Receiver and transformer hum

I have a Denon AVR-1603 which I am very happy with, except for one minor problem. I can hear the power transformer humming from my listening position 10 feet away. It's quite audible when listening to the news at low volume, but completely masked by music or louder TV stuff. Is this common with Denon receivers? Could it be that the nuts holding down the transformer could be loose? Can I tighten them without electrocuting myself?

Thanks in advance

I've got a 2802 and it's dead quiet. It could be a winding on the xformer coming loose. Nothing to worry about but annoying as hell.

How long have you had it?

I've had it since new (late 2002). I can't be sure when the hum started, but it's been there for a long time. I notice I can feel an electrical vibration when I put my hand on top of the receiver's cover. I am using an older Rotel power amp (300 w bridged mono) n my home theater system to power my VMPS passive subwoofer. It's quiet as a church mouse.

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Originally Posted by BC Dave

I have a Denon AVR-1603 which I am very happy with, except for one minor problem. I can hear the power transformer humming from my listening position 10 feet away. It's quite audible when listening to the news at low volume, but completely masked by music or louder TV stuff. Is this common with Denon receivers? Could it be that the nuts holding down the transformer could be loose? Can I tighten them without electrocuting myself?

Thanks in advance

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It could be that you have a ground loop problem....

---Dave

I too think it might be a ground loop problem. The bad news: tricky problem to solve, the good news it can be solved.

The problem most likely is two of your components are connected to teh ground separately and a small amount of voltage is passing between the grounds, which can be picked up by your speakers.

I have read about two solutions. 1) If you know where the problem cable is, you can disrupt the path of the signal. Their is a shield on the audio connection between the receiver and the component in question. If you carefully cut away a short section of the shield at one end, you will still get the shielding effect, but not the ground loop. 2) Some electronic stores sell cables with the shield connected at only one end for this reason. Thats probably the most invasive way of fixing the problem.

Hope that helps. Hard to diagnose without being there.