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Limberpine

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Welp sent the Vincent ST-70 back to Will he checked it out and couldn't find anything wrong with it.....then talked to Holger at Erhard, he asked that I send Aretha back and he's checking it out right now, but is not seeing anything wrong with it.

 

I checked my DAC and don't see any bulging caps or anything that could be wrong with that, I checked my sub controller and dont see any bulging caps there either. Both just visual inspections. 

 

So I'm at a loss as to what could be causing the weird noises when Aretha is hooked up, cause I dont get the same noises when I have the Schiit SYS hooked up. 

 

Will wait to get Aretha back to see if the sound persists, if it does I will need to do some more troubleshooting. 

 

The ST-70 with new tubes sounds rad though. I put new Tung Sol EL34's and a NOS rectifier in it and its sounds really nice. 

 

Onward to the music! 😁

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  • 1 month later...
5 hours ago, C10 said:

have you been able to make any progress on the issue?

I have! I had the Vincent gone through twice and there is nothing wrong with it. I had the Preamp gone through and again nothing wrong with it.  

There is something amiss with the new wiring in the room (probably not properly grounded somewhere...) because when I have the lights turned on you hear buzzing coming from the amp, regardless of if its the Vincent ST-70, St-35, or my Oliver Sayes 45. So, I leave the light off in the main room and just have lights on in the area behind me. Short of tearing apart the walls and redoing the wiring, that is where I am. 

 

 

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On 3/10/2021 at 6:56 PM, Limberpine said:

There is something amiss with the new wiring in the room (probably not properly grounded somewhere...) because when I have the lights turned on you hear buzzing coming from the amp, regardless of if its the Vincent ST-70, St-35, or my Oliver Sayes 45. So, I leave the light off in the main room and just have lights on in the area behind me. Short of tearing apart the walls and redoing the wiring, that is where I am. 

 

Are the lights on a dimmer ...?  If so some dimmers types are worse than others at generating rf noise and systems with high gain and high efficiency speakers can reveal the buzz/noise and you might notice it changes depending on where the dimmer level is set at.

 

Fluorescent lights can also be a noise source as well which systems with high gain and high efficiency loudspeaker can expose as well.

 

miketn 

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On 3/15/2021 at 5:03 PM, mikebse2a3 said:

 

Are the lights on a dimmer ...?  If so some dimmers types are worse than others at generating rf noise and systems with high gain and high efficiency speakers can reveal the buzz/noise and you might notice it changes depending on where the dimmer level is set at.

 

Fluorescent lights can also be a noise source as well which systems with high gain and high efficiency loudspeaker can expose as well.

 

miketn 

Ding ding ding we have a winner! 

 

The other night, I was down there listening to the system with my GF and she got up to leave and turned the light off and the noise was drastically reduced. Not gone all together, but noticeable in reduction. We have one dimmer on that circuit and another on the other side of the room on another circuit. So, even if they're off, the system will still be about 12-14ft away from the switches. It would be easy enough to put in a outlet that is dedicated to the stereo, but how much do I need to consider the dimmers and the noise they would cause without even being on the same circuit? 

 

No floursenct lights. Only leds down there now. 

 

Too funny, I was JUST about to post what I found. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/2/2020 at 5:31 PM, Limberpine said:

Okay, so I got an outlet tester and it appears the the outlet was wired wrong, so the polarity was switched. I fixed that and it tests correct now.

 

I have not read the rest of this thread yet, but want to comment on this older post right now and say that you may want to check the entire house.

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On 12/3/2020 at 7:55 PM, Limberpine said:

Set the SS up and there isn't any hum...

 

On 3/15/2021 at 5:03 PM, mikebse2a3 said:

 

Are the lights on a dimmer ...?  If so some dimmers types are worse than others at generating rf noise and systems with high gain and high efficiency speakers can reveal the buzz/noise and you might notice it changes depending on where the dimmer level is set at.

 

Fluorescent lights can also be a noise source as well which systems with high gain and high efficiency loudspeaker can expose as well.

