Quiet hiss coming from monitors

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swayofpendulums

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I'm getting a quiet, but audible hiss coming from both my monitors equally. It's hard to describe what I'm hearing, but it is not abrasive or humming. It is a similar sound to what an LP sounds like when its spinning and not playing music.

I'm pretty sure they have done this since I bought them.

They are Yorkville YSM2p active monitors and I have them connected to my interface with 1/4" stereo to XLR male cables, in outputs 1/2 on my interface (XLR end connected to monitors).

This brings up another question worthy for the newbie board but I'll put it here since we're on the subject...

Should I be using mono 1/4" instead of the stereo connection for my monitors?

thanks
 
Since you haven't had an answer yet, make sure you are using balanced cables. They can really make a difference in the amount of interference and such. Also watch out placing the monitors too close to pcs and electronic equipment to avoid interference. I know this isn't the most scientific answer, hopefully someone can provide you with one soon, this is just what I know.

In my far from professional and experienced life all speakers that I have encountered have hissed to some degree, and they can be worse depending on cables and interference. Crank up your car stereo or guitar amp and it will do the same thing.
James
 
A few questions:

Do you have the preamp input gain turned up on either channel on the interface?

Does the amount of hiss change as you turn the preamp input gain up and down?

Are there mics plugged into the interface when you do this? If so, take them out and try it all again.

Unplug the monitors from the interface and try it all again. Does the amount of hiss change?

G.
 
swayofpendulums;3109801[B said:
Should I be using mono 1/4" instead of the stereo connection for my monitors[/B]?
Click to expand...

Not to knitpick, but I think a clarification in terminology is in order. What you refer to as 1/4" stereo connection is actually called TRS connector (Tip-Ring-Sleeve), and what you call 1/4" mono connection is called TS connector (Tip-Sleeve).

The reason I am bringing this up is although TRS connectors are used in unbalanced stereo cables, they are also used in balanced mono cables. In your case what you have is a balanced mono cable with a TRS connector on one end and an XLR on the other. The emphasis here should be on the fact that you are using a balanced cable and that's exacly what you should be using. So no, going to a TS unbalanced cable would actually make matters worse.

The hiss is most likely due to improper gain structure. If your monitors have volume or gain adjustment knobs, I'd recommend you raise them all the way up and see if they hiss on their own w/o having any cables plugged into the monitors. If they do, lower the volume. The tricky part here is going to be making sure you set them at the same exact level. On my Mackie's the manual suggested I crank them all the way up, and that's what I've done and I don't have hiss, so that kinda made it easy for me.

Next, plug in your interface, set the output volume on your interface at a reasonable level and see if you get any hiss. If you do, try the other outputs and see if you have hiss or not.

Work this way through your entire chain, making sure you set the gains apporpriately for each stage and note when you start getting the hiss.

BTW if your interface allows, make sure to mute any unused inputs. That is mute the physical inputs on the interface itself either through the control panel for the interface or through physical buttons/knobs, whichever is available.

Note that some interfaces inherently have higher noise floor (my Aardvark Q10 is among those) and they generate some hiss on their own. In my case I work around this by making sure I mute all the unused inputs and lowering the input gain as much as I can. The main thing that I record through it is my Kurzweil K2600 which has pretty hot outputs so reducing the gain on the interface is never an issue for me. YMMV.
 
Wow, thank you very much for the informative post.

It is kind of late in the evening to be tweaking my monitors without waking up the house so I'm going to try out your recommendations tomorrow!

cheers
 
Yo:

GLEN===

Isn't QUIET HISS an oxymoron?


Or is it a JUMBO SHRIMP?

:rolleyes::p:D

Green Hornet
 
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