I recently discovered a hum in my system that I did not have before. I thought that I would disconnect everything except the optical cables and start from scratch. The hum is definitly coming from my Monster line conditioners. The 3500 and 3600 model. I have had a number of power surges over the last year. Three or four to be exact and I was always happy to see that there was no damage to my system. However this hum is a real pain in the a.. even though I do not hear it from where I am setting.

Will this hum cause damage to my speakers? Is it possible that there is damage to the line conditioner from the power surges?

My left main speaker is about a foot away from the line conditioners and two feet from the processor. The right main is two feet from the amp and four feet from the processor.
I have B&W 804 speakers.

While I do not think that this is a serious problem I would like to solve it.
The outlets in this dedicated room are fairly new and grounded. I do not think it is a electrical problem giving that the problem did not exists before. I do have one extension cord for the projector running though a pvc line with the ground cable that is attached to a cold water pipe. Also I have an antenna line runnining thought the same piece of pvc. The other component cables are running though a seperate pipe of pvc.

Is there an inexpensive meter I could purchase to check things out as I go along?

Any suggestions are welcome.. Thanks in advance and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!

If you've had a number of power surges you may very well need to replace the line conditioners. They protect your equipmetn but are not invincible.

Also could have developed a ground loop problem.

I personally would stay away from Monster, no price/quality ratio there, but that is a different discussion.

It is not uncommon for electronic equipment to hum a bit, particularly when you put your ears right up on it.

It should not translate into hum in your speakers, but you might experience a slight increase in your noise floor.

Unless you've had actual lightning strikes or some other huge surges in power, you shouldn't have problems with your line conditioners.

If you can't hear it from the listening position, then I wouldn't worry about it.

I have this problem too. My 990 was dead slient when I bought. Now there is a littel static that is put out at a low level all the time. It sucks. It is a rats nest behind it now so once we get to our new place I am hoping it goes away, otherwise? It would be nice if there is a quick and easy fix. It was one of the things I liked to show off was that the Pre-amp was dead slient no mater what.

That sucks. I know what you're going through.

Just in the off chance it's not totally related to the Monster conditioners, I'll float a couple thoughts for you...

Do you have cable tv? If so, have any changes occured there? I had a nagging ground problem that was not resolved until I had digital cable service run. The culprit? The cable was not grounded outside. Before the Cox technician found and fixed the problem, I used cheater plugs on the amps and it worked well.

Also, are any of your speaker cables intertwined with power cables. And/or did you run any in-wall wiring in close proximity to speaker cables? When I finished my basement a few years ago, the darn electrican ran AC wire right next to the speaker cables for my surrounds! There was no way I could move them without totally rewiring both. So, to this day, I get a slight hum on my surrounds. Arrgh!

Lastly, regarding you meter question, there is a plug-in meter that will test all your outlets for ground problems. You can pick them up at Home Depot or Lowes in the electrical aisle. I think they're around $10 or so.

Good luck!

Thanks people.
The hum is very slight. It is coming from the line conditions even when every thing is off. The only time I hear it is when I put my ear about two feet from the line conditioners. I do not have the hum coming from the speakers unless I turn on my laser disc player. In that case the hum is in all speakers.
I have a tester to check the ground in the outlets and will do so on Monday since that is the next best time I can do so.
I am going to disconnect everything and start from scratch.
I just cannot figure this little bugger out.
I spent two days moving electrical cable (romax) away from all of my component cable. The only line that is running side by side with my component cable for my projector is my from my surround speaker.

Thanks Frank

Videodrome:
Do you have cable tv? If so, have any changes occured there?
Yes I do have cable and I have a new carrier that I am unhappy with since they have not corrected the billing. However when I enable the RCN mode for the cable I do not get any hum thru my 804's.

Also, are any of your speaker cables intertwined with power cables?
I seperated all of the power cables (ROMAX) from any Home Theater lines.

And/or did you run any in-wall wiring in close proximity to speaker cables?
NO.

I have a tester to check the ground in the outlets.

The hum is coming directly from the line conditioners. No where else. When I engage the laser disc mode I get a hum in all of my speakers. I use to have the same issue when I turned the cable box on but I since eliminated the hum because of a new component cable I installed.
The upside of it is I feel I am making progress but I am somewhat impatient.

