# Buzzing from receiver while on



## anonymous6366 (Sep 14, 2012)

hello all, I have a problem with the receiver in my frat's living room. It's a sony (I can look up the model if needed) and whenever it is on there is a buzzing sound coming from the speakers (cerwin vega xls15's i believe). I've looked around and think that its something with a ground loop. I haven't been able to find anything about how to fix it though. all this is used for is playing music from laptops/phones. Also it makes the buzzing sound with everything disconnected except for the speakers. Hopefully this is an easy fix, I'm guessing it is a pretty common problem. let me know if you have any ideas!

thanks in advance


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## sneekypeet (Sep 14, 2012)

so if you disconnect the inputs to the receiver you still get noise through the speakers when the receiver has power?


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## anonymous6366 (Sep 14, 2012)

sneekypeet said:


> so if you disconnect the inputs to the receiver you still get noise through the speakers when the receiver has power?



yes, with everything disconnected and the receiver powered on there is noise


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## INSTG8R (Sep 14, 2012)

Been awhile since I dug around the back of a receiver. Used to be there was a actually a ground "pin" on the back of receivers you could hook a wire to and ground it yourself(to a pipe for example)
I guess it depends on the age of the amp. Something to check for anyway.


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## anonymous6366 (Sep 14, 2012)

INSTG8R said:


> Been awhile since I dug around the back of a receiver. Used to be there was a actually a ground "pin" on the back of receivers you could hook a wire to and ground it yourself(to a pipe for example)
> I guess it depends on the age of the amp. Something to check for anyway.



I will look when I'm there tonugly!


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## anonymous6366 (Sep 15, 2012)

ah autocorrect fail lol. anyway i looked and there deffinately is a ground on the back of the reciever. so do i hook some speaker wire up the that and attach it somewhere then? if so where?


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## INSTG8R (Sep 15, 2012)

anonymous6366 said:


> ah autocorrect fail lol. anyway i looked and there deffinately is a ground on the back of the reciever. so do i hook some speaker wire up the that and attach it somewhere then? if so where?



Yep just strip both ends so you have some bare wire to work with. As to where to attach it well like I said earlier a water pipe is ideal but not always convenient. Got Rad's or Base Board heaters?


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## Kreij (Sep 15, 2012)

The center screw on the faceplate of a wall outlet is grounded to the metal on the plug inside. You can use that.
You can then run the wire along the power cord to keep things looking neat and tidy.


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## anonymous6366 (Sep 15, 2012)

Kreij said:


> The center screw on the faceplate of a wall outlet is grounded to the metal on the plug inside. You can use that.
> You can then run the wire along the power cord to keep things looking neat and tidy.



ok sweet, i'll try that. keeping things neat and tidy in that house isnt really of concern... lol


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## INSTG8R (Sep 15, 2012)

Kreij said:


> The center screw on the faceplate of a wall outlet is grounded to the metal on the plug inside. You can use that.
> You can then run the wire along the power cord to keep things looking neat and tidy.



Eureka! 

Last time I had to ground a receiver it was set up in my basement so had lots of "ground sources" available.


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## Kreij (Sep 15, 2012)

Did grounding the receiver eliminate the buzz?


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## INSTG8R (Sep 15, 2012)

Kreij said:


> Did grounding the receiver eliminate the buzz?




Also hoping it sorted it out. It was long shot it even had the ground on the back(Not knowing anything about the receiver) The "correct" steps have been taken. But did it work?


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## Kreij (Sep 15, 2012)

It may not be his problem. If he has a powered Subwoofer it could be a ground loop caused by the two powered units (receiver and subw) having different ground potentials. In that case he would need to ground the subw to the receiver and both to an earth ground.


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## anonymous6366 (Sep 15, 2012)

I actually didn't get a chance to try yet as I haven't been at the house since last night (work doesn't get done at night lol)

Oh and the subwoofers are passive ones in the same enclosure as the mid and tweeter


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## anonymous6366 (Sep 17, 2012)

Kreij said:


> The center screw on the faceplate of a wall outlet is grounded to the metal on the plug inside. You can use that.
> You can then run the wire along the power cord to keep things looking neat and tidy.



tried that today and it seemed to make the buzzing a little quieter but its still there. could it be that the reciever is just old?


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## anonymous6366 (Sep 21, 2012)

Any other ideas or is the receiver just toast?


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## Frederik S (Sep 21, 2012)

Could be the power circuitry in the reciever is toast. Maybe try and open it up and see if any of the caps or transistors are fried?


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## INSTG8R (Sep 21, 2012)

Yeah if the grounding didn't kill the buzzing it may be something more serious. Decent Speaker wire? possibly picking up some interference from something else near by. I am reaching now. I woulda hoped the ground wire sorted it...


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## Frederik S (Sep 21, 2012)

Speaker wire will never produce an error like this. It must be something within the reciever.


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## INSTG8R (Sep 21, 2012)

Frederik S said:


> Speaker wire will never produce an error like this. It must be something within the reciever.



Yeah I'm grasping as I said.


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## anonymous6366 (Sep 21, 2012)

I do want to try different wire because the stuff in there now is like 16 gauge and way too long like 20 feet long for something 5 feet away. Like you guys said its unlikely that that is the problem but its worth a shot


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## CaptBeyond (Oct 6, 2012)

anonymous6366 said:


> tried that today and it seemed to make the buzzing a little quieter but its still there. could it be that the reciever is just old?



That grounding connector on the back of the receiver may be for either an AM/FM tuner or for a phono turntable.

Does the receiver have more than one pair of speaker outputs? If so, use the secondary speaker outputs to see if the buzzing stops.

Reverse the primary speaker outputs so that left channel goes to right speaker, right channel to left speaker. If buzzing switches from one speaker to the other, either something wrong with receiver output or speaker cable.


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## Kalevalen (Oct 6, 2012)

Start simple. Troubleshooting ground loops involves taking things in order and checking a few basic, common elements to see if the problem is simple, or complex. For example, if adjusting the volume on your receiver does not alter the hum level, then the problem must be occurring after that point. It if occurred prior, then the receiver would typically raise the overall level of noise. Make sense?

Light dimmers, flourescent lamps, and other appliances that share the same circuit or common ground with your equipment can cause hums. 

 Check the polarity of the outlet - it may be wired backwards. You can get a polarity checker at Home Depot for about $5

Also NEVER use a three prong to two prong AC adapter to fix a ground loop problem.


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