Subwoofer hum My subwoofer hums even when I disconnect the cables leading from my other auto equipment. THe subwoofer continues to hum even though there nothing is attached - is is simply plugged into the ac outlet. Can you suggest what might be the problem?

Why does my subwoofer make a humming noise? The voltage difference between a subwoofer electrical ground and the equipment ground can cause it to hum. This can happen because of the irregular current flow in your audio cable. Turning on the volume too high can also cause a hum.

Try the following steps to stop subwoofer hum.

1. If the subwoofer is plugged into its own outlet, plug the subwoofer's power cord into an outlet shared by the other components. Use an extension cord if necessary.
2. If the hum persists, and your system includes a cable TV, disconnect the cable line. If the hum stops, install an isolation transformer on the cable.
3. If the hum persists, disconnect the remaining component cables one at a time until the hum stops. Install a coaxial isolation transformer on that cable.
4. If the hum persists, install a line-level ground loop isolator on the subwoofer's line-level feed cable. This usually solves most hum problems.
5. If nothing helps, disconnect all the audio cables from the subwoofer. Leave the subwoofer plugged in and switched on. If the subwoofer hums, it points to a defective unit. Contact the company's customer service to technical support.

I suspect the amplifier is damaged. This is not an easy repair to do unless you are well versed in audio electronics. I would recommend a repair shop to look at the subwoofer amplifier.

The number-one cause of subwoofer/speaker hum is the coaxial cable connecting your cable or satellite receiver to your provider (either through an inground run to a cable box or through a satellite dish). Here is how you test for this:

1. Turn your system on and get it to produce the hum by watching a movie. Pause your DVD or videotape so that the hum is all you hear.
   

   TIPDon't use a normal cable or satellite program for this; you're about to disconnect the cable that provides the audio and video for your cable/satellite feed.
   

2. Find the coaxial cable running from your cable or satellite receiver to your service provider, and while listening to the hum, unscrew the connector and disconnect the cable.
   

Did the hum stop or reduce by a large amount? If so, the cable you disconnected is the source of the noise. If this is the problem, you have several ways to fix the issue permanently (if not, jump ahead to the next section):

1. Call your cable or satellite company and ask for a service call. Sometimes you get a smart cable guy, and if you demonstrate the problem he can do something upstream to ground the coaxial cable and remove or reduce the hum.
   
2. Buy a power strip that has F connectors as part of its surge protection. Plug the strip into the AC outlet and feed your main coaxial signal through these connectors. This ties the shielding of the coax (the source of the noise) to your AC ground and sometimes can solve the problem.
   

   WARNINGOddly enough, this solution (surge protection) can sometimes increase the humming.
   

3. Go to your local RadioShack store and buy three inexpensive items: a Matching Transformer (part #15-1253), an Indoor/Outdoor Matching Transformer (#15-1140), and a Cable Coupler (#278-304). Connect your coaxial cable to the cable coupler, and then to the first matching transformer. The output is two screws for the old two-wire antenna wire. Your indoor/outdoor matching transformer has two connectors for the screws, and the other end is a coaxial connector. Hook your cable or satellite receiver into this connector and see if the hum goes away.
   

Here is why this trick works: the first transformer converts your 75-ohm coax into a 300-ohm antenna connector. The second transformer converts the 300-ohm back to a 75-ohm connector. The humming, which usually is at around 60 Hz, can't pass through these conversions.

