Hi-Fi Amplifiers are crap?

[Fernando Sampaio]

Hi all, Just bought a Allen & Hetah 24 ch mixer and I`m quite disappointed to find out that my hi-fi amp + speakers are being responsible for a lot of noise!!! if I plug the headphones to the desk I can`t hear any noise at all unless I go over the +5 level on the master faders!, at the same time, with the amp+speakers I get a lot of noise and background hiss if I only go up to 10 in volume (it goes up to 100...)...is it something wrong with my cables (balanced/unbalanced...poor quality...etc)or setup or will I have to get studio reference amp + speakers?

Thanks for your help.

Cheers

Fernando

 

[drstawl]

Here's a quickie test to get to the bottom of your problem. Try plugging in a CD player to that Hi-Fi amp/speaker system and see if you get the same ugly noises. Even cheapo CD players are incredibly quiet as far as background noise goes. Sounds like a problem with the mixing board or your cables. My putrid mixer built into a Portastudio doesn't get ugly until I've surpassed 80% of volume on the sliders.

 

[alu]

Which input on your hifi are you using? Try another one. How have you connected the mixer with your hifi? Which output are you using? If you can raise the volume of the output from the mixer, there should be less noise. Hope this helps you.

I have a cheap NAD amplifier connected to my Behringer desk (much cheaper than yours. I envy you!), and the problem with hifi amps, as I see it, shouldn`t be noise but lack of dynamics and lack of power. A cheap hifi amp isn´t as clean as a stronger power amplifier.

 

[The Green Hornet]

Fernando's Hide-a-way was a great old tune.

I replaced my Carvin or Carwin amp with a new Yamaha integrated amp a few months ago. The new Yamaha has very little WHITE NOISE when I turn up the volume. I also replaced some speaker wires with some good stuff and this, too, lowered the white noise level.

Then, I bought a Yamaha digital 8 track and it produces very little noise. So, the point here is that your noise problema could be from a number of things or just one thing, like a bad cable.

check out your equipment, jiggle all the 1/4 inch plugs, as well as the others, when your set is on and see what you find.

I for less noise when recording,

The Green Hornet