Tim Kline

Speakers are buzzing...

I was gonna put this in the speaker forum but I think it's my receiver....

at high volumes, I'm notcing a faint buzz in the background, and the louder I make it the louder the buzzing is. It seems to only be coming from my front left & right speakers, not the centers or rear speakers. I have 4 JBL N24 speakers and a N-Center (I think that's what it's called). it was 5 speaker package deal that I got. Anyway, the speakers have always been great. I took one of the rear speakers and replaced it with one of the front speakers, and the buzzing was still there, so it leads me to believe it's either the receiver or the maybe the cables, which is standard monster speaker cable.

I notice the buzz the most when I'm using stuff with optical connections, like my DVD player, Xbox and Cable box, my CD player is connected with RCA jacks and it doesn't buzz at all even when it's very loud. This is something recent though, it didn't used to be like this.

I don't know much about wiring, but I've heard that speaker cables and video cables and power cables shouldn't be near each other if you can help it, and well all of my cables are in a big pile of spagetti behind my "entertainment unit". Could this be what's causing it? Should I go out of my way to keep the cables seperated? or could it be my receiver dying? I have a Yamaha RX-V620, it's about 2 years old, i've never had any problems with it before. Does it maybe need to be cleaned? The guy at Tweeter said I should get it cleaned once a year but i'm lazy and never did anything....

Any ideas?

Some call me Tim.
timkline@rcn.com
www.cowbellfilms.com - Because everyone needs a little more cowbell!

Ed Moxley

If it seems to be happening with those pieces, unhook each piece and try it again, to see if you can narrow it down to which piece it is causing it. If you discover it's one of them, try plugging that one into a different outlet, and see what happens. It could have developed a ground loop.
If everything is plugged into a surge protector, plug that into a different outlet. Even if you have to use an extension cord, for the test. Just make sure you use a HEAVY DUTY ext. cord (heavier than your usual cords). If it quits buzzing, connected to a different outlet, you'll know it's a ground loop. Then you can get the wiring fixed, or you may need to re-arrange furniture.
Good luck!

Justin_P

Hi all, long time reader who finally got around to joining the forum to ask a question:

I'm having EXACTLY the same problem with my receiver- there is a mysterious buzzing sound coming from the front left and right channels only when using the digital inputs. There is no buzz when I use the analog inputs (at least DVD-A and SACD are working!) and there is no buzz in the surrounds or the center channel. I first noticed it about six weeks ago, and have since replaced all five of my speakers (a long planned purchase which just happened to coincide with my receiver going bust)- which only served to make the buzzing more noticeable.



I've tried just about every troubleshooting trick I can imagine to isolate the problem- from what I've tried and what I know about my set up and it's history, I really think that I've narrowed it down to a problem with the receivers digital inputs; I don't think that it's an external problem. There were no changes to the system at all that caused this problem (it just seems to have developed over time), and it seems entirely to isolated and refined of a problem to be caused by an electrical problem such as a ground loop, but hey, I'm no expert and I came here to ask for input, so any troubleshooting suggestions are welcome.

My receiver is a three year old Yamaha HTR-5460, with a Pioneer DV-563A DVD player on digital optical and analog six channel inputs, a JVC DVD player on digital coax (model not coming to me right now), with an XBOX, a PS2, and a Pioneer D505 LD player hooked up via digital optical through a pelican a/v switch. These components all worked fine until recently and all produce the exact same buzz now.

I should mention that the buzz only occurs while actually producing sound- on DVD menus with no sound or while changing audio tracks, the sound disappears.

Could the problem be completely internal, requiring repair or replacement of my receiver (not to eager to do either)? Could it be a blown circuit, or a corroded wire or solder point, or could the decoder circuitry just be fried. Is it worth taking in for off warranty evaluation/repair, or should I just consider this piece of gear a lost cause and send it tearfully on it's way to the trash heap (or a friend's home theater)? In this age of disposable electronics, is it worth the money to get a low-mid consumer grade receiver repaired (and will it work reliably again?), or should I just move on and buy a new one?

Please feel free to chime in with your thoughts on any of these questions, I'm pretty close to the end of my rope here, and would like to ask the great community here to give some friendly advice...

Thanks in advance!

JP