Bowers & Wilkins Speaker buzz - Blu-ray Forum

talbers23 · 01-26-2013, 09:33 PM

Hello All,

I just got my new speaker set up and have a question about a possible issue in my system. I purchased the Bowers & Wilkins 805 diamonds and the matching htm4 diamond center. What I'm noticing is a hum or buzzing sound out of the mid range on the left and right. All 3 tweeters have a faint static sound to them. I'm using a Marantz AV7701 for a processor and an Emotiva XPA5 for the amp, Audioquest King Cobra 1m unbalanced interconnects. This happens when nothing is on. The XPA5 is plugged directly into a Panamax 5300pm as well. Any ideas?

I should also note that I have a pair of Bowers & Wilkins cm12's running and get no noise like this from them.

talbers23 · 01-26-2013, 09:37 PM

The noise did diminish quite a bit when the treadmill 2 floors up was no longer in use, making it impossible to hear this noise from 4'. I thought the Panamx was supposed to make the power "clean."

I guess what I question now is, is this normal and can I harm my speakers?

bluman1981 · 01-27-2013, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by talbers23

The noise did diminish quite a bit when the treadmill 2 floors up was no longer in use, making it impossible to hear this noise from 4'. I thought the Panamx was supposed to make the power "clean."

I guess what I question now is, is this normal and can I harm my speakers?

Sounds like a grounding issue.

Blu-Dog · 01-27-2013, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by talbers23

The noise did diminish quite a bit when the treadmill 2 floors up was no longer in use, making it impossible to hear this noise from 4'. I thought the Panamx was supposed to make the power "clean."

I guess what I question now is, is this normal and can I harm my speakers?

Any electrical motor, anywhere between you and the breaker, is a pain. Air conditioners and refrigerators are especially troublesome.

The usual way to suspend interruption on the circuit is to isolate it with an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). Power goes into the UPS, charges a battery, and equipment power comes from the battery. This is not going to be practical for you since you're trying to fuel an XPA-5 and other high current gear.

This may or may not work for you, but you might want to get a long, heavy extension cord and try various circuits in your place. Plug the Panamax in it, and test various wall sockets, just to see if any make less (or no) noise. At least you'll know it's the input power.

It could be that blasted treadmill, or someone's refrigerator or something. Some unit is buzzing along right at the same 60Hz as the wall current, and the Panamax will have a hard time dealing with that - it's actually suited for much faster and bigger spikes or dips than you're seeing.

Good luck, I know it's frustrating. Your gear is probably just fine.

Gremal · 01-27-2013, 11:25 PM

Agreed. It's not dangerous to your gear, and you may have a ground loop issue you need to isolate. Doing so is well worth your effort--it just requires some serious trouble-shooting on your part. I would also avoid the Panamax products and get a PS Audio power plant. I'm using the P5.

Congrats on your L/R/C diamond speakers, by the way!

Big Daddy · 01-28-2013, 02:02 AM

Buzzing and hum are not necessarily the fault of your speakers or equipment. Usually, it means something else is causing it.

Read the Ground Hum & Ground Loop Isolators thread.

talbers23 · 01-28-2013, 03:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gremal

Agreed. It's not dangerous to your gear, and you may have a ground loop issue you need to isolate. Doing so is well worth your effort--it just requires some serious trouble-shooting on your part. I would also avoid the Panamax products and get a PS Audio power plant. I'm using the P5.

Congrats on your L/R/C diamond speakers, by the way!

Thank you. Stunning speakers.

talbers23 · 01-28-2013, 03:18 AM

I played around for a decent part of the day. I ended plugging the amp into a very heavy duty extension cable and no matter what outlet I plugged it into, even different breakers I still got the hum. I moved speaker wire away from power cords too. Last thing I can think to try is to ground my amp to one of the panamax conditioners.

talbers23 · 01-29-2013, 01:31 AM

Spent about 5 hours on this over the past 2 days. I've gone as far as only having the amp hooked up to the speakers, no processor at all. Is it possible that this is being caused by a to much power from my amp? It's a 200 watt per channel amp and my speakers are max 120. I've also tried grounding the amp to the processor, then amp to processor to panamax with no resolve. I'm also still confused why this is much more apparent in the right speaker, then left and barley noticeable in the center. Is it possible new speaker wire would help? I plan on upgrading soon but am out of money because of the speakers so it may be a while on that.

