Noise floor sniffing

Cameron Yee · 02-03-2004, 11:37 PM

Out of curiosity I gave this exercise a try:

Back at home, fire up the system and leave the preamp on Mute, or run the volume down. Leaving the speaker cables in place, attach the alligator clips to the speaker binding posts, click the mini-phone plug into your Mini Amp, and turn up its volume. With 40dB of gain, you'll hear your system's noise floor.

Full article here: http://www.stereophile.com/finetunes/212/

Now that I've heard my noise floor I wonder what I'm supposed to do about it, if anything.

Wayne A. Pflughaupt · 02-04-2004, 12:07 AM

There’s nothing you can do about it – unless the brick the author recommended actually works.

This experiment tests for microphonics in the equipment’s electronic components. That means how they pick up noise sources and translate that noise back through the speakers. Which means the “problem” isn’t a problem at all unless you start playing something – in which case the program source will cover it probably dozens of times over.

Personally I’d be more worried about the non-microphonic noise floor of the system – what it generates with no signal present. Unless you can hear noise at the seating position, with the volume turned up to your normal listening level and an empty input selected, I wouldn’t loose any sleep over this.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt



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