Frank

I have a Monster Power 3600 unit that's not quite one year old, and is also starting to hum slightly- I believe that unfortunately the cause is most likely the transformer(s) that Monster is using in the units-
Age & heat can cause the metal plates that some transformers are built around to "delaminate", creating just enough of a gap to generate the 60 Hz buzz/hum we're hearing. If this is indeed the case, then then bad news is that it will most likely gradually increase in volume over time-

Thanks for the bad news.
I sort of figured that out after six hours of trying to eliminate the unrelenting HUM.
I do appreciate that someone else is going thru the same problem although I am not happy to hear you have a problem.
The strange part about it is that besides hearing it when all sources are off I really notice it when I engage my Pioneer Elite laser disc.
I disconnected everything, all power outlet cords except from both line conditioners (3500 3600) and component cables and the hum was still there.
So Einstien that I am, if everything is dissconnected and the only electronics that are plugged in is line conditioners and the HUM is still there, the HUM has got to be coming from the 3500 and the 3600.
So it looks as though I will be spending more money.
What are you going to do.

Forget about Monster and go with TrippLite, better quality for less money.

Tripp-Lite's line conditioners don't have as many separate filter banks as others like the Belkin PureAV models, but they do offer a lifetime warranty on the products.

I think most everyone else in the industry only offer 3 year warranties.

Actually mzpro5 is probably right- There are LOTS of "commercial" grade units out there that most likely won't develop the problem- TrippLite makes good ones, but a visit to a good, local electrical distributor (Anixter, Graybar, WESCO, GESCO, CED) would probably be a good way to look over a number of brands & options- The commercial stuff usually isn't as "flashy" as the HT units, but will probably solve our problems.
When I bought & installed the Monster unit, my friends had a good time harassing me: "Yep, one can NEVER have too many LEDs!!". (Heavy sigh!)

I just mentioned TrippLite as an example OTHER than Monster. (just happens to be what I use) As jsw3rd stated there are a number of fine alternatives that will do the job and save a bit for that extra Christmas shopping.

Can't remember the last time I spent the evening looking at my power conditioner.

Thanks for the information about commercial power conditioners. That is an entry that I will consider.
HOWEVER READ THE LATEST!!!!!!

The Christmas Fairy must be looking down on me this year.
I called Monster yesterday and I told them the problem and the fact that I dis-connected everything from the line conditioners and the HUM was still there with the conditioners being the only part of the home theater actively working. Hence the conditioners are emmitting the HUM!
Monster told me that if I have the receipts that they will replace the 3500 and 3600 absolutely FREE!!....If they are still within the five year term. If I do not have the receipts or the warranty is expired the cost will be $150.00 per unit to replace.
In either case the five year warranty will take effect once I receive the new line conditioners.

Is that Fantastic or what?
The conditioners that I have are at least between five and eight years old and looking into Panamax would have cost me between $500 to $800.00
If everything is as the person said yeasterday the cost will be around $200.00 with shipping, for both.
I have the receipt for the 3600 but not the 3500.

I am calling today at 11:30am EST since Monster is on the west coast.
This is like one of those to good to be true scenes but I am hoping it is. I will fine out today.

Yeah, I've only dealt with their support on their remotes, but their support is pretty good from what I've seen.

Another reason why they are able to charge a premium for their offerings.

Another fun source of mechanical hum in electronic devices : SCR chopping dimmers. I have a large balanced power/filter unit I built myself, which works very well. But whenever we run the toaster (which has such a "dimmer" for setting the toastine)ss, my power unit's transformer starts humming rather loudly (emitting noise, NOT putting noise into my audio chain). Not even remotely on the same breaker, so it is noise being injected into the whole house's system So if you have any of that type of dimming circuit, you might check it out too.

BB

I too was getting a hum from my speakers but this morning I decided to try something. Awhile back my sub had a hum and I tried everything and I narrowed it down to my video cable from my sms1 to the 990. As soon as I removed it the hum was gone.The only thing new now was a dvd player I was using for cd purposes but I had the analog video out hooked into the 990 so I disconnected it and low and behold the hum was gone not only on that input but all of them.

I would suggest pulling out the video cables from the 990 and see what happens. I only pulled the analog video my dvi is still connected from my other dvd players.

Well HO-HO-HO thank God Christmas came a little early to my house. I spent numerous hours trying to fine this annoying hum, which only recently developed in my Home Theater....without success. Ready to throw in the towel I remembered a friend of my who is an electrician. I called him on Friday not thinking that he would have the time to come over that day but I thought I could set up an appointment for the following week.
His Christmas present to me was that he came over on Friday and spent five and half hours locating more than one problem. I am making a list below for everyone to out in there notebooks if anyone would have a similar problem. I thought that it might be helpful.

First was the outside grounding pole. I had one but with two grounding wires corroded. One was for the ciruict breaker box and the other for my home theater.
Second was that there was no ground wire connected to the incoming cable lines that were connected to two splitters.
Third was the cable bow itself. As soon as we connected the antenna the hum was back.
So we elimantated the cable box until the cable service comes to the house on Wednesday.
Fourth was the seperation of all Romax cables for a distance of six inches.

All of these problems were part of or a single issue of the annoyng, unrelenting hum.

I hope that if someone out there is having an issue with a hum that these facts help.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!!

Frank