cultrain88 Posted April 30, 2003 Share Posted April 30, 2003 I own a pair of 90 Khorns w/alk3 crossovers. The problem is that my khorns hiss quite a bit from the tweeters and some from the mid. I have tried various equipment setups(anthem,denon,onkyo,Aragon). I've called the tech guys here at klipsch, still waiting on a response. The hiss is quite audible from 4 to 5 ft away, and grows with each volume increment. Does anybody have this problem?? And how do I fix this problem without having to replace speakers. Its driving me insane! I love my khorns. Not ready to throw in the towel just yet! My current system: Aragon Stage one av processor 3005 Aragon amp Denon 2900 DVD Khorns 90 RC-7,RS-7's 2 Svs 20-39pc plus Mitsubishi 73909 tv Transparent super Interconnects Straight wire Rhapsody Interconnects Straight wire Rhapsody Speaker wire PS Audio Ultimate Outlets Transparent Bank Six Cultrain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbflash Posted April 30, 2003 Share Posted April 30, 2003 Cultrain Your speakers are not hissing, its your equipment. the speakers are just reproducing what is being fed to them. With just your amp on with nothing else turned on are you getting hiss? If yes then it's your amp. If not then turn your pre on. you have to eliminate all components in the chain. I've been lucky and never had hiss. Hum is another story. I think hiss is "white noise". Your speakers are very sensitive. Good Luck. Danny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cultrain88 Posted May 1, 2003 Author Share Posted May 1, 2003 Thank you for the reply White noise would be the appropriate technical name for my problem. But I still believe there has to be a solution to this problem, without having to spend another 10k to 20k on upgrades. Although, could use that excuse to my wife, don't think she will buy into that. I talked to a home theater tech guy at klipsch. He told me that he has ran the same setup on his khorns down in the r&d dept, along with the 8008mkII,palladiums and other the aragon has to offer, and does not have this same problem. I know their will always be some white noise within. But my white noise is extremely audible. Like someone is poking my eyes out, or ears for that matter. As for Isolating the problem, I get white noise from preamp or amp. Also the hiss is audible when source components are not playing. Muted or not. Still there. Thank for the info cultrain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricktate Posted May 1, 2003 Share Posted May 1, 2003 hi,well i dont have hiss at all,,,,i also dont have a 5-7 channel set up....but it seems like you have a lot of stuff that could be causing the hiss....maybe you should sell some of that high dollar stuff and buy another house with the cash..lol..just kidding,,,but maybe some of the stuff you have added makes the hiss,,,from my view simple is better.Try hooking up a 2 channel amp with a cd player...maybe hiss will go away then....Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricktate Posted May 1, 2003 Share Posted May 1, 2003 On second thought you should get rid of those k-horns.....e-mail me, i will take those off your hands......Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbflash Posted May 1, 2003 Share Posted May 1, 2003 Cultrain If you have the hiss with just the amp and nothing else turned on and connected it could be your AC power feed. I have never tried this but maybe put a cheater plug on your AC cord to your amp and see if the hiss goes away. I have done this with Hum but not hiss. I'm sorry but I don't really know Khorns, yet. Is the ALK/3 crossover the original xover? If you have tried other components the only thing common is the AC. If the connections were loose (speaker wire, xover connections, etc) I think you would have hum. I don't think you have to spend alot of money to fix this. Danny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artto Posted May 1, 2003 Share Posted May 1, 2003 db is right on this one. as a side note: solid state, even though it often "measures" better (over the limited specification bandwidth), overall, they can often sound noisier. Just for reference, my Lux tube power amps measure 20+ Db higher noise than than the Crown "pro" amps I use for "everyday" use. How come noise from the Crown SS amps is easily audible anywhere in the room with their gain turned all the way up, yet the tube amps, under the same conditions, noise & hum is inaudible with my ear against the speaker? Its the old "garbage in, garbage out" scenario. The more accurate the reproducer, the more it will expose the shortcomings of everything before it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryC Posted May 1, 2003 Share Posted May 1, 2003 Did you precisely try db's approach, i.e., turn off everything except the amplifier to see if it's the perp? If it's quiet with only the amp on, but the white noise comes on when you then turn on the pre-amp/processor, the pre-amp is a candidate source. Next step: does the noise change when you turn the volume control up or down, i.e., or is it still there with the volume control all the way down? If the latter, I'd suspect the part of the pre-amp circuitry that follows the volume control. Also, does the preamp have a mute switch, and what happens then? -- it may mute right at the pre-amp output and quiet the noise, whereas the volume control may not if noisy circuitry follows it. If it's from the pre-amp after the volume control, one culprit could be the overall gain of the amplifier -- according to the website, the 3005 puts out 300 watts, a lot for K-horns, and such a high wattage risks a lot of gain. Indeed, the website gives its sensitivity as 1.72 v. or 3.44 v. depending on some feature (?balanced vs. SE...?). If it's 1.72, that's