Terrible Speaker Hiss. I'm a Newbie please take pitty (1 Viewer)

[JasonMIL]

Hello all. I'm brand new to this forum and am hoping someone can help me with a problem that is so annoying that I have become obsessive about it. Anyways, I know most of you have rather high-end setups (which I currently can't afford), but I have put together a system that should work for my needs. It includes:
Toshiba 32 inch TrueFlat TV
Panasonic Prog. Scan DVD
Sherwood 6108 Digital/DTS Receiver
Sony SA-VE 355 Speaker package and sub (wife wouldn't allow big speakers cluttering the living room and it's all i could afford at the moment.
Anyways, my problem is that I get perfect sound from my center channel, but when watching TV, movies, ... There is a good deal of hiss and distortion from the Front and rear speakers. This never happened with my previous receiver and the same speakers and cabling so I have to assume that it's a receiver issue. The problem is most pronounced when watching TV in PL and PLII modes. It is still present, though in an almost indescernable level on DVD's with Dolby Digital/DTS.
The Sherwood receiver is brand new and all the reviews I've read (at least 20)say that this is a good entry-level receiver that produces clean (not powerful but CLEAN, crisp sound) At this point, that's all I'm looking for. So there could be a few problems:
A) A faulty receiver
B) An adjustment or option that I'm not seeing that could be causing interference and hiss (I've heard too much treble might be the cause)
C) Wires crossing and interfering with each other in the back of the unit. I'm using properly shielded, high-quality cables and separated everything the best I could but might this still cause problems?
D) Something that only you HT experts can figure out.
Now I know my equipment isn't the best, but for my untrained ear, this setup (everything's brand new) should at least be able to give me clean sound, not the richness and channel separation you guys are used to but good enough.
I'd really appreciate any advice you guys can give. Please feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] too.

 

[Jacques C]

Jason,

You're setup is nothing to sniff at. In any case, I don't know the specific cause of your problem, but you can do a couple things to try:

1. What does the PL and PLII sound like with a CD source? Is a CD with no PL processing at all (straight 2 channel) still hissy?

2. If the CD source is not hissy, try moving the sound input from the TV to another input.

If the TV is still hissy, try running analog outs from your DVD player to a to the inputs that the TV used. Does that help?

If all that still ends up being hissy on the analog ins then you likely have a bum unit and need to exchange it.

If you just play with the inputs and start ruling out sources, processing modes, and specific inputs into the receiver you can figure out if it is a global problem with the receiver.

Good luck.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Jason,
First, welcome to the Forum!

It is still present, though in an almost indiscernible level on DVD's with Dolby Digital/DTS.

What’s still present, the noise or the distortion? The fact that it is drastically reduced with DVDs suggests to me that my points above are on the right track.
Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[JasonMIL]

Thank you both for your help. I guess a should mention that I am also connected to a Motorola Digital Cable box. The box unfortunately has only analog jacks. I have the tv's integrated speakers switched to off, but on the cable box, the volume is set fairly high, maybe 3/4 of the way up. Could this be causing the problem too?

Also to clafify, I am getting the hiss constantly and the distortion mainly through TV broadcasts.

MY SETUP
-Toshiba TV connected to Panasonic DVD through component video
-Panasonic DVD connected to Sherwood receiver through optical audio and analog RCA cables (are both necessary?)
-Cable box connected to receiver through analog audio and video cables
-TV connected to receiver through analog video cables (should I be using S video here instead?)

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

TV connected to receiver through analog video cables (should I be using S video here instead?)

You would have to have S-video connections on all your equipment. If not, stick with composite.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt