I just purchased the 1050 along with Paradigm Reference 40s. Initially connected them with Monster cable, and was getting system shutdowns. So I added Radio Shack gold-plated banana plugs. Now everthing sounds great except....

Hiss. Not hum. Hiss.

The hiss is worsened by switching from analog to digital input, and of course increasing the volume. It is even noticeable at lower volumes (35 and up). I am using a Sony CD player, and same result with different discs. Any suggestions?? Thanks.

[This message has been edited by Alan_MD (edited January 06, 2003).]

Some cable setups are (in)famous for causing noise due to poor isolation. Try unhooking sources one at a time, starting with cable (if you have it) and see if the noise drops.

The shutdown sounds like maybe a stray wire? Look (or if you have a meter measure) for a short on the outputs too.

Also, be aware a 'floating' analog input can be a bit noisy, so either short the inputs or use a digital input.

Thanks charlie. The shutoff problem was cured when I added the banana clips. Interestingly I came home from work this evening and the hiss seemed noticeably less. It seems to vary now with different CDs (Miles Davis "Kind of Blue", alot of hiss; "The Hours" soundtrack, some hiss, and "Parachutes" by Coldplay, almost no hiss.) When I crank up the volume with the CD player stopped or off there is no hiss.

The only connection right now is to the DVD/CD player(Sony DVP-S500D, about 5 years old). I really love the sound of the 1050 with the Paradigms, so I may try another CD player if I can get my hands on one.

Good Lord! I thought I would mostly just be using my 1050/Paradigm Studio 40s for music until I could complete my system with surrounds/front/subwoofer. But I popped in Lord of the Rings:FOTR and I was amazed! You would think I owned a subwoofer the way the 40s sounded. Admittedly I am upgrading from basically a clock radio, but this combination really shines with home theater!

Get 5-7 speakers and a sub or two and you'll have better sound than most theaters. There's no going back dude.

If you are listening to CDs of old recordings, the hiss you hear may be recorded on the CD. Sorry if this is obvious, but you did say you where upgrading from a 'clock radio'. So maybe it just that you've never heard your Miles disc as clearly as you do now with a 1050 and the Paradigms.

-Steve

The snip I heard of that CD was pretty poor by modern technical standards. I'm sure they did the best they could, but obvious saturation distortion was one thing I heard clearly as well as quite a lot of noise.

I think I should add at this point that I have no further noticeable hiss, so that folks aren't led to believe this is a problem inherent to the 1050. I do think a part of it was the older recordings of the Miles Davis CD. But it was clearly there on other CDs. I have been doing alot of general tweaking, added a Panamax surge supressor, made sure all my connections were clean, etc etc and am now very happy! (Except that the receiver no longer responds to my remote. But I have been promised a new one next week. Geez, I hope I'm not becoming a "problem customer.")