Ok let me start by saying I'm not trying to blame my new 950, just need a little help. I'm currently running the 950 through two Acurus 200x3, there hooked into six Klipsch legened series speakers. After initial set up I had a huge buzz in my right front channel, I replaced the rca and the buzz moved to the center speaker, i then wiggled some wires around and realized i had a ground hum coming from my cable box. So i added cheater plugs to both my amps which are hooked into my panamax surge protector. Now buzz is gone, but the hiss is still there, It's there in analog, digital, everything!!! What do i need to do? Upgrade speaker wires? Upgrade Interconnects? What? Desperate to lose the hiss.

Cball

You might try unplugging things until the hiss goes away. Start with just your amps hooked up to the speaker and see if it's there. Then add the 950 with nothing hooked up to it and check. Then add components one at a time until it comes back. that should help you determine where it's comming from.


brianca..

Your Klipsch speakers probably have horns, and therefore are very sensitive. It sounds like your interconnect problem was caused by corroded or dirty RCAs. You might investigate replacing them with some good, though not extravigant gold plated new ones, or try cleaning the ones you have with alcohol or electrical contact cleaner. The hiss might very well be a gain structure problem. Start with just the power amp connected, and nothing else. If no noise, connect the 950, but make sure the volume is down all the way on it. If still no noise, bring up the volume on first an unconnected input, then try inputs where you have things connected. The object is to try to isolate the component which is contributing to the noise. If your power amplifiers have volume level controls, you might lower them some to see if that helps. Generally, first start by going through the loudness calibration procedure in the 950 manual (I assume there is a procedure in there somewhere). Since your speakers probably have horns, you will need to be a bit more careful with the levels of the power amps, and the gain trim settings on your 950. You might try to confirm that the individual channel trim settings on the 950 are at 'zero'. Then set the 950 volume control to 'zero' Play the test tones on the 950, and with a sound level meter (from Radio Shack - the one with a meter verses a digital display) set the meter to "C" weighting, and "slow" response. Increase the level pots on your power amp (assuming you have them) until the sound meter reads 75db for each speaker. Doing it this way assures that the 950 is not providing more gain than your system needs, and the gain structure of the whole chain is going to be close to optimum.

I've replaces the rca's between the 950 and amps already, When I fire the system up with no source selected, there is no hiss. I have no gain controls on my amps, I've already calibrated with the spl meter and all my trims are set at 0. Another thing I noticed last night when my wife turned on the vcr the hiss tripled!! Really loud! Troubleshootings a real pain because the systems in a huge oak wall unit!

Craig

Sounds like you need a power line filter. I'm not talking one of those $10.99 plastic outlet strip thingies they sell a Home Depot, but a good _filter_ verses a power surge protector (although good filters also have surge protection) I have an inexpensive one made by Tripp Lite, but I don't really have bad AC power either. Try going to a good dealer who sells home theatre stuff and see what they have. Just make sure if you buy one that you have return privliges. Before you do this, you might also try unplugging all your electrical appliances and plugging them in and turning them on one at a time to see if one in particular is causing a problem. If you do find one, you might try moving it to another location in the house. If none of this works, I'm told voodoo helps.....

We'll I have a Panamax 5300 right now with all my components running through it. The only thing not hooked up is the cable box coax cables aren't running through it maybe this will help.

Cball

For trouble shooting, you could try to disconnect your TV cable. But that more usually causes a hum but not hiss.

did you have any with just the 950 and amps hooked up you say there is no hiss at first, but as soon as you change the volume it starts? If the volume of the hiss doesn't change with volume changes at that point, it sounds like the hiss problem that was just resolved. if this is an accurate description of what you're hearing you should call it in.

brianca

I've already fixed the hum issue with cheater plugs. The hiss is there all the time, it's not affected by the volume level, but it is a lot louder in Analog, when i switch over to my wifes vcr it's ridiculous. Hopefully I'm doing something wrong and this is'nt an outlaw problem, I just got mine a few days ago. It should be from the new batch.

Craig

Wow, this is really looking like a mystery. You might call Outlaw and talk with them about the hiss. How hissy was it with your old preamp? Like I said before, your Klipsch speakers likely have horns, and as such they will really hit you over the head with any crud originating upstream. You might try bypassing the 950 altogeather and plugging your components directly into your power amp one by one (carefully!!) and first turn the connected component, then the power amp and see if there is much hiss. To get an idea of the playback level with this type of connection, plug your CD player into the power amp directly, and put on a QUIET cd, and play a bit of it (be ready to turn the power amp off if the level is really loud). It will probably be a good level, but not extremely loud. If there is no hiss with this type of connection, even with the VCR connected, the 950 might be defective. One other thing - if the VCR is not tuned to any particular channel, and has it's input set to tuner input, and you are not playing a tape, you will get all manner of static and hiss out of it because it is passing noise from an open channel. Try setting the input of the VCR to 'line' input. Hope some of this helps...

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited September 15, 2002).]

CB: I wonder if it could be possible that you got a "fixed" one that they may have missed actually doing the fix on? All that you're saying sounds an awefully lot like the older units.

CB: Were the Outlaws able to resolve the problem?

We'll I can't stop the hiss, I'm going to return it before my 30 days is up. And i don't want a replacement.

Cball