Hum from computer monitor

[Chris Shaeffer]

Ok, so I am trying to eliminate a nice low hum that comes through my powered monitors. It is only present when my computer screen is on. They are Event PS-6's which are shielded so they *shouldn't* be humming just by proximity. (about 20" away)

My mixer (Alesis Studio 24) is just under the monitor, so I thought the hum might be getting in there, but there is no hum to the stereo that I have hooked up to the main outs for comparing mixes. I figure the hum would be in both the monitors and the stereo if it was coming from the mixer.

When I unplug the cables to the monitors the hum goes away, so I figure it is the cables- just regular, unbalanced instrument cables.

The PS-6's will accept balanced inputs, but all the outs on the mixer are unbalanced (I think...I should double check). I think I need shielded cables, but...I don't know much about hum and cabling.

I've double checked- the hum is nowhere in the signal chain except between the mixer and the monitors- not even in the phones off the mixer.

Does anyone have some advice or thoughts for me before I go to the store and some teenager tries to sell me on $150 "Digital Recording Cables" or some such.

Thanks for your help,
Chris

 

[Carter Simcoe]

Unbalanced instrument cables???? Get speaker cables.

 

[Carter Simcoe]

Okay, im ReALY drunk so sorry bout the last post. Im not sure if switching to actual speaker cables will help anything or not, im pretty shure there is a difference between them and instrument cables but im not shure what it is. Anyway you should also look to see if the cables going to your monitors are coming into contact with any power cables.

 

[Slackmaster2K]

Plug your monitors into a different outlet and see what happens. If you're absolutely positive that grounding issue with your attached equipment, and the monitors are definately far enough away from your computer monitor, then it could very well be a power issue.

Slackmaster 2000

 

[RWhite]

If you have access to another computer monitor, try switching. It may be that it is not properly grounded.