Tell me about Ground Loop Isolator's

[aircooled]

I just realized that my front left speaker has a slight buzz. Onkyo TX-SR503 receiver w/ 5.1 Yamaha speakers.

I've swapped it out with other speakers just to rule out the speaker itself, but still hear this light buzz. it's only on the front left channel, all other speakers sound clean.

I hear that a Ground Loop Isolator will help with this. Teach a speaker noob about using one and if it will help?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Replied to PM with my worthless information

 

[AlienCraft]

Originally posted by: aircooled
I just realized that my front left speaker has a slight buzz. Onkyo TX-SR503 receiver w/ 5.1 Yamaha speakers.

I've swapped it out with other speakers just to rule out the speaker itself, but still hear this light buzz. it's only on the front left channel, all other speakers sound clean.

I hear that a Ground Loop Isolator will help with this. Teach a speaker noob about using one and if it will help?

I'm not the YoYo, but I do know a little about ground loops, hums and buzzes ,and more importantly how to eliminate them.

The first thing is to determine WHY it's only on the front left and if you can do anything about it.
To check, you will need to remove all external inputs, turn the system on and see if it is still there.
If it has a hum on one side, all by itself, go get the warranty action and get another unit.
If it's clean, start adding the various components to the system and check between each change / addition to determine which component is the offender.

If a component adds a buzz to the system when connected, you will need to determine if you can only isolate it with a transformer on the signal or if one on the AC supply will do the trick. These are two differnet types of transformer and are not interchangeable, yet will achieve the same result,to wit ....a quiet system.

hth,

 

[Eli]

Post the information here, too, for everyone else to read.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Eli
Post the information here, too, for everyone else to read.

Well here's what I sent originally

"I haven't had to use one myself so I don't know too much besides what I've read from websites and such.

http://www.epanorama.net/documents/groundloop/index.html

Does it buzz all the time, or just with certain inputs?

To try to figure out what's causing the problem, I would recommend disconnecting sources to see if it's a grounding problem between a specific component and the receiver.

Note that you're going to get a slight hiss from speakers which is normal. I'm not sure what you'd call a buzz vs. a hiss though. A normal hissing would mean that you'd have to get very close to the speaker before you noticed it. If it's bothering you at normal seating distance, then yeah... sound like you have some sort of problem."




Reply was

"I have to put my ear to the speaker to hear it, but it's only on this one particular speaker. I also haven't ruled out the speaker wire yet either through."

 

[Qacer]

This would be a PCB perspective, but I think they are all the same. With ground loop problems, you are normally encountering a shift in the voltage reference level (otherwise known as ground). Normally, you just use a piece of conductor (wire) connected to a ground point as your reference level. However, the more circuits you have using this ground wire, the more likely you are going to encounter shifts in the reference voltage in different sections of this ground wire.

If you can picture two different circuits connected to the same piece of wire and one of the circuits has a load that draws more current, then this higher current draw will interfere with the other circuit. This is because the ground wire does not have zero resistance in reality. The more current you have going thru this ground wire the likelihood you are going to encounter voltage drops along sections of the wire. This would mean that one ground point may have a higher voltage level compared to another ground point. This is definitely a no-no because you always want your ground level to be at the same point. In this example, one ground point may actually be 0.1V higher than another ground point even though they are supposed to be at the same level.

A fix to this would be to separate the ground wire from the two circuits. This way, when the circuit with the higher current draw is activated, its current path goes directly to the main ground point and bypasses the ground connections of the other circuit. So the basic gist of the ground isolator would be to minimize the return path of your system's current to the main ground point.

 

[Howard]

It's your cat's fault.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Howard
It's your cat's fault.

n03s, teh staticz0rz!

 

[rsd]

I had a similar issue but it was from my coax cable from my cable/internet in my building. It manifested itself however as scrolling purple lines on my display. Anyway I got an RF isolation transformer from bluejeans cable and it fixed it.

 

[Rubycon]

Star grounding >*

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Rubycon
Star grounding >*

Interesting stuff. Cool.

 

[mrrman]

simple solution is to open the speaker if you can an add a "0" ring ferritte that the wires will pass through. This will elimate the hum as its caused by EMI( inductance) from the gnd to the source which normally passes through a Xformer

 

[avash]

Originally posted by: mrrman
simple solution is to open the speaker if you can an add a "0" ring ferritte that the wires will pass through. This will elimate the hum as its caused by EMI( inductance) from the gnd to the source which normally passes through a Xformer

Couldn't you add a clamp on ferrite ring then?

Quick google check for ferrite clamp, looks like the one they put on power cords link

 

[aircooled]

Thanks for all the advice. looks like I have some research to do.