Well, I'm testing out my 970 with Saving Private Ryan tonight. The Outlaws received my 970 for repair on last Monday, and on Thursday, they notified me it was shipping back to me. I got it back today. That's pretty impressive for sending it in, repair, and return.

So far so good. The light hiss on the noise floor is still there, but that may be my source or something else. As soon as music or movies start playing, you don't notice it. It's only noticeable with the source paused.

Anyway, more testing tomorrow, but so far it sounds good. There was no mention of what the problem was. It doesn't really matter, but I was curious.

Overall, a big thumbs up for Outlaw support!

Hey Saturn5,

Was the hiss you mentioned coming from all speakers? I discovered the same problem 2 days ago, but only on my center speaker. Tried changing out the speaker, the speaker wires, the interconnects, the amp, but the noise remains and it's got me thinking about replacing the 970. I've had it for two years now and it's been a great performer, but getting it back from repair with any kind of hiss is no good for me.

When did you notice the hiss? I didn't use the machine for a 5-week period, and when I turned it on there it was.

Mine does it on all speakers, regardless of the source.

I'm going to have to go back through my troubleshooting to see if I can narrow it down. I recently added an APC power center thinking it might be noise from the power line, but that made not difference. It's not a ground hum.

In fairness to Outlaw, I didn't even mention the hiss for the repair. That was a different issue - a loud screeching noise. I thought they might be related, but they apparently weren't.

Mine is not a ground problem either. At one time i was using a ground-loop isolator on my plasma's coax connector and that stopped the humming, but I was lucky to have more than one circuit in my listening room and I discovered that just re-arranging the power cords on separate surge protectors removed the humm, so I didn't need the isolator.

What I have now is exactly the same issue you're having, but I can only detect it in my center speaker, and to some extent, the sub. Just like in your case, when I turn on my amp the speaker is dead silent, but as soon as I power on the 970, the hiss is audible, and it sounds like it can damage the speaker.


I will call Outlaw tomorrow and see what they can do, but I'm not looking forward to a long wait and turnaround. Maybe this a good excuse for me to upgrade to HDMI-equpped unit?

I had a light hiss/hum when I first set up my 970, but once I re-did my cables and kept everything seperate it almost completly went away. I have also had issues in the past because there was a tranformer plugged into the same circuit from something such as a phone charger, printer, etc....

That could be it. I do need to separate my cables better, and I do have a couple of transformers on the same circuit. Thanks for the tips.

Definitely check your cabling. I've had hiss/hum in the system several times in the past that were the result of power cables near interconnects.

I noticed last night that my hum was still there very faintly and pin pointed it to the tv cable going to the hd box. When I unscrewed it from the was it went away. I am not sure if my tv cable is bad but I really have no way of re routing it. Maybe I will try to find a cable with better shielding on it.

Your cable TV service is not properly grounded. It's very common. Changing the cable won't help. You should call your provider and tell them that they need to check the ground where the cable service enters your house. Failing that, a device like the Jensen VRD-1FF can be inserted immediately in front of the cable box to help isolate it. The VRD-1FF sells for about $50.

Thanks Gonk. I checked the ground on the cable system and everything look good the ground wire is connected to the main power ground outside the house. I looked at the jensen VRD-1FF on the website, but is there a good website to buy this product from. One more question where do you connect it right out of the wall or just before the cable box, because I have a long run of cable to the box.