UMC-1 Arrived, with a hum.

[Rivernuggets]

After selling a pair of RF-82s, the saving and selling is over.

Just got off the phone. Woot!

Now, onto a center channel.....

[wuzzzer]

Nice! So what's the rest of your setup going to be as far as amps/speakers/etc.?

I have yet to update the firmware on my UMC-1, mainly because my wife dropped her laptop the other day and now it won't connect to the internet. [:@]

[Rivernuggets]

Fronts = RF-7

Surrounds = RS-52

Center = Looking for one

Sub = RSW-12

For amps I'll see which one sounds/works the best: Emotiva XPA-3, Adcom GFA-7705, Sunfire Cinema Grand. Found the Adcom for a good price....with issues: surround left channel's protection is on, and the previous owner opened it up to replace a fuse. It's going to a repair guy about 45 minutes east of me. Hoping he can get it up and running.

I never noticed until now - do you have a center channel, or do you route that signal through your Forte IIs?

Checked out the firmware update video on Emotiva's site. Time consuming, but looks simple enough. Hopefully you can put out that laptop fire soon and move onward with your UMC-1. Having some laptop problems here, too. Stupid thing won't boot up without going to the blue screen of death. Tried many things, even changed out some hardware with no luck. I'm about ready to toss it off a rock quarry cliff, dance around and declare victory.

[wuzzzer]

No, I'm not running a center speaker. With my setup of having a DLP TV and the TV stand I have it isn't conducive to having one. I'd either have to have the speaker under the TV in its stand which would be way too close to the floor, or on top of the TV which would be way too high. Plus I'd have to make some kind of shelf to stick way out of the wall and over the TV. Some day if I ever get a wall-mountable TV or a different TV stand I'd like to have an Academy center.

[Rivernuggets]

I have tried many different wiring configurations trying to find the source of this hum. It's quiet, about 7-8 feet away from the speakers it's hard to hear it. Maybe I expect too much?

After installing the UMC-1 and the hum appeared, I systematically removed components one by one. I ended up with only the UMC-1 and XPA-3 hooked up (no source), and the hum is still present. Same story with my Sunfire Cinema Grand. It seems to be coming from the UMC-1. A power amp to speakers (Sunfire or XMC) without the UMC-1 is great - very very quiet. Once the UMC-1 is turned on, the hum is there.

I tried different outlets (in the same room) with and without a Belkin PF30, didn't make a difference. Also had RB-81s hooked up....hum. Emotiva suggested pinpointing a different circuit in the house, and try troubleshooting again. He also said to try the preamp outputs hooked up one at a time, slowly add them.

Any other ideas would be very welcome. This game of "let's find the hum" surprised me. Frustrating.

[cfelliot]

Start with the LPA and only the speakers connected and NOTHING else connect to the UMC-1.

Add 1 interconnect at a time between the UMC-1 and the LPA-1 to see if you have a bad interconnect.

[Rivernuggets]

Start with the LPA and only the speakers connected and NOTHING else connect to the UMC-1.

I did try only the amp connected to speakers = good silence. Then added the UMC-1 (with nothing else connected to it) = hum.

I'll try the interconnects one at a time.

Edit: Another thing I've noticed. Playing a CD and having the volume at 0.5 (the lowest it can go before silence), it's at a volume that is surprisingly loud. Louder than you'd think it should be starting from 0. There is also more hiss here than other receivers I own. I'm not up against the speaker, but maybe 8-9 feet away, Is the gain on the UMC-1 set very high and is it adjustable? Can't find anything in the menu. It makes sense if this gain can be turned down, the hum/hiss will also be considerably quieter.

[wuzzzer]

I had a gigantically loud hum from my UMC-1 when I first got it and realized it was my subwoofer RCA pre-out. It took me forever to pinpoint it. I never figured out if it was a bad cord or what because now I'm using the XLR output to the XLR input on my Samson amp.

Each channel's gain is independently adjustable in the menu. Everything is probably set to 0 from the factory and is a bit high for sensitive speakers such as Klipsch.

