Wharfe's Humming for a while at Start up???

  • Thread starter Thread starter WERNER 1
  • Start date Start date
hum?

maybe this will help...

http://www.ethanwiner.com/dimmers.html

still to try- wire attached from case to case. mentioned at the bottom of the article, this is done with equipment using various electronic units of different brands.

its funny i was just reading about cleaning up incoming ac, and there's all these "hum" threads. I plan to get some kind of "above average" power conditioner....it'd be fun to build one, but usually cheaper to buy one.
 
WERNER 1 said:
I got home last night and ran down to check the status of the hum....

At first listen I though it was still gone......but I only had the volume up 1/4 way on the speakers.

Turns out it was still there but about 1/2 as much as it was before. :confused:

Dang electronics!!! :D

Rick
Click to expand...

Just use those 3-->2 prong ground buster addaptor on your monitors. It want hurt a thing.
 
deepwater said:
Just use those 3-->2 prong ground buster addaptor on your monitors. It want hurt a thing.
Click to expand...
Well, it won't hurt anything until something happens and HE becomes the closest electrical path instead of the ground he just cut by using them....................... it's worthwhile to find the cause of a ground loop and fix it, not just remove the ground altogether........... :cool:
 
it's like...I've never met anyone who's been killed by a ground loop, same as I never met anyone who had an arm or leg broken by a swan but as a kid I was repeatedly told to stay away from the swans <chants> you'll take your eye out, you'll take your eye out</chants>
 
i haven't been shocked either for this, but an old equipment head has and he said "DON'T DO IT" and proceeded to tell me how it slammed the hell out of him, lifting the ground.

but what doesn't make sense is they sell these things everywhere, granted their intended for old houses that have the old,old receptacles (without the 3rd earth grd. hole)...but its not clearly marked with a Warning label, that i know of?

the key, is having at least one piece with the Earth ground so it is the path... my gut instinct is most people who haven't been shocked don't really know why they haven't been shocked...and until shocked, won't think much of it.

hell, i remember being young and stupid and actually cutting the Earth ground off the cables! :eek:
I never got shocked.....someone else may have, come to think of it! doh!

Troubleshooting and repairs often leads to some "knowledgable risk"...

I still recommend plugging in some different sources to the Wharfs... a battery unit CD player or something. that would partition the Wharfs out, beings the last test was inconclusive.
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
Well, it won't hurt anything until something happens and HE becomes the closest electrical path instead of the ground he just cut by using them....................... it's worthwhile to find the cause of a ground loop and fix it, not just remove the ground altogether........... :cool:
Click to expand...

Yup, and many manufacturers consider that to void the warrranty. Bad practice all around.

Those things aren't 3-2 converters. They are meant to be hooked to ground by the center screw in an outlet, that's what the little loop or wire at the top is. They were never intended to lift the ground, like some people think.
 
Last edited:
easychair said:
Yup, and many manufacturers consider that to void the warrranty. Bad practice all around.

Those things aren't 3-2 converters. They are meant to be hooked to ground by the center screw in an outlet, that's what the little loop or wire at the top is. They were never intended to lift the ground, like some people think.
Click to expand...


Say what you will but they are serve as life savers in a pinch. I do a lost of live sound and an I cant tell you the times that those have saved me. Also if you're renting an apartment or house you can't go and rewire the house. The best solution is to have isolated ground and ciruits for your studio, but thats not always an option.

Also if you get a lighting strike or power surge that is not covered by any manufactures warranty. However, it covered by you home owners/renters insurance ground or no ground. My Brother got 4 new computers a few months back thanks to a lucky lighting strike
 
Last edited:
deepwater said:
Say what you will but they a serve as life savers in a pinch. I do a lost of live sound and an I cant tell you the times that those have saved me.
Click to expand...

Me too, that's how I live. I did it once, then learned the right way to do it. There should always be time for safety. People get killed like that.

I would never endanger someone's life or gear, or expose myself to that kind of liability when other cheap solutions exist.

It's bad advice, period.
 
Them stupid things have been working fine all weekend! :mad:......I mean, I guess that should be good news, but I would really like to know for sure what was up so it doesn't show up agian right in the middle of a mixing session or something! :)

I'm all about safety, and I have a strong background in Industial Electronics (Industrial Maintenance) ......I've never seen anyone get "Killed" by 110.....all though I guess potentially it could.....You guys go grab a hold of some 480 and then come talk to me. I've been there and lived to tell about it, so 110 doesn't bother me too much any more (Heck, I change out recepticals all the time "live" :) )

My cables will be here this coming Thursday, so I'll get them all hooked up and probably take the time then to do the batter powered CD hook up thing along with interconnecting chassis grounds........I'll get to the bottom of this sooner or later!! :)

Thanks,
Rick
 
werner1..you sound like you got it.
i work around the high voltage and sht too, and agree some of this
intermitten stuff, is really hard to figure or catch. it could be something turning on./off?

being a home recording gearhead, i'd love to have a really high quality ac unit brickwall powerstrip generator conditioner, but there's other things higher on the list.