the same as 0.86 for 75 watts, a rather high sensitivity (low input voltage = high sensitivity) for K-horns, which could magnify preamp hiss quite a bit. The other sensitivity, 3.44, might be much better if you can somehow do that. Also, do you have to set the volume control way down to keep the level reasonable? That also would suggest a high sensitivity. If none of this computes, then others' wisdom is better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted May 1, 2003 Share Posted May 1, 2003 this is purely something i've been thinking about and it relates so i'll ask all y'all while we're at it ppl have mentioned equipment picking up radio stations and other things like that...is it possible that white noise could also come from a radio signal that is inbetween stations? it just doesn't sit right to claim SS equipment is the only cause for white nosie and i've got multiple situations of my own where i just have to ignore large amounts of this white noise. based on my similar circumstances though, i would have to agree that your power source may be the largest factor. and if not that, then your gain structure is off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cultrain88 Posted May 1, 2003 Author Share Posted May 1, 2003 Thank you all for the information. As for buying a house after I sell my equipment, you must have been talking to my better half. Selling my Khorns!! Isn't that Sacralege to even mention those words!! Although a pair of Dynaudio evidence masters would be nice.. hehe Then I would have to sell my house and live in em.. I have put a cheater plug on my amp to get rid of a ground loop problem, does not change white noise level though. Eventually I'm going to put a dedicated 20amp 10guage with isolated ground. For some reason, the builder decided to put almost everything he could find on that breaker, I think I found a flux capacitor(1.2 gigawatts) attached also. As for Isolation of the white noise it goes like this. Turn amp on, minuscule amount, had to put ear to tweeter to even hear it. Then I turned on preamp/processor and the white increase significantly. So my perp is my preamp. Then I hit the mute on the preamp, white noise cuts out about 40% of what it is when not muted. I turn the preamp amp up and the white noise does not increase with a higher setting. As for your question danny, yes the ak3 crossover is the original. I bought my Khorns in 90 in Japan at camp foster october fest for $1500 brand new in the box. Wish I had bought two pairs. I am currently using the SE version on the amp w/sensitivity of 1.72, I would have used the balanced xlr, but the stage one doesn't offer the balanced inputs. Try to figure that one out. I haven't messed with the gain yet on my preamp, only have had for a couple of weeks. Not quite sure on that one yet. Sell my horns, I'm still chuckling about that one!! I'm frustrated not clinically insane. Once again, thank you everybody for your input and wisdom and time. Cultrain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 I have had some similar experiences with HT gear. It caused me to return the HT receiver and decide to upgrade another day. It may well be that the noise maker is the digital signal processor in the HT pre amp (which is what I understand you to have). See if you can find a setting, maybe labeled the equivalent of straight stereo, in which there is no signal processing. At least that will be a start. I quite agree that the noise problem would not be a great an issue except for the sensitivity of the K-Horns. I'm a bit puzzled that the noise increases with volume. BTW where are you located? I use some autotransformers to adjust for impedance and output level on one of my set ups. I could loan them to you if you'd like to experiment. It is about $25 worth of parts from RS. They are presently set up with banana plugs. Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Cornell Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 Ive had several units on my K-horns 2 harman kardon 430s 1 harman kardon 730 Pyramid amp Conrad johnson MV-52 tube amp Pioneer SX-950 I have never had a hiss i can hear 5 feet away! What up? Regards Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 When I changed over to new separates, HALO, I started having a hiss that bothered me. I too had to troubleshoot the amp and pre/pro. It turns out that just connecting the tuner to the pre/pro caused the problem, even if it was not on?!! I decided to remove all sources to the pre/pro and just turn it on with the amps...hiss gone. I finally narrowed it down to the tuner. I changed the location that the tuner plugged into and the hiss went away. Apparently this was some sort of problem with the power plug recepticle in my power supply. I would be very surprised if it was a speaker issue by itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Cornell Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 Cool, im glad you got it, an FM hiss would kill the sound of a k-horn! Regards Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cultrain88 Posted May 3, 2003 Author Share Posted May 3, 2003 I live in Frisco, Texas Gil. Thats about 20 miles north of Dallas. I'm not too familiar with the idea of auto transformers to adjust the impedance. Did you have good results with it?. I am curious and interested in all poss. for the white noise. I currently listen to cd's through my dvd, the white noise level is the same in stereo or direct mode(even while bypassing the dsp). I'm going to order a tube cd player with up sampler, just have to decide on which one I want. This might help settle it down some, to get rid of the dsp portion in my preamp. Cultrain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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