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:
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.
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):
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.
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.
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 HumThe 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.
Answers & Comments
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:
- 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.
- 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):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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.WARNINGOddly enough, this solution (surge protection) can sometimes increase the humming.
Ground Loop HumThe 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.