all this has brought up a good thing tho, having some "gear insurance" on the equipment tho...hell my studio wouldn't be far above my deductable!
$1,000 deductable/out of pocket. So i do plan to pick up a better strip than my Furman PL-8. I didn't do my homework. The Furman is better for live gig and has the lights and dimmer switch bs. i don't record in the dark, so its useless extras...better than nothing.

as with most equipment. for the same price you can get more for your money if you study a bit around the forums.

here's yet, another clip!
The ground slot and the neutral slot of an outlet are identical. That is, if you go back to the fuse box, you will find that the neutral and ground wires from all of the outlets go to the same place. They all connect to ground (see How Power Distribution Grids Work for details on grounding). Since they both go to the same place, why do you need both?

If you look around your house, what you will find is that just about every appliance with a metal case has a three-prong outlet. This may also include some things, like your computer, that have a metal-encased power supply inside even if the device itself comes in a plastic case. The idea behind grounding is to protect the people who use metal-encased appliances from electric shock. The casing is connected directly to the ground prong.

Let's say that a wire comes loose inside an ungrounded metal case, and the loose wire touches the metal case. If the loose wire is hot, then the metal case is now hot, and anyone who touches it will get a potentially fatal shock. With the case grounded, the electricity from the hot wire flows straight to ground, and this trips the fuse in the fuse box. Now the appliance won't work, but it won't kill you either.

What happens if you cut off the ground prong or use a cheater plug so you can plug a three-prong appliance into a two-prong outlet? Nothing really -- the appliance will still operate. What you have done, however, is disable an important safety feature that protects you from electric shock if a wire comes loose.
 
Ding, ding, ding....we have a winner! :D We need the little smiley of a hamer hitting a nail! :)

One thing I"ve been thinking about though is that I haven't turned my computer off all weekend, so I need to do that as that is when the problem is most prevailent........maybe tonight...

Rick
 
i din't get it? so whats the winner and smiley face about? :D
you found it??
 
Last edited:
Nah, ....actually I got home from work this evening and they were huming pretty loud again. .........I just got home from hockey game and they are relatively quite now... ???

I was talking about your description of the whole grounding thing........ - dead on! :)

I wish I had a few minutes to sit down and run some test, but I just don't have the time right now :(.....maybe this weekend..

Rick
 
ok. i thought you had found "the" answer...

the minute i think i understand all this stuff, there is a whole different level of understanding...electrons, RFI, EMI, grain size of the copper wire,
thomas edison...

often tho the "magic black box",
like the neutral and earth ground circuitry...
winds up something simple..like two wires actually tied together in the fuse box.

humming speakers.

#1 you have a pc + pc speakers= no hum
#2 you have a pc + Wharfedales= hum

so #3, Wharfedales + a second known clean sound source, cd player, cassette deck, microphone= ?? hmmm??

if #3 is clean
that leaves the cables, ground loopys, etc...
then by Thurs. your balanced cables will be here.

if #3 is hummiing.... i'd have concern of the Wharfs being faulty.

#4..if it comes and goes like someone said could be the refridgerator, ac.. your neighbors stuff after he spliced into your electric line while you were out! :eek:

a crazy question, but..you haven't been losing socks in your dryer have you?
like socks that all of sudden, mysteriously, you only have 1 of the two come out of the dryer?

its a stretch guess, but there's a thread called "Does the world add noise"....
started by Sonic Idiot. Its a 4 page thread.

You may not like what you find out, it could be quiet disturbing actually.
it has some interesting inputs from Dr. Timothy Lawler on Interdimensional Transfer via 4hz and stuff too complicated for me to explain. :)
 
Hey thanks for that link!!

I got my new cables TRS / XLR, and that didn't solve the problem.........I think it's something in the Delta's Breakout box since when I shut it down the hum is gone.??......could be from the PC as well though..

Still haven't had time to mess with it yet, I'm in the middle of putting some new heads on a 1990 Maxima that I took apart about 2 years ago :eek: It'll be a miracle if I can remember where all that stuff goes!!

Rick
 
Sorry if this has been covered, but....

Have you tried connecting the Wharfe's to a different source?
 
I was going to try and dig up a battery powered CD player or something to eliminate the possibility of AC on the CD player being the problem, but I've been unsuccesfull thus far on that one. :(

Rick
 
Wouldn't I need a preamp for that??, or would it just use the power from the monitors??

I thought about that before, but I thought I needed to use a preamp, which needs to be plugged in......back in the same boat..

Ok, I just hooked up a mic/XLR cable directly to one of the monitors. I had to crank the volume up all the way to get any sound out of the speakers, but it was Quiet(No hum), and I could hear everythings from mic clearly.

I wonder if there is any issues with leaving my Soundblaster Live sound card in my PC??? Or some grounding issue internally with the PC and the Delta's card?? ........The monitors have been humming really loud since I shut down my PC and restarted it(????)

Oh well, back to work on my car.

Rick
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top