I'll send you my phone # in a private message. I'm free tomorrow evening after 7pm if you have any questions about setting up your UMC-1.

[wuzzzer]

Speaking of the UMC-1 I just performed the newest firmware update. According to Emotiva "There is new software (V 7.02) on the update page which
has some pretty significant updates to the audio performance of the unit
especially in regards to DTS."

I'll have to test out the audio within the next few days.

It took almost 2 hours to complete the entire upgrade. Its a slow, somewhat painful ordeal but everything went smoothly. Now we'll have to see if the same bugs that I used to have are still there...

[elitedemo]

that stinks, im suprised emo doesnt put latest firmware on there new units prior to sending them out, also had a hum switching between gear and ended up being a bad subwoofer cable, id remove all connections from the umc and systematically test out 1 channel at a time, hopefully you can find the cause easy enough and fortunately you have enough gear from the sounds of it to pinpoint the problem

[Rivernuggets]

Thanks for the feedback wuzzzer, cfelliot, and elite.

im suprised emo doesnt put latest firmware on there new units prior to sending them out

After ordering the UMC-1 I asked Emotiva if I have to update the firmware. They told me it is updated to the newest version.

I have some time this morning to troubleshoot.

[SuBXeRo]

i had hum with mine as well and it turned out to be that my rca cords were not shielded. If you dont have shielded buy them. Emotiva makes good cheap shielded rca's. I also noticed hum when putting it into a cabinet. I also had feed back through my HDMI cord from the cable box to the UMC-1. I changed the cord and it fixed it but yeah, the unit seems to be tempermental

[jacksonbart]

What song is it humming?

[elitedemo]

http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=subwoofer&x=0&y=0

i ordered the cl2 rated half way down the page, good cable that removed my humming

[Rivernuggets]

...cl2 rated half way down the page...

Same ones I am using.

My HDMI cords might be to blame. I'll look around for other kinds.

[Rivernuggets]

The TV seems to be a big factor. When powering it on a different circuit, the hum is much quieter. Now....to make that practical without running an extension cord from the back room to the HT.

SuBXeRo, what HDMI cord did you end up using between your cable box and UMC-1? I'll try a different HDMI cord and see if that helps also.

[cfelliot]

Disconnect the cable coax and see if the hum goes away. I had to put a filter on my cable box.

[SuBXeRo]

the best thing you can do is run everything off of one outlet. It really helps to weed out any ground loops. The only other thing after that is the coax for your cable that can create a ground loop as well. Be careful where your wires are, when you have a signal wire next to a power wire, make sure they cross at a 90 degree angle. Generally with shielded signal cables the hum is far less likely to occur but you are in a troublshooting phase, gotta go slow. You are doing things methodically which is excellent.

I bought this HDMI

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024008&p_id=3993&seq=1&format=2

I called monoprice to ask about the rca cords i bought, to ask if they were shielkded, they said they were but confirmed that the HDMI ones i had bought were shielded. The biggest suggestion i have for you when it comes to HDMI cords is that bigger is better...but not all the time. For a 10 foot run, the smaller gauage works great. I had stressed one of my HDMI ports and actually had to send it in to emotiva for repair. I damaged it with a heavier gauage, more rigid HDMI cord. Also keep in mind, the cabinet you are putting your UMC-1 in. DO NOT squish the cards because it can stress the ports. I bought this as well http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240&cs_id=1024010&p_id=2891&seq=1&format=2 Its a port saver. When troubleshooting you dont wanna wear out the ports. I kept them on so i had alil more play, didnt wanna worry about damaging the ports again

I also bought a USB cord http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=103&cp_id=10303&cs_id=1030301&p_id=5440&seq=1&format=2 so that i could hook it up and then update the firmware via my laptop or put a USB extension on and put it to my tower.

I bought these emotiva rca's http://emotiva.com/ultracables.shtm i bought 2 stereo and 1 single since i only have a 5 channel

[cfelliot]

If it is the cable use this http://www.jensen-transformers.com/datashts/vrd1ff.pdf

[Rivernuggets]

HDMI cables and Jensen Ground Isolator purchased. Thanks for the research dudes.