Klipsch ProMedia sub hums now

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GJSNeptune

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I've had the ProMedia 2.1 for almost a year and a half now. After Googling and seeing some things in the Klipsch forums, I decided to confirm here.

Several nights ago I turned off my computer before bed and got ready to sleep. After getting into bed, I heard a low humming. I tracked it to my sub, which has never hummed before. I turned it off, hoping it wasn't a big deal.

The next day after work I'd turn on my computer and no humming. But at night it would happen again. I even unplugged the audio cable and it didn't stop.

Is my amp really going bad, or could it be the factory wires or maybe a bad [external] connection? I really don't want to pay $60 to have Klipsch repair the amp.

EDIT: The speakers and sub work fine when I turn it on play music. My only concern is the hum that lingers when I turn off my computer. As far as I can tell, the hum isn't there when I turn on the sub after work.

The hum does, however, persist when I turn it on quickly after turning it off. It seems like it needs time to "let go" of an audio signal or something. I'm not a speaker expert. Hope it isn't my amp though.
 
at night if u listen hard u can hear the hum, i think its normal because in the daytime theres more ambient noise. I hear hum too from my antec lansing sub at night sometimes, if i listen hard, just switch off the power and its gone.
 
It's probably cuz it's not grounded well, or your have noise in your rca cables man, turn up the volume and you'll hear the hum get louder, all speakers do this if they aren't grounded. If your rca's run by power cables you might also get the humming noise. The hum doesn't go away when you play music you just can't hear it.
 
The control pod is very sensitive to interference noise. I have had mine pick up the signal from a usb mouse if the cable ran under it. Also, the cell phone will pulse through the speakers when it is receivng a call.. even if the phone is 5 feet away.

It could also be an artifact of the amp once it warms up.

Even with the cord unplugged from the computer, the line could be picking up noise still.

Do you notice it when the volume is at minimum?

I would say it is normal as even mine do it and they are perhaps 5 years old (4.1) and is normal for a multimedia system. (no sense worrying about it anyway as there is nothing you can do to stop it from going if it were.. which it is not)

Chances are you won't get total silence from a speaker system until you spend some real money on the receiver, amp, cables, and speakers... and a AC filter block.
 
It's grounding. It's not going to hurt anything. It depends on what you have it plugged into. If you disconnect the audio jacks and not the control pod and have it turned on, you won't hear a hum. I have the same problem. When the computer boots up the unit hums until the sound system in Windows (Any version) is initialized and then viola, the hum is gone. When Windows shuts down, it's quiet until the sound system is shut down and there's that hum again. I just power my unit off. I have the Promedia 5.1 Ultra.
 
If it's a grounding issue, will it stop if I use a three-prong adapter? I have it plugged into a surge protector/power strip.

I swear I've never heard it hum before, and I've had the setup for about a year and a half now. Up until I started hearing the hum I never turned off the sub, and at night, even with my computer off, I don't recall ever hearing the hum.

The history is, I bought the setup during the summer before my senior year in college. I had the speakers in my bedroom at home until I moved to an off-campus house. I never heard the hum at home, nor at school, and both setups were roughly identical to what I have now, except now I have the hum.

Whenever I hit the power switch, there's a fairly loud POP sound. I can't remember if it popped when I first got them or not. I have a small fluorescent lamp (shaped like a pelican, with the beak housing the lamp), and whenever I hit the button to turn it off, I get that same POP. I always thought the lamp was hurting my sub, but I liked having the lamp for a little ambient light at night.

If it's normal, then I guess I won't worry too much. I just hate having to turn it off every night now.

I know a lot of people like to set aside the stock copper wires and use higher quality ones. Do you think the humming would stop if I bought maybe some Monster speaker wires or some other replacements?
 
GJSNeptune said:
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It's a grounding issue. Unplugged and powered up the speakers don't have a hum. They don't always hum either when they are plugged into the computer. I found out recently by accident that the powered hub is the cause of my humming. When I unplug the powered USB hub the hum stops right away.
 
So if I can get a three-prong adapter, it shouldn't hum anymore? Why didn't it hum for the past year and change, or was it just inaudible until now?
 
Also, the sub is plugged into a power strip that is grounded. Why doesn't that matter? I know very little about how electricity behaves. :D
 
Better cables and better sound card would help also, it's nothing to worry about though, that ground loop isolator will work also. People pay thousands of dollars to get rid of that hum so they can have the cleanest sounding sound system around. Every speaker i've ever owned has done that to some extent the better quality the less it usually does it though
 
My Audigy 2 ZS will have to do, though I don't see how my sound card affects it. I'll see about a ground loop isolator (whatever it is :D)
 
Just looked at a ground loop isolator on Radio Shack's site. Do they only come with RCA connectors? The Klipsch 2.1 have a 1/8" connector for the sound card and bare wires to connect to the sub. Plus it costs $17.

My biggest problem is that it didn't hum before. Is there an easier solution? Does having the sub on carpet worsen it? I could find a wooden board to rest it on if that would help.
 
The hum is coming through noise in your rca's, generally by the source your sound card. You can google this and there are millions of articles out there on it, they might be more help than a computer forum. Klipsch has some nice forums too try there i believe Amy is one of the mods and really helpful with pretty much anything.
 
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