Is it normal to have a small amount of buzz coming from your monitors?

  • Thread starter Thread starter darkecho
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darkecho

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if you buy them brand new, take them home, open it and plug it straight into the wall with no signal line..
or should they be dead quiet until you play something through them?

thanks
 
I guess it depends on the Monitors But from my experience most monitors I have listened to includeing my own do put out a small Hum when nothing is connected to them, It is like most analogue equipment....

Even things without speakers put off a Hum like a Blender or Microwave and I"m sure you have heard the Hum when walking by a Power transformer, Even my Coffee machine hums when I turn it on and my PC Monitor hums, actually allmost everything that uses a fair amount of Power will put off a Hum.....

I"m sure your monitors are just fine as long as the Hum isn"t Loud or audible when the music is playing....

Cheers
 
Minion said:
I guess it depends on the Monitors But from my experience most monitors I have listened to includeing my own do put out a small Hum when nothing is connected to them, It is like most analogue equipment....

I"m sure your monitors are just fine as long as the Hum isn"t audible when the music is playing....

Cheers
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No way man. Monitors that hum any while not plugged into an output have a grounding issue. Either that or there's something wrong with the monitor itself.

Try plugging it in to a different outlet.
 
I plugged it into 3 different outlets in different places in my house and the hum can be heard from about 3 feet away maximum if there is no outside noise. Its not very loud but its there, these tests were with Only the montior and power, plugged into an outlet in different rooms. Always has the same hum/buzz. Its not very loud but its there and you can barely hear it when sitting at the desk when its quiet. should monitors be dead quiet?
 
What happens if you introduce an AC ground lift?
 
darkecho said:
how would I go about doing that?
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Sorry I didn't explain further, my bad.
An AC Ground Lift is a little grey (at least I've usually seen them this color)part with a 3 prong female end which terminates to a male 2 prong (no ground) that you plug into the wall.
You can probably pick them up at radio shack or a hardware store. (not sure how much they cost but probably less than a dollar).
Give that a shot. A Power Conditioner is another option.
 
You should only do that for testing, it voids the warranty and is dangerous to have a lifted AC safety ground. Not to mention illegal.

Those little things do have a ground that is supposed to be hooked up, that's what the little tab on top is.

If it works, there is definitely a problem. Lifting the ground is usually done to break the ground loop between two pieces of gear, not cure hum in one piece of gear.
 
Your monitors should be dead quiet. No hum at all. As the other posters have already pointed out, you seem to have a ground issue. Either that or the monitors are defective.

They aren't Behringer Truths, are they? :rolleyes:
 
is it buzz or hum? if your amp or internal amps (active monitors) are turned up high, then you will get some white noise like hum. ever cranked a guitar amp up real loud but your guitar was off? you hear some hum. same thing. just thought i would mention that just in case.
 
They are not behringers, they are KRK V6s.

Hmm... i wonder if I should do any more testing or if I should just return them and get a different pair......

are there any monitors in guitar center that I should try to get that would be better than the KRK V6s for 650 bucks?
 
Minion said:
I guess it depends on the Monitors But from my experience most monitors I have listened to includeing my own do put out a small Hum when nothing is connected to them, It is like most analogue equipment....
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Hum with nothing connected? Shouldn't have any hum at all.
 
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plugged my phantom power into one outlet in my home, got a horrible buzz.. all thru the recordings and headphones.... just thought it was a little louder than normal. then i plugged it into a different outlet (on a power strip, not sure if that matters) and the problem was fixed. beautiful silence, ;)
 
boingoman said:
You should only do that for testing, it voids the warranty and is dangerous to have a lifted AC safety ground. Not to mention illegal.

Those little things do have a ground that is supposed to be hooked up, that's what the little tab on top is.
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I've used those things in real world professional situations (mainly live sound), and been asked to use them by other engineers with a lot more experience than I have. Maybe it's different a different thing when you're working off of you're own isolated system. I'm definetly not an electrician though.
An Iso-Transformer could do the trick also.

If it works, there is definitely a problem. Lifting the ground is usually done to break the ground loop between two pieces of gear, not cure hum in one piece of gear.
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Good point. Probably just "dirty power" as they say.
 
BillyBo said:
plugged my phantom power into one outlet in my home, got a horrible buzz.. all thru the recordings and headphones.... just thought it was a little louder than normal. then i plugged it into a different outlet (on a power strip, not sure if that matters) and the problem was fixed. beautiful silence, ;)
Click to expand...

I believe it was the power strip that did it, it's acting as a power conditioner which helps to eliminate buzz.
 
If there is a buzz with nothing connected and it is audible then there is an issue (i dont know what it is) if i put my ear right up close to mine (righ right right up) i can just about hre a sort of mmmmmmm which i thnk is just the amp.
When i connect a jack cable to it (which is connected to my soundcard but the card isnt turned on) i can here a really slight white noise (again with my head up close) and a tic every second or something... I cant here it sitting normally so it doesnt bother me. But when i turn on my soundcard if i turn the monitors all the way up a very audible white noise is there but i persume that is just crap electrics on my soundcard!
 
hmm, Well I am going to swap them out for a new pair today maybe... the guy said that he didnt have any instock so i am going to have to wait a week for a new set probably... which is really lame.


oh well...

They had some rockit RP8s for 500 for a pair and they came with a nice pair of cans too.. they also had these M-Audio Bx5as...


out of those options, which would u get with a ceiling og 650$? are the M-audios any good?

Also, I want to know before I go back today, do I NEED to have a power conditioner to make my speaker silent? I dont want the guys there trying to convince me that I need yet another 100$ peice of gear to make my already expensive speakers sound right. I feel like these speakers shuld be dead quiet when just plugged straight into the wall..

will "dirty" electricity as they say, actually cause noise in my monitors when they are just attached to the wall? that seems sort of rediculous... if it is rediculous, I will just tell them that I already use a UPS that has a conditioner built in
 
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You shouldn't need a power conditioner. Besides, the $100 Furman things that they call power conditioners aren't really power conditioners at all. They are just glorified surge protectors. You'd be better off getting a decent surge protector at the local Target, Wal-Mart, etc.

The M-Audio's are decent but I would prefer the KRK's. Just keep after them until they get them in or have them get some from another store.
 
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