subwoofer humming; advice needed

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CoolGuy90

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Oct 1, 2007
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649
I have a problem with my subwoofer on my speakers. I have it plugged into my surge protector which also my monitor and pc plug into. When I turn on my subwoofer, it makes a constant "humming" noise, it is only audible if I put my ear next to it. I've tried different AC outlets and it is the same. I have a lamp that is next to my desk that plugs in the AC outlet on the wall, not in my surge protector or the AC outlet my surge protector is plugged into. When I turn on the lamp to dim, the humming gets louder. It is audible when my pc is idle. When I turn the lamp on to full brightness, the humming backs down to inaudbile.

I've researched this issue and found that this could be do to a ground loop or interference. There are some surge protectors that have built in EMI/RFI noise filters. I am not sure if this would get rid of the humming, or keep the humming inaudible.

Any ideas or solutions?

Thanks
 
Recently I read that ground loop hum is caused by devices not having common ground. I fixed my issue by using ground loop isolators. You buy those at RadioShack. If you are using two prong plug then it is not grounded so shouldn't be getting ground loop hum. One of the ways to fix ground loop hum is to use a cheater plug where the three prong converts to just a two prong so it no longer has ground (not recommended method though). Maybe you just need to take that lamp out of the chain completely. I had a halogen lamp that when tirned on/off would cause a loud pop to go through my speakers. I bought another halogen lamp that has soft touch on/off and the no more pop through my speakers. Your lamp has cheap and nasty electronics, get rid of it or use it elsewhere in your home and get a better lamp. The one I use is tri-light halogen and is good, I bought two from Rona Hardware for $19.95 each.
 
Oy, I hate when people use the two prong to three prong converters improperly. I work at a hardware store and people do it all the time, so ignorant. There's a green tab at the bottom of them that is spaced just so, to allow the screw holding the faceplate on to be screwed in through that tab. If you're going to do this, bloody do it right.
 
I had a Cambridge Soundworks? sub that always hummed very slightly, even when pluggen in on it's own with no other devices or signal wire going to it.

On another note, I had some buzzing (@sub) from my halogen lamp next to my desk, I tried a few combinations, and eventually settled on having it plugged into the same power strip as all my other equipment, including the sub/audio system. I thought isolating would have been better, by using it in another plug and or before the power strip, but as it turned out, it worked better along side of everything else, not sure why.

You could lower the wattage on the bulb, if it's 300Watt, unfortunatelly it's hard to find anything in between 300 and 175/150Watts now-adays. The new halogen's come with 175, might wanna buy one of those. You'll still get plenty of light. I used a GE 225 Watt Xenon Tungsten Halogen bulb, they don't make these anymore, but that helped a lot with induced buzz and dimmer/bulb buzz and heat output. Good Luck
 
I have one of those. So do I plug this into my surge protector and plug my subwoofer power chord into the cheater plug?
 
If the hum disappears when the lamp is turned full on, it's not ground loop, it's noise on the line (or EMI) from the lamp. Ditch the lamp, or pay more for something that will isolate the line noise.

Humming from the amp when nothing is playing is normal, as long as it's inaudible from more than a foot away (bionic ears notwithstanding).
 
When the subwoofer is turned on, the hum is inaudible, when the lamp is on dim, its audible, when on the brightest setting, its inaudible.

What bout getting a surge protector with EMI/RFI built in?
 
your lamp must be plugged into the same outlet as your surge protector, chances are your lamp is useing a pwm of some sort to control the light output vs a reostat..., try moveing it to a different outlet, if only just for testing.. if it goes away (and it should) then either buy a extesion cord to get the lamps plug top where it needs to be, or ignore it. i have had luck with putting a seconed surge strip into the same outlet and useing it for lamps and low darw devices only ( cell phone, ipod charger, lamp, and ps2) this creates a barrior on the curcuit. but it totally depends on the surge strip, so your luck may vary. (i.e i have had this not work as well... and i really cant recomend any one strip to use over any other.. thus why i say try moveing the lamp first) if you think a strip will help.. there is alway wallmart.. go out buy the strip.. see if it works.. if not.. take it back.. try a different one.. rince repeat. if it just dosent help... then move the damn lamp.. :p
 
SharpieFiend said:
There's a good chance of it, at any rate they're not expensive so it's worth a try.
Click to expand...

It won't work. His subwoofer plug is already 2 prong and a cheater plug is for breaking ground by converting 3 prong to 2 prong. There is no ground to break if it is already just 2 prong.
 
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