Thanks again for all the suggestions so far, I appreciate the help.

talbers23 · 01-29-2013, 10:33 PM

I called Emotiva and explained to them all the trouble shooting I had done to this point. At the time I had everything unhooked except for the amp plugged in by itself and speaker wire to speakers. They had me switch the amp from unbalanced to balanced for all 5 channels and the noise went away. They immediately said it was an amp issue and gave me an RA#. I have to pay to ship it back, roughly $50 but it will be fixed and shipped back for free.

rpneuss · 01-29-2013, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by talbers23

I called Emotiva and explained to them all the trouble shooting I had done to this point. At the time I had everything unhooked except for the amp plugged in by itself and speaker wire to speakers. They had me switch the amp from unbalanced to balanced for all 5 channels and the noise went away. They immediately said it was an amp issue and gave me an RA#. I have to pay to ship it back, roughly $50 but it will be fixed and shipped back for free.

That's awesome news man! I know the noise would drive me absolutely nuts especially on gear that nice!

Blu-Dog · 01-29-2013, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by talbers23

I called Emotiva and explained to them all the trouble shooting I had done to this point. At the time I had everything unhooked except for the amp plugged in by itself and speaker wire to speakers. They had me switch the amp from unbalanced to balanced for all 5 channels and the noise went away. They immediately said it was an amp issue and gave me an RA#. I have to pay to ship it back, roughly $50 but it will be fixed and shipped back for free.

Wow. That's a first for me, especially with the treadmill upstairs...good news, man.

talbers23 · 01-30-2013, 12:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blu-Dog

Wow. That's a first for me, especially with the treadmill upstairs...good news, man.

Do you mean its a first for you hearing this issue or a first that Emo is fixing it?

Blu-Dog · 01-30-2013, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by talbers23

Do you mean its a first for you hearing this issue or a first that Emo is fixing it?

First time I've heard about unbalanced inputs freaking out the sound - I was dead set on getting an Emo 5-channel, but now I'm leaning against it, as I don't really need it. Glad they're fixing it.

talbers23 · 01-30-2013, 11:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blu-Dog

First time I've heard about unbalanced inputs freaking out the sound - I was dead set on getting an Emo 5-channel, but now I'm leaning against it, as I don't really need it. Glad they're fixing it.

I'm not sure that its that common of an issue where I wouldn't buy one of the amps. I do however have a bad feeling that they'll get it and say everything fine though. I'd be lying if I said otherwise. Not really sure where I'd go if I didn't use the Emo. I have a processor so I'm stuck needing an amp.

talbers23 · 01-31-2013, 12:31 AM

FedEx picked up the outer box from Emotiva today. Hopefully I'll be able to ship the amp this week yet. I will post how things go. Not sure why but I have a fear that the amp will get to Emotiva and they will say nothings wrong even though they walked me through the trouble shooting.

Gremal · 01-31-2013, 07:16 AM

I don't know why people love Emotiva so much. There are much better amps out there. But it's good that you figured out the cause of the noise and at least the company is standing behind its product--at least if you pay shipping.

Solaris · 01-31-2013, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by talbers23

FedEx picked up the outer box from Emotiva today. Hopefully I'll be able to ship the amp this week yet. I will post how things go. Not sure why but I have a fear that the amp will get to Emotiva and they will say nothings wrong even though they walked me through the trouble shooting.

Time for an upgrade

Solaris · 01-31-2013, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gremal

I don't know why people love Emotiva so much. There are much better amps out there. But it's good that you figured out the cause of the noise and at least the company is standing behind its product--at least if you pay shipping.

