Perreaux CD Player Faultfinding Your System, Cause and Elimination of Hum, Induced Hum

12 Faultfinding Your System

Cause and

Elimination

of Hum

Hum is a particularly annoying form of noise in any high fidelity system and at some time has been experienced by many of us.

Hum may result from a number of different situations and to make matters worse maybe caused by a seemingly illogical combination of circumstances.

One or more of three specific causes creates hum in the system.

Induced Hum

Hum can be induced into the system from one or more sources and is generally associated with the radiation of noise from one system into another.

Hum and noise can be radiated from any object or system involving AC voltage and current such as power supplies in amplifiers, motors, switching equipment etc. All of these may be found in your hi-fi system or within your own home.

Hum may be induced into any part of the system, so there are no specific instructions that can be given which will offer a guaranteed cure. A good practice to adopt is to keep low-level signal equipment such as phono systems, tuners etc. well away from high-level signal equipment such as power amplifiers. Alternatively, careful designs must be employed to negate these effects on low-level signal equipment. Another good practice to adopt is to keep all signal leads away from power leads.

The practice of neatly tying excess leads together for a tidy looking installation should be resisted, as this could be the cause of induced hum in the system.

Earth Loops

Earth loops are a particularly annoying cause of hum in the system. Earth loops are created by mains frequency current flowing in the screen of signal leads and becomes apparent with the lack of adequate earthing between the various pieces of equipment making up the hi-fi system. This is further compounded by the fact that the equipment earthing considerations vary between different manufacturers and countries.

Perreaux products used with equipment manufactured by other manufacturers may cause an earth loop situation, but Perreaux products used with other Perreaux products will not cause an earth loop situation provided the following precautions are observed:

￿The entire hi-fi system must be connected to the same mains/line power outlet. This will ensure that each piece of the system shares the same earth or ground. This rule applies to all installations of all brands of equipment. A preamplifier or power amplifier may be operated from an extension cord plugged into the same mains/line outlet.

23