Ground Loop Hum

The second cause of hum is called a ground loop, and it almost always shows up right after you bring home a brand-new, self-powered subwoofer, or perhaps an external amplifier.
Take a look at all the plugs on the power cords on your home theater equipment. In most systems, the receiver (or amplifier) has a three-prong power plug, but most of your other devices have only two-prong plugs. This is not by accident; the device with the three-prong power plug is grounded. This means that device "owns" the ground. As long as no other power device has a three-prong plug, everything works well.
When you bring home a self-powered subwoofer and plug it in, though, you might notice it has a three-prong plug; this is for safety reasons. However, when you connect an RCA cable from your receiver to your subwoofer and turn everything on, you suddenly notice a loud hum.
The external amplifier in your subwoofer is now fighting with the amplifier in your receiver for possession of the ground. Both devices want to define 0.00 volts. But because the wiring in the two amplifiers to your household AC ground is different, one device is really using 0.001 volt and the other device uses something closer to 0.003 volts. The subwoofer cable connects the two, and the fighting begins.
You have to stop these two devices from trying to own the ground, or get them to not "see" each other. First, make your system produce the humming noise. Disconnect the single RCA cable between your receiver and subwoofer. Did the noise stop? If so, you have a ground loop issue.
The proper, safest way to solve this problem is to buy a special subwoofer cable with little arrows on the wire to show the signal direction (see ).
[img src="http://oreilly.com/images/hacks/htheaterhks/figs/htheaterhks_0601.jpg">
Figure 1. Subwoofer cable with directional arrowUnfortunately, many people have been ridiculed when asking about these sorts of cables at their local electronics store: "But cables don't really have a direction. My expert friend at work laughed at me when I asked about this!" Yes, your friend is right. Cables don't have a direction, but these little arrows indicate that this cable will prevent or solve your ground loop problem.
Remember when I said the hum started when you connected the RCA cable? That RCA cable really contains two wires: the center wire and something called the shield. The center wire carries the audio signal, but the shield tries to define 0.00 volts. The shield is the wire that lets the two different components (the receiver or amplifier, and the subwoofer) see each other's ground, and causes the fight. What if you took your subwoofer cable and disconnected the shielding from just one end? Wouldn't that solve the problem? Yes, it would. This is exactly what a subwoofer cable with little arrows does. The shield is not connected at both ends. The shield has to be connected at one end, for connecting to your receiver or amp, so you should run the cable so that the arrows show the flow from the receiver to the subwoofer.

WARNINGIt is unsafe to use a two-prong to three-prong "cheater" plug on the subwoofer power cord to solve the hum problem. Even if the subwoofer came with a cheater plug in the box, it's REALLY not safe to do. Don't do it.

see this instruction and fix it. God bless you

1. • 1
     Disconnect the coaxial cable at the back of the satellite receiver or cable box by unscrewing the coupler on the cable end.
     
     
   • 2
     Attach the cable to the RF IN jack on a surge protector and tighten the coupler clockwise.
     
     
   • 
     Sponsored Links
     
     • Gantt Chart Templates Over 2,000,000 Satisfied Users. Smartsheet is #1 Gantt Templates.
       Smartsheet.com/Gantt_Templates
     
     
   • 3
     Connect a second coaxial cable from the RF OUT jack on the surge protector to the input on the cable box or satellite receiver. If this stops the hum, congratulations: You're done.
     
     
   • 4
     Unplug the subwoofer's electrical cord from the power strip or wall outlet if it is connected to the same circuit as the AV receiver. The amp in the AV receiver and the amp in the subwoofer are in conflict over the grounding of the electrical circuit.
     
     
   • 5
     Plug the subwoofer into its own surge protector and connect the surge protector to a different wall outlet than the AV receiver uses.
     
     
   • 6
     Disconnect the subwoofer cable from the back of the sub and the AV receiver if all other measures fail to stop the humming. Reverse the plug connections so the plug that had been connected to the receiver is now connected to the subwoofer. Turning the cable around may solve a problem known as ground-loop hum by reversing the shielding wire inside the cable.
     
     

Read more: http://www.ehow.com/how_6979184_eliminate-sound-home-theater-subwoofer.html#ixzz2ZdzrgBSa

The symptom sounds like an open signal shield somewhere and the cable is acting like an antenna for airborne electrical noise.

Disconnect the RCA cable at the sub. Is it still humming? NO? Problem is external to it. YES? Internal. Broken ground somewhere.

Recheck all connections making sure to twist the RCA head as you install it so oxides will be worn off.

Consider what may have changed in the environment regarding electrical devices, motors, magnetic sources. Ensure signal and speaker wires as ar not running are as non-parallel to any power cords as practicable.

