Tetra- The answer to your question is "yes". But also keep in mind that a lot of grounding problems come from the *interaction* between an incorrectly installed CATV or Dish ground, and presumeably your correctly installed house ground.

So, you can try cheater plugs, but also try to completely disconnect any cable TV or Dish TV systems too. Might make a difference. Let us know what you find...

This is my first post, so I am a little nervous. I have a 950/770. Got it few weeks back and I put my self on the wait list early January. I have learned a lot from reading all your posts.

I have noticed this hiss that everyone is talking about so I thought I would tell my situation and how I fixed it.

I have a Toshiba 5700 DVD
Sony TV
Bose 501 series 5 (till I get my B&W speakers)

First off, I am new to all of this, so as I upgrade my stuff piece by piece I notice improvements. I am using very cheap interconnects at the moment and I have a slight hiss when my ear is to the tweeter. I had a loud HISS (from at least 5 or 6 feet) and found that my cable TV was the cause. Now the cable TV was not connected to my system at all. It was only connected to my TV. I had a s-video cable to the TV from the DVD player. The DVD player connected to the 950 with analog, optical, and digital connections. Somehow, even with the DVD player OFF and the source on the 950 NOT selected to DVD, I would get a loud HISS. I figured out the bad link was that s-video cable. Once I unplugged it from my DVD player (breaking the link to the TV which is connected to the cable), the HISS turned into a hiss. I would imagine that I can reduce it even more with better interconnects than I am using now.

I should also note that with the 950 turned off and the 770 on, I do get a slight hiss but only hear it when my ear is up to the tweeter.

I simply disconnect the Cable TV from the TV when I watch movies so I don’t get that nasty HISS. So I hope this helps someone. Like I said, I am new to all this audio stuff and hope I did not insult anybodies intelligence.

sing_sgt: The Outlaws may owe you more than you can ever know. Hopefully some others will try your fix, or variations surrounding it (those "chokes" or isolators you can buy for the cable coax line).

Is anyone else out there as excited about this as I am? Hee, hee. (Seriously!)

Kevin,

Yes, I find this hopeful, but at the asme time, considering some of the folks running into this hissing issue ... I suspect that at least some of them have quite high quality interconnects so ... I'd not expect sing_sgt's solution to work for all of them. But, perhaps?, it might help some of them? {fingers crossed}

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pat----

email: pat@sklenar.info ---===--- home page: Grumpy's Lair

Man, if only the hiss issue was that simple to solve! Still, if folks who have the hiss haven't yet tried these relatively solutions, give em a try.
You can put together a simple, cheap, homemade balun like this:
OR, you can buy something like the Mondial Magic($99) or another brand unit like this Holland one($7)(silver barrelled unit in pic):
I wouldn't imagine that any cheater plugs would have any effect since Outlaw has already made that fix when they went from three to two prong power plugs.
Good Luck!

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Take Care,
merc

[This message has been edited by merc (edited June 06, 2002).]

In my case, I'd had a problem with a ground loop between the amp (which DOES use a three-prong plug) and the CATV line. Disconnecting the RCA cables from the TV to the pre/pro would solve it, but leave me audioless for TV. So I picked up one of those ground loop isolators and that fixed the problem marvelously.

My symptom, though, was not a hiss but a hum. A *quite* loud hum, too.

Interestingly, my grould loop isolator looks exactly like your FM trap.

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Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net

Matthew: I actually had to put all my amps on seperate power circuits than my other gear in order to get rid of my hummmmm. Cheater plugs worked somewhat, but I didn't like the idea of externally lifting the ground on amps.
I also noticed that in my system I can tell when ANY connection between my 950 and a coax cable is made. For example, hooking up a coax cable to my VCR and then running ONLY my audio outputs to the 950 causes a humm unless I used the Holland isolator. Also, when I ran a coax cable connection to my TV and then also had ANY video connection from my 950 connected, humm. The only way I could remove all of the humm was to use multiple Holland and Magic Isolators between EVERY RF coax to component connection in my system.

------------------
Take Care,
merc

[This message has been edited by merc (edited June 06, 2002).]

Thanks merc, I put together a homemade balun like your picture and it works great. You guys should put together a "home audio for dummies" book or something. I have learned so much from all your posts.

Been sitting on a balcony watching an ocean roll by, wish I could have stayed a month.
Got my combo, just before we sailed and did a down & dirty install.
I won’t post my probably worthless newbie review till I get some breathing space.
I’m thrilled and irritated by the 950/770 right now.

Irritated because nothing is rigged for convenience right now, and I’m running 3 remotes just to get satellite up, (did I state dirty install). Worried about how much I can tweak the system back to ease and simplicity, when I have time to rework hardware and train remotes. Grabbed a new DTC 100-satellite receiver the day before I left, and just put it on line yesterday, replaced it because the old Sat. box, did not have digital capability. Now I have to hit 2 buttons on the remote every time I want to change the channel instead of one, (the old unit). Hopefully all these frustrations will ease in the next weeks when I have time to actually read manuals and can see how all these new pieces will mesh.

The sound and the user problems posted.
Regarding Hiss: No hiss at all in my room, (which is very small) but because the speakers are all hung, (I haven’t gotten up on a chair to see how many inches out it might be. Absolutely no audible hiss at any listening location in the room so far.
Regarding Pop: loud relay click in the amp as its powered on, and the tinniest pop in the speakers, much much softer than the relay click. So I’m not worrying about damage too much until I have time to hardware and macro my setup to its final configuration.

Have not had time to level match the speakers, and I can ‘hear’ they are off. When the source is Satellite, - straight stereo on the 950 sounds ‘dead’ compared to my old PL JVC receiver but apply Stereo Seven or S5 and the sound becomes incredibly fuller than the old setup.

Prob. due to not calibrating the system yet, I am having trouble with tweaking constantly in the trim, on certain DVD’s, or while changing to different channels on Satellite. The main prob. seems to be, getting my center speaker, up or down enough, so that dialogue is crisp and clear, not under or overwhelmed. Will try to write a review in the next weeks, for those still waiting patiently and hungry for any news, - although mine won’t surpass much more than bathroom reading, but might pass the time!

Merc- Thanks for the pix!