Month: November 2014

Audio Hum & Buzz

Jeff Rowland Mode 10_Side

With the introduction of Jeff Rowland Design Group Model 10 into the house, i experienced audio hum & buzz! Initial troubleshooting showed  removing the 3M lighting 2 pin plug from same power strip  to resolved it . Apparently it worked for 1 night.

Configuration is CD Player > Pre > Power Amp.

To cut long story short, after trying out several combination to trace the source issue.  It is the the RCA – XLR cabling from pre to power amp. Right now, I am using RCA – RCA to the Rowland amp (unbalanced selector) and the noise floor drop to acceptable level again.

Yamaha PC2200 Power Amp is the workhorse! thrown anything at her so can produce. The RCA-XLR is an audio hack which the Ferrari JRDG rejected.  It might be unfair to compare the Yamaha with JRDG but it looks like my new girlfriend is very particular to get the best out of her.

I think i earned my morning breakfast with the 45minute troubleshooting and work out.

And that my friend, is audio FTW.

 

Diagonal Speaker Placement

Since I am waiting for my Barcelona chair to arrived in January, I decided to try a diagonal speaker placement. There are two reasons: comfort listening while resting on my bed and reduce some standing waves issue.

In short, it works!  Had shifted the equipment rack sitting at the corner and trying to find the widest parallel plane for the speakers.  With the diagonal position, i am able to get a very decent soundscape balance.  Also, I swapped the custom speakers stands and use a more solid filled Atacama stands coupled with Finite Elemente Cerapucs base. The mids are back and the high less shrills. My reference disc is Penny Tai “Unexpected” where it is very obvious to me that something is wrong and need to be fixed.

And that my friend, is audio winning 🙂