Subs don't go to a variety of connections on the amp. Let's stop guessing and stick with the prescribed one.

Register and download the manuals for free at retrevo.com

http://www.retrevo.com/support/Yamaha-YST-SW320-Subwoofers-manual/id/320bh340/t/2/

See page E1 regarding placement and safety.

http://www.retrevo.com/support/Yamaha-DSP-A595-Amps-manual/id/319ag821/t/2/

Page 44 - read about "humming".

If you have hum on the sub, is it there with and/or without the input cable attached?

Disconnect the input(s) and see if it hums in the absence of an audio source. A bad audio cable shield or unwisely-routed audio cables will allow entrance of unwanted signals from external power sources, magnetic fields, even dimmer-controlled track lights. Sometimes, simply reversing the orientation of the ac power plug can eliminate humming.

How to isolate annoying background hum.

As long as the music or movie is playing, you can forget about it, at least until a quiet passage occurs, then there it is again: HUMMMMMMM! Be gone, bad hum, you think. But, like a bad odor at the back of the fridge, it takes some dogged persistence to track it down and eliminate it.

Hum is a constant low-frequency buzz, usually at about 60 Hz or 120 Hz, which results from voltage differences between true "ground" (what you'd get shoving a copper pipe into the ground) and the electrical "ground" of your receiver's chassis, the incoming cable-TV feed, or any video or audio components interconnected within your system, including powered subwoofers. When this voltage differential exists, it's called a "ground loop," and the hum it produces is darned annoying. You'll hear the hum mainly from the subwoofer because it's a low-frequency noise, but there will also be hum from your floorstanding front speakers or even compact bookshelf models.

First, try disconnecting your subwoofer from the coaxial sub cable from your AV receiver but leave the subwoofer turned on. Does the hum go away? If it does, then the ground loop is entering the system from your AV receiver and/or your cable-TV system set-top box (or satellite dish and decoder).

Disconnect the incoming TV-cable or satellite feed to a set-top box or to your TV and the A/V receiver. If the hum disappears (and you don't use a satellite dish) complain to the cable-TV company. They may know what you need and supply you with a ground-isolating transformer. If they don't know what you are talking about you'll need to order a video ground isolator and install it in-line with the TV cable before it enters your set-top cable-TV box. Axiom has special wide-band isolation transformers that will not interfere with any digital TV or HDTV signal. (N.B. You CANNOT use one of these with a satellite decoder box.)

Before you order one, you can try plugging your subwoofer into a different AC outlet in the room, ideally one that is not on the same circuit as your AV receiver and video equipment (TV, DVD player, sat or cable TV box, etc.) That may solve the problem. If it doesn't, see if the back panel of your sub has a "ground-lift screw". It will be labeled as such. Just remove it. That may remove the hum. If it doesn't and you have a standard cable-TV feed (not a dish), then order the ground-isolation transformer. (Axiom has special wide-band isolation transformers that will not interfere with any digital TV or HDTV signal.)
Axiom Audio Ground Isolator

If that still doesn't eliminate the hum, or if you use a satellite dish video feed, then you could try one of these from Radio Shack, which goes between the subwoofer and the coaxial cable from the receiver's subwoofer output.

With persistence, all ground-loop problems can be solved.

Hope it helped..

Have a nice day...

Hi, The Ground Rules Of all the annoyances that can afflict any audio/video home theater or even a simple stereo installation, the notorious "ground loop" may well be the most difficult and persistent one to track down and eliminate. A "ground loop" is caused by the difference in electrical potential at different grounding points in an audio/video system. (All the grounds in an A/V system should ideally be at "0" potential.) A ground loop typically adds a loud low-frequency hum or buzz as soon as you plug in any of various audio or video components, including subwoofers, cable-TV outboard boxes, satellite-TV feeds, TV displays, amplifiers, A/V receivers or turntables. The buzz/hum is a byproduct of the multiple power supply cables and a ground voltage differential within your system and its network of interconnecting cables.

