I'm a newbie to the whole surround sound thing but I recently purchased a Paradigm surround system and I am fairly happy with it. However, I can constantly hear a hiss coming from the speakers regardless if I am running a music CD / DVD / XBox. The only time I don't hear it is when I watch SDTV and swtich the receiver to 2 Channel listening. What can I do to fix this? It's annoying.
Some amount of hiss is present in most systems Bug. If it is a very faint hiss where you have to place your ear almost touching the tweeter of a speaker to hear and not really noticeable from the listening position, this is little cause for concearn. If the hissing is very loud or is more of a hum/buzz type then there is a problem. In this case you either have a ground loop somewhere in a connection within the system or a piece of equipment is defective or needs repair. A noticable humming or buzzing from an amp or receiver can have many root causes. First is a ground loop as stated before and usually correctable by the user. The second cause could be due to many reasons, Failing capacitors somewhere in the power or filter sections, which are the usual culprit or a bad filter or voltage regulation circuit. If it's not a ground loop you should then find a good repair shop, since you will need sophisticated testing equipment,which few people have, to troubleshoot a unique problem as this.
Bug
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Eric,
Thanks for the info. The hiss (its not a humm/buzz) sounds like white noise and does not change in magnitude as the volume of the receiver is increased. Rather when the sound is turned up loud enough you can't hear the hiss anymore. The problem is when there are silent parts in the movie you can hear the hiss from any listening position. This was apparent with my old Sony speakers as well. I thought maybe the receiver quality affected this or that connections/gauge of the wire might influence this. I'm running 16 guage at 30' with no bannan plugs and my Sony receiver is not the best (5 years old). Thanks for the help.
You might want to consult a repair shop then if you can hear it distinctly from your listening position. If the system is still under warranty perhaps the manufacturer will pay for the repair/ replacement costs. As far as your speaker wire 16AWG should be quite sufficient for the type of system you have. Another option you have is to buy a good surge protector with some type of AC filtration such as the Monster or Panamax units. Usually these will do a decent job in further reducing the noise floor of your system. If this doesn't work then you can return it.
Bug
Unregistered guest
Posted on
So you think its the speakers and not the receiver? All 5 speakers have the same hiss at the same volume.
No the hiss will come from the amplifier of the unit. The speakers will only reveal the hiss. Is this a HTIB(home theater in a box) system or a seperates?
Bug
Unregistered guest
Posted on
The Receiver is a Sony...I'm not at home and can't remember the model number but its middle of the road for 5 years ago. The speakers are 1 month old. Monitor 5's / CC-370 / ADP-370 / PT1200 Paradigms. DVD is a 3 year old Sony. TV is JVC 52" LCoS.
Speakers don't hiss Bug. They can do a whole lot of other things but they won't hiss. Having owned just about every Paradigm speaker ever produced at one time or another I can tell you they make a good product. Time to look at the rest of your as yet unnamed system.
You posted as I was, so I did not see your post until it refreshed. I used to own you your speaker system (Mini's instead of ADP's) until I switched to the Reference line. They are wonderful speakers. The Sony Receiver on the other hand is one of our least favorite. Not a good match for your speakers. That said, it is common for some kind of hum or hiss to come from improperly setup home theaters. As the other fella's stated you need to check out setup including noise and surge suppression and then probably replace the receiver with a better match, say perhaps an HK or a Marantz.
Also even with a good receiver some faint hiss, that is audible only with ear very close or against the speaker may be present in some older analog recordings that have been mastered onto cd. This is no cause for alarm as the high res. of the cd will reveal the imperfections of the analog source tapes. Otherwise with the good receiver idle, powered on but no source playing, the speakers should be completely silent.
you now have the perfect excuse to replace your Sony receiver. Both you and those Paradigms deserve much better!
Bug
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Thanks guys. I didn't want to admit it but I guess replacing the receiver is the way ahead. Unless my receiver is in mute it will make an audible noise (static). Where can I get noise suppressors? Ans what do they do? Is that maybe a cheaper option than buying a new receiver? Do you guys have any suggestions as to model numbers for the HK / Marantz / NAD?