I finally completed my cable management and I must say, I did a pretty darn good job. Unfortunately, the hum lived on and I quickly became desperate to find the culprit.

So I went through the gamut of disconnecting/reconnecting everything....still had the hum. Sweaty and baffled, I took a seat and tried making some common sense of the whole thing. One thing I noticed, I only got the hum at night. Well, what happens in the house at night that doesn't happen during the day....LIGHTS. At night, allot of lights are on and doing what they do best, humming.

Now on a mission....I disturbed the entire house by having them turn on all the lights. And one by one we shut them off. We were down to the last two lights and low and behold, they went off and euphoria happened. Two flood lights off the back of my home are now considered banned from being used. Woohoooooo!!!

Next move, have a separate 20amp circuit installed to just support the HT. One good thing to come from all this....I have cable management nirvana.

Although cable management wasn't the fix and hasn't identified any significant improvement in HT/2CH Music playback; it looks good.

Congrats on finding the source of your hum! I had a ground loop that was driving me nuts, and in turn I was driving my family nuts, before I found and eliminated it. Your search and destroy "mission" sounds like it yielded additional benefits beyond getting rid of the hum.

I agree with you that proper cable management just feels good. I got to the point I started making my own RCA type cables to get things neat and tidy. Its all good, and part of the HT hobby.

Before you permanently ban the use of your flood lights it might be worth it to look at the connections (in particular the ground) at the fixtures and at the switch to see if they are all tight. This is a real problem if you have any aluminum wire. I say this only if you are comfortable working with electric, otherwise an electrician should be able to find the source of the hum at the flood lights. Also, if the lights are on a timer or dimmer they it can induce a hum. Just some thoughts...

Success! I agree with AvFan - those floods don't have to be forever banned. If the floods are on a dimmer, replace it or swap it for a standard switch.

Neither are on a dimmer but I will check them for ground. Otherwise, installing a new circuit should do the trick...right?

It's doubtful that those lights are on the same circuit as your gear is currently - aside from the distance between the spaces, electricians should have lights and receptacles on separate circuits, especially in more modern construction. In that case, a new circuit will (presumably) still come from the same panel as the old circuit, so it may have just as much exposure to the problem lights as you have now. It is possible that the new circuit would be installed far enough away in the panel that the problem wouldn't effect it (different leg maybe), but I suspect that there's something amiss with those lights (either the switch or at least one of the two fixtures) that's creating the problem. Fixing that problem at the source would be the ideal cure. If you're going to have the new circuit run anyway, your electrician ought to be able to check out those lights. If you're comfortable with basic electrical work (replacing switches and such), you could kill the circuit those lights are on at the panel and replace the light switch just to see if there is something wrong with the switch itself.

Ok....I can try that. I'm pretty good at not getting electrocuted. :-)

- that's the top priority in doing your own wiring, right along with not setting the house on fire.

How much did the new 20amp cirucit run you to have it rewired?

gonk....my wife wouldn't like that!

getech....haven't got that far yet. gonna try some home remedies mentioned above first then call the electrician if needed. I'll let everyone know if I go with the new circuit and its cost. Of coarse if the price is good, he probably won't come to Cali and do yours....:-)

Somethings wrong with those lights!!! I feel the switch is going bad or the neutral, (white wire at the Light). Jim

Ok...found the ground loop. Like Gonk said, because the projector wasn't plugged into the same outlet as all other gear; along with the lights, the hum lived on.

Had an electrician build me a cable that connects directly from the projector back to the Panamax and like magic...hum's gone. So no separate circuit needed after all.

That's great! Gotta love those pesky ground loops and it sounds like the electricians solution was less expensive than it might have been with a separate circuit.

FREE!

I paid this HT company to come in and put together my entire system, which included a new outlet in the ceiling for the projector. After chasing the ground loop trail for two months, I decided to go into the attic and actually take a look at what was done...hence my HT Mishap of falling through the ceiling. :-(

To my surprise, instead of installing a new $135 outlet, they ran a 50' extension cord from the projector to a utility outlet installed by my builder....I could've done that!!

I was soooo pissed off when I saw that! Gave them a call and broke the good news...bring yo tail over here and install the outlet that I paid for.

Just as Gonk mentioned, the techs advised installing a new outlet wasn't going to remove the hum (ground loop) and what we should do is make a run from standard electrical cable that will connect from the projector back to the Panamax 5400.

My first FREE HT modification

Still working on getting the ceiling fixed

Ah-ha! So they got you a power cord that can plug back to the same power conditioner everything else is on! That'd do it...