Here are some methods to help you get rid of ground loops. Try these first and don't waste money on a power "conditioner" which, in most cases, won't help. (There is no need to "condition" the AC power for your system. Your receiver or amplifier already has a power supply with its own filters and transformers. No further filtering is normally required.)

If you get your system up and running and hear an audible buzz or hum, the first culprit to look at is either the powered subwoofer or your cable-TV or satellite-box feed at the entry point to your system.

First, the subwoofer: unplug the coaxial cable that connects to your powered subwoofer to see if the ground-loop hum disappears. If it does, it's likely coming in through your cable/satellite TV feed.

Reconnect your subwoofer's coaxial cable from the subwoofer input to your receiver's subwoofer output and disconnect the cable-TV feed (or satellite feed) from your outboard set-top cable box or satellite tuner. Be sure and disconnect the cable before any splitters. Now see if the hum/buzz from your subwoofer stops.

If that eliminates the hum, you can install one of these inexpensive in-line ground isolators from Parts Express or Bass Home. Note that these transformer-based ground isolators will work fine with analog cable-TV feeds, but depending on their design they may interfere with or block reception of HDTV signals via a digital cable or satellite dish feed.

Install the ground isolator between the cable-TV feed and the input of your outboard cable-TV box or satellite tuner (or the TV display's antenna or cable input if you have a set with a built-in TV tuner or a cable-card ready set). In many cases, the ground isolator will "break" the loop and remove the annoying hum or buzz by isolating the TV-cable ground.

If a hum remains with the TV cable completely disconnected from your system, or you don't want to risk degrading reception of HD signals from a cable or satellite system, then you may have to add a ground isolator like this Radio Shack Model 270-054 between the line-level coaxial subwoofer cable from your A/V receiver and the line-level input jack on your powered subwoofer.

In all cases, if your subwoofer has a ground-lift screw like some of Axiom's subwoofers, try first removing the screw (or replacing it) to see if it increases or eliminates the hum. It may or may not make a difference.

If you do not have easy access to the aforementioned ground isolators, here are a few more tips:

Try plugging the subwoofer into a different AC outlet in the room, one that isn't supplying power to your components (A/V receiver, TV, cable box, etc.). That might fix it.

Try reversing the AC plug for your A/V receiver or the powered subwoofer. If it's a 3-wire plug or a polarized plug, which has one prong wider than the other, you won't be able to reverse the plug. For safety, do not use a "cheater plug" to bypass the 3-wire plug.

With the power OFF, reverse the AC plugs one by one of any other components that have a standard 2-prong AC plug that isn't polarized. Each time you reverse a plug, turn on the system with the attached component and your subwoofer and see if the hum disappears. In some cases, reversing one or more plugs will eliminate the hum.

If you have a turntable, try connecting a separate ground wire to a chassis screw on your preamp or receiver and see if the hum disappears. If you already have a turntable ground wire, try removing it from the preamp. One or the other may eliminate the hum.

Finally, here is another solution that worked well for a member of our message boards who decided to discard his ground-loop isolator on his subwoofer: "I took off the ground-loop isolator I'd been using and connected a plain 14-gauge wire to chassis screws on the sub and the receiver then powered everything on. Although hum was still there, it was far lower than before. Next I unscrewed the ground-loop screw on the back of the sub and that took care of the hum completely."

Almost certainly sounds like an earth loop to me, but can be caused by a poorly made transformer or phase shifts on the mains supply. Visit some power conditioner web-sites like Isotek or Isol-8 (or google "earth loop") where there's plenty of advice on how to reduce/eliminate earth loops and other causes of mains-induced hum (transformer problems etc).

Hum on the speakers usually indicates that there is a DC voltage on the speaker line. DC voltage on the output lines would be caused by a shorted output transistor.


Have a nice day...

you have a ground loop issue you could purchase a ground loop isolator, jensen makes them for about 40 bucks.I have discovered that if you have cable tv, unplug the incoming cable in your cable box and see if hum disappears.