People love them because of their price/performance.

talbers23 · 02-01-2013, 12:37 AM

I was actually looking at 2 different amps recently but I'm not sure on them. I know I don't need a ton of power, 120 watts per channel or more will do just fine. I was looking at the Matantz mm7055 or the Anthem pva5. It would take me a bit longer to afford the Anthem and it lacks balanced inputs but I'm not sure that matters. Any other suggestions? Anyone personally use either?

01-26-2013, 09:33 PM	#1
talbers23 Active Member Top ranked HT gallery Member since:Aug 2007 Home Theater Gallery:15 Blu-ray collection:503	Bowers & Wilkins Speaker buzz Hello All, I just got my new speaker set up and have a question about a possible issue in my system. I purchased the Bowers & Wilkins 805 diamonds and the matching htm4 diamond center. What I'm noticing is a hum or buzzing sound out of the mid range on the left and right. All 3 tweeters have a faint static sound to them. I'm using a Marantz AV7701 for a processor and an Emotiva XPA5 for the amp, Audioquest King Cobra 1m unbalanced interconnects. This happens when nothing is on. The XPA5 is plugged directly into a Panamax 5300pm as well. Any ideas? I should also note that I have a pair of Bowers & Wilkins cm12's running and get no noise like this from them. Last edited by talbers23; 01-26-2013 at 09:38 PM.

01-27-2013, 11:25 PM	#5
Gremal Blu-ray Samurai Top ranked HT gallery Member since:Feb 2007 Location:Daddyland Home Theater Gallery:49 Blu-ray collection:135	Agreed. It's not dangerous to your gear, and you may have a ground loop issue you need to isolate. Doing so is well worth your effort--it just requires some serious trouble-shooting on your part. I would also avoid the Panamax products and get a PS Audio power plant. I'm using the P5. Congrats on your L/R/C diamond speakers, by the way! EyeSpeech: Speak Your Eye B&W Speakers: 802D \| HTM1D \| ASW-825 \| N805 \| SCM1 Amps: VAC Phi Beta 110i \| Audio Refinement Multi-5 \| Integra DTC-9.8 Display & Front End: Pioneer KRP-600 Kuro \| Oppo BDP-95 Misc.: VPI Scout \| PSA Premier \| Electra Glide & Alpha Core cables

01-28-2013, 02:02 AM	#6
Big Daddy Moderator Member since:Jan 2008 Location:Southern California Home Theater Gallery:79 Blu-ray collection:122 Trading Score:1	Buzzing and hum are not necessarily the fault of your speakers or equipment. Usually, it means something else is causing it. Read the Ground Hum & Ground Loop Isolators thread. HT Room: Panasonic PT-AE8000, Epson 1080UB Proj., Mitsubishi 65" Diamond Series HD TV, Yamaha-RX-A3010 Rec., CinePro 6-Ch. Amp. (350 W/Ch, 8 Ohm), Proton D1200 Amp., Behringer EP4000 & EPX3000 Amps., Oppo BDP-83, Sony BDP-S790, Audio Technica Tuntable, Mitsubishi S-VHS, 2 Def. Tech. Super Towers w 15" subs, 1 Def. Tech. Center & 1 Martin-Logan Center, 2 Def. Tech. Surr. & 2 PSB Surr., 2 Cadence Presence, 2 Bose 901 Rears, 2 Modified HSU 12" Subs, 1 ED DIY 12" Sub, 1 ED DIY 15" Sub, Velodyne SMS-1 Subwoofer Equalizer, DirecTV HD, Monster HTS 5000 & APC H15 Power Conditioners. Two-Channel Room: XiangSheng Tube Preamp., Carver TFM-45 Amp. (375 W/Ch), Behringer EPX4000 Amp., Onkyo CD player, Denon Turntable, Yamaha Tuner, 2 Vintage Polk RTA-15TL Speakers, 2 LCY 100 Super Tweeters, 2 DIY Folded Horn Super Towers with 15" Sub., 1 Modified AA HD-SUB12 Family Room: Mitsubishi 73" Diamond Series TV, Yamaha DSP-A3090 Rec., DirecTV HD-DVR, PS3, Zvox Speaker, 1 DIY 12" Sub.

