuit as the amp. A dimmer switch can also cause this condition. Hum can also be caused by a noisey power supply (like in a digital device such as a CD or DVD player) plugged into the same duplex/power strip as the amp.