Buzzing Monitor

davidhoffmanmusic · Post by **davidhoffmanmusic** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 6:08 am

I'm getting a faint hum - almost a buzz - out of one of my reference monitors - M-Audio BX5a. Not affected by the volume of what I'm sending to it.

Any ideas? A grounding issue maybe? How can I check? I'm not the handiest person when it comes to electronics, but I'd hate to take it to a shop if it's something I can address easily myself.

I appreciate any thoughts!

Gregg Juke · Post by **Gregg Juke** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 6:52 am

Weird. One would think that ground hum volume would increase when you turn the volume up.

Any problem with the spaeker itself, anything obvious? (Did you take the covers off and look at the speakers themselves?)

GJ

The Scum · Post by **The Scum** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 7:22 am

There are 3 major possibilities:
1 - the monitor itself has developed a hum.
2 - the device feeding the monitor has developed a hum.
3 - the interface of the two creates hum.
A little bit of triage work should tell us which of these is true.

Disconnect all of the audio signals from the monitor - listen with only the power hooked up.

Does it still hum?

I take it you've got a pair of these speakers, and only one is humming?

CurtZHP · Post by **CurtZHP** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 9:28 am

It could be the power transformer inside the cabinet. Several years ago, I noticed a faint hum in my studio that didn't seem connected in any way with any signals.

Traced it to a reverb unit I had in the rack. Even with no cables connected to it, it hummed; that is until I unplugged it.

Replaced the power transformer, and the hum stopped.

SimonSez · Post by **SimonSez** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 5:35 pm

It could also be placement next to a computer monitor or some other electronic device. I have a 30-inch LCD monitor and I had the power amplifier for the speakers on a shelf underneath the LCD monitor. There was a buzzing noise coming out of one speaker. I moved the amplifier to a different shelf and the hum went away.

strdsk · Post by **strdsk** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 10:55 am

I have the same type of thing happen on one set of my monitors. It could be power related. You in an older home with ungrounded power? Notice it only happens when your AC, heat, or bathroom fan is turned on? best...JD!

davidhoffmanmusic · Post by **davidhoffmanmusic** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 11:11 am

Thanks to everyone for the ideas!

I did quite a bit of troubleshooting, and it does, in fact, seem to be some kind of Electro-Magnetic Field interference thing from a particular external hard drive that I'm using! ...still trying to find a desk-space-management solution that will solve it.

It's amazing how these things can interact on the invisible fields plane, isn't it? I remember FREAKING OUT the first time my cell phone rang when I was playing a vintage Wurlitzer!

strdsk · Post by **strdsk** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 11:16 am

I once owned a commercial studio we spent $250k building. No matter what we did...we could not isolate this one bathroom fan in the place and ended up removing it. Ground lifts and all be damned...this motor just oozed toxic interference into the control room. Strange, but true...

JohnSuitcase · Post by **JohnSuitcase** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 7:52 am

I had a seagate drive with the same problem. I ended up getting another brand, which solved the issue. The seagate is fine as a backup drive, but generated a lot of buzzing in my monitors if it was anywhere near them. It was an external FW drive in a plastic case.

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