Preamp Noise with High-Efficiency Speakers


I have Avantgarde Duo Classic Speakers, I hear a very audible buzzing noise whenever I insert an analog preamp. If I run my DAC (AMR DP-777) directly into power amp, the noise disappears. I have tried 4 different preamps (tube and SS), 3 different amps, a bunch of RCA and XLR interconnects, the problem persists. I have tried dedicated power line and two power conditioners (with Multi-wave options) and various high-quality power cords, so far nothing works, and I am forced to run DAC-direct into power amp. The buzz is not very loud but certainly audible enough to be annoying. There's no noise running the same equipment and power source into regular speakers, I am pretty sure it's just the Avantgarde (104dB sensitivity). Please share your solution if you have had similar situations. Thanks!
yingtonggao
Hello Dentdog,
I hope you soon find an answer to your system hum issue. I use the same BPT unit and it's terrific! I have no hum problems with its use un my system.

Hum is 60 or 120 Hz noise from the power, and there are two way to pick it up, either conducted or radiated.

Radiated powerline noise is when you have a high current device and it throws out a magnetic field. Any high impedance conductors (your line levels and phono lines) in the field will have an induced 60 or 120 Hz voltage picked up on their wires. You test for this by moving the high impedance wires around. If that causes any change, you have a radiated energy pickup problem. Knowing that, then you can do things like try to improve wire separation (the energy falls off as the inverse of the square of the distance, i.e. it falls off rapidly), or use shorter wires (less pickup area), or re-orient the wires to make them perpendicular to the radiating source (max pickup is when they are parallel to the radiating field).

This radiating magnetic field normally comes from the powerlines or from the power transformer in the high current devices like the final amp power supply.

Trying to shield lines from the 60 or 120 Hz magnetic fields is useless, because at that low frequency the magnetic field cuts through shielding materials very easily. Shielding only works to guard against high frequency pickup. Distance, wire length, and orientation are your best friends.

The other way to pick up hum is by a conducted path. The 60 or 120 Hz noise is traveling through the conductors and getting back onto the input source. If the test above for radiated pickup doesn't work, then you should try electrical isolation methods such as messing with power routing (star or independent outlets) or putting a noise suppressor/filter on the phono power.

Divide and conquer... find out which of the two problems you have first, so you narrow down the type of action you need to take.
Hi Charles1,
As with most things audio the devil is in the details. The BPT certainly does a lot of things favorably, a sense of ease permeates the music now and is very pleasing. Will have to don my Sherlock hat although Inspector Gadget is a more appropriate. I'll get it, and along with the solution a bit of education.
Dentdog,
You were certainly given very solid feedback from Tom32. I believe you'll get this problem solved.
I had hum/noise issues with my phono rig that came to the forefront a few years back when I switched pre-amps and had to add a step up device to match my low output Denon DL103R to the new pre-amp (ARC sp16) phono section inputs. Location/orientation of devices and wires affected the level of hum. The source is most likely nearby power transformers, most likely mostly from teh outdoor heating and AC units on teh other side of the nearby wall. I solved the problem by placing the Electrocompaniet step up device I use inside a cylinder of mu metal foil. Its been dead quiet ever since.

Non of the speakers I had attached were high efficiency which would make the issue even harder to resolve no doubt.