01-31-2013, 07:16 AM	#17
Gremal Blu-ray Samurai Top ranked HT gallery Member since:Feb 2007 Location:Daddyland Home Theater Gallery:49 Blu-ray collection:135	I don't know why people love Emotiva so much. There are much better amps out there. But it's good that you figured out the cause of the noise and at least the company is standing behind its product--at least if you pay shipping. EyeSpeech: Speak Your Eye B&W Speakers: 802D \| HTM1D \| ASW-825 \| N805 \| SCM1 Amps: VAC Phi Beta 110i \| Audio Refinement Multi-5 \| Integra DTC-9.8 Display & Front End: Pioneer KRP-600 Kuro \| Oppo BDP-95 Misc.: VPI Scout \| PSA Premier \| Electra Glide & Alpha Core cables

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01-26-2013, 09:37 PM	#2
talbers23 Active Member Top ranked HT gallery Member since:Aug 2007 Home Theater Gallery:15 Blu-ray collection:503	The noise did diminish quite a bit when the treadmill 2 floors up was no longer in use, making it impossible to hear this noise from 4'. I thought the Panamx was supposed to make the power "clean." I guess what I question now is, is this normal and can I harm my speakers?

01-28-2013, 03:18 AM	#8
talbers23 Active Member Top ranked HT gallery Member since:Aug 2007 Home Theater Gallery:15 Blu-ray collection:503	I played around for a decent part of the day. I ended plugging the amp into a very heavy duty extension cable and no matter what outlet I plugged it into, even different breakers I still got the hum. I moved speaker wire away from power cords too. Last thing I can think to try is to ground my amp to one of the panamax conditioners.

01-29-2013, 01:31 AM	#9
talbers23 Active Member Top ranked HT gallery Member since:Aug 2007 Home Theater Gallery:15 Blu-ray collection:503	Spent about 5 hours on this over the past 2 days. I've gone as far as only having the amp hooked up to the speakers, no processor at all. Is it possible that this is being caused by a to much power from my amp? It's a 200 watt per channel amp and my speakers are max 120. I've also tried grounding the amp to the processor, then amp to processor to panamax with no resolve. I'm also still confused why this is much more apparent in the right speaker, then left and barley noticeable in the center. Is it possible new speaker wire would help? I plan on upgrading soon but am out of money because of the speakers so it may be a while on that. Thanks again for all the suggestions so far, I appreciate the help.

01-29-2013, 10:33 PM	#10
talbers23 Active Member Top ranked HT gallery Member since:Aug 2007 Home Theater Gallery:15 Blu-ray collection:503	I called Emotiva and explained to them all the trouble shooting I had done to this point. At the time I had everything unhooked except for the amp plugged in by itself and speaker wire to speakers. They had me switch the amp from unbalanced to balanced for all 5 channels and the noise went away. They immediately said it was an amp issue and gave me an RA#. I have to pay to ship it back, roughly $50 but it will be fixed and shipped back for free.

01-31-2013, 12:31 AM	#16
talbers23 Active Member Top ranked HT gallery Member since:Aug 2007 Home Theater Gallery:15 Blu-ray collection:503	FedEx picked up the outer box from Emotiva today. Hopefully I'll be able to ship the amp this week yet. I will post how things go. Not sure why but I have a fear that the amp will get to Emotiva and they will say nothings wrong even though they walked me through the trouble shooting.

02-01-2013, 12:37 AM	#20
talbers23 Active Member Top ranked HT gallery Member since:Aug 2007 Home Theater Gallery:15 Blu-ray collection:503	I was actually looking at 2 different amps recently but I'm not sure on them. I know I don't need a ton of power, 120 watts per channel or more will do just fine. I was looking at the Matantz mm7055 or the Anthem pva5. It would take me a bit longer to afford the Anthem and it lacks balanced inputs but I'm not sure that matters. Any other suggestions? Anyone personally use either?