Aloha again. Would anybody know of a way to eliminate the hum I get when connecting a coax cable from my computer for digital audio to the 990. The sound is otherwise good and the ability to stream internet radio is awesome. I get the hum/buzz even with the power cable to the computer disconnected. ONly when I disconnect the coax cabe to I get the hum. (BTW, the coax is brand new straight from Blue Jeans...). Mahalo.

How is the coax cable routed? Is it running parallel to a power cord for some distance? That could generate some interference that not even a well-shielded cable could entirely escape, and it would manifest as a hum or buzz simply from having the coax cable connected to the 990.

Does your sound card offer an optical digital output?

How is your computer connected to the internet? Could the problem be coming from your cable modem or DSL modem?

Thanks for the quick replies. The cable is long(25') and I did in fact route it in parallel to the ethernet cable to my computer. Guess I'll have to roll up the rug this weekend to separate them and re-assess - or I suppose I could power down the cable modem and router to check ?

Oh, and my motherboard had digital out and I'm not a gamer, so I didn't buy a separate sound card. Would a sound card be any less likely to generate electrical intereference?

I'd try unhooking the ethernet cable at both ends to see if that fixes the hum before I moved stuff around. It's possible that your problem is originating there, but ethernet is low voltage and isn't as likely to create a problem as a power cord.

Lee asked about optical because it is immune to EM and RF interference - no electrons to be "distracted" in an optical cable.

No interference in a digital signal can cause hum. Digital is data, it's there or it's not.

This is obviously a ground loop issue. Computers/cable modems are often causing such problems.

One easy way to eliminate the issue would be to use an optical link, as it provide total galvanic isolation between the two devices.

Regards,