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Hum in one speaker?

Hi, ive been having this hum thats been comming out of my right magnapan speaker. Well first thing is that my whole system is on the right side of the room and the speaker is right next to the equipment but its been like this for years and I never had a hum before. This seems to happen when using the turntable but only with certain albums that have been recorded at a low levels causing me to turn up the pre amp past 12o clock. Recently I put my speakers on mye stands with magic sliders and I dont know if that may have caused an issue or mabey its a bad vaccume tube? I tried moving the speaker around the room didnt seem to do much but the hum seems at its worst at the best listening spot (go figure). Mabey its my cartridge? I dont know but right now my turntable is about 30 inches away from the speaker. The hum is not horrible but when the music gets quiet it can be annoying. I did swap the speakers and with the tweeters on the outside the hum seems to be worse not better.
barruch86
barruch86 OP
28 posts
 
Oh wow i never thought that it could possibly be a cap issue, i dont think it is, but it might be . My power amp is an audio research vs110 that is about 10 years old now and pre amp well is probably 28 years old lol. I bought them both used, but the sp8 does have nichicon elecrolytics and im not shure if they are original or not. I think they used spragues back then but I could be wrong. The question I have is if its an electrolytic cap getting weak, then wouldn't both of the speakers hum instead of one? The hum did dissapear for now, but if it comes back then yea your right it might be a cap!
barruch86 OP
28 posts
 
Its def the right interconnect cable on the turntable because again today the right side was out again with just a hum. I touched the right interconnect cable connected to the turntable and the sound came back on with no hum! I havent cleaned the system yet so ill clean the schmutz on the turntables connectors first and tighten the ground screw as that could have been a bit tighter. I hope this was the issue and not a cap because that sounds like id have to send them to a repair shop and I dont know how much that would cost lol.
tom32
33 posts
 

I think your problem is schmutz and not a cap. I mentioned the common cap problem because the symptoms are similar. I wanted other people who are reading this to know how to tell power supply hum from pickup hum.

When the noise is coming from pickup in the signal path, the signal to noise ration remains the same, because you are faithfully amplifying both of them. When the hum is a droopy cap in the amp power supply, the signal to noise ration will be worse when you crank it up. It might even start "motor boating". Also, a power supply cap that is on it's way out gives off an acidic smell, like lemons.
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