 

miketn 

 

On 3/15/2021 at 6:41 PM, Limberpine said:

The other night, I was down there listening to the system with my GF and she got up to leave and turned the light off and the noise was drastically reduced. Not gone all together, but noticeable in reduction. We have one dimmer on that circuit and another on the other side of the room on another circuit. So, even if they're off, the system will still be about 12-14ft away from the switches. It would be easy enough to put in a outlet that is dedicated to the stereo, but how much do I need to consider the dimmers and the noise they would cause without even being on the same circuit? 

 

No floursenct lights. Only leds down there now. 

 

Seems that your tube amp is sensitive to the RF emissions of the light dimmers. I would replace the dimmers with a basic on/off switch. Mood lighting can then be dealt with independently. 

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8 hours ago, MeloManiac said:

There's a neat and clean solution to your problem:

https://gizmodo.com/obsessed-audiophiles-in-japan-are-installing-their-own-1785291714

 

 

Wow, that's a long wait. I am former to the utility industry and they are years out in bringing new lines to people to upgrade their power, so I bet this is in that same vein. Also, I feel like people get crazy with this stuff and wonder if their $150k system is 150x better than mine. Maybe I need to listen to a HIGH end system, but I have a hard time believing that it's THAT much better.........

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When someone clicks on a light elsewhere in my house, I can hear a tiny click through my tubeamp setup. This does not occur with my other solid state amps, so I think it has to do with the design of my tubeamp. Still, as the quality of the amp outweighs these issues, I have learned to live with it. During the Easter weekend, due to this inspiring thread, I will rearrange my  wiring (mostly decoupling all chargers and lights) and see if it affects sound quality in a good way. 

Does anybody know how these new types of light, mostly energy saving, like dimmable LEDs and fillament lamps affect the electrical circuit and ultimately the sound quality?

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Yeah, there seems to be a time later at night, when a lot of the appliances and lights are off that the music just opens up and I have a hard time discerning if its the electronics or the tube warm up time. 

 

I've thought about unplugging everything except the fridge and dishwasher and listening to see what its like then, but I would def need my GF to not be home, cause she wouldn't like that. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have a window this evening where I can shut down every breaker in the house except the one that the stereo system is on and see if that make a difference. If so, I will then document which breakers introduce noise as I turn each one back on and go from there.

 

I have also added a Powervar hospital grade power conditioner/isolation transformer that I purchased for $60 from a guy here locally. I have the tube amps plugged into it and it has definitely cut some noise out which has been nice.

Also as an aside, GIK has a really cool tool to draw your room out and then have them make a treatment plan from there.

 

https://gikacoustics.roomle.com/t/planner/?mode=3D&id=a9v22dy7tc3ckls982o18sh2e08w73p&shared=1

 

 

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8 minutes ago, Limberpine said:

I have a window this evening where I can shut down every breaker in the house except the one that the stereo system is on and see if that make a difference. If so, I will then document which breakers introduce noise as I turn each one back on and go from there.

 

I have also added a Powervar hospital grade power conditioner/isolation transformer that I purchased for $60 from a guy here locally. I have the tube amps plugged into it and it has definitely cut some noise out which has been nice.

Also as an aside, GIK has a really cool tool to draw your room out and then have them make a treatment plan from there.

 

https://gikacoustics.roomle.com/t/planner/?mode=3D&id=a9v22dy7tc3ckls982o18sh2e08w73p&shared=1

 

 

Yes, based on the noise, that would be a cool idea. While about it, if the same while other breakers off, may be a good time to troubleshoot the dimmer switch and any other idea.

Cool, please let us know.

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3 minutes ago, billybob said:

Yes, based on the noise, that would be a cool idea. While about it, if the same while other breakers off, may be a good time to troubleshoot the dimmer switch and any other idea.

Cool, please let us know.

Yeah, that's a good idea. Maybe I will take both dimmer switches out too to see what difference it makes. The one that is on the same circuit certainly makes a difference when its turned off and it stays off whenever I am down there listening to music. 

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Welp, I turned off every circuit in the house except the one that the stereo system is on and the buzz still persists. What's weird is that my SET amp doesn't have the buzz, it has a dull hum up close, but all of my push pull amps have this same buzz. 

 

Video attached of the sound from 3ft away from the speaker. Headphones are helpful to hear it, because of taking the video from my phone. 

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