I have had no problems with the 7125. I have just installed the 7700 and upon turning it on I noticed loud humming through my speakers while it "clicks" 3 times internally to completely turn on. I understand ground looping may be the culprit, due to the 7700 having a 3 pronged plug vs. the 7125 having only 2. I have done the following to remedy the problem: A dedicaded 20 amp breaker, just for my home theater (I should have done this while I used the 7125 anyway). I used a separate, isolated ground wire for this outlet itself. Checking the system at this point made it 50% better, but still not acceptable. I have disconnected the cable TV feed from its source, just to see if that may help, but no change. I am running very good shielded interconnects, and run my power cords away from any other wires. I have been trying everything and anything to eliminate "noise" from the electric in my home, including removing all 5 dimmer switches in the house, which did not help. The last thing I have tried was temporarily running the system without a ground at all, which helped tremendously. I can still hear a faint humming, and after leaving it on for about 10 minutes, it completely disappears.?.
And when I turn the 7700 off, after about 5 or 6 seconds, I will hear a cat "meow" through all my speakers. Is this normal? Is the clicking normal? Again with no problems with the 7125, what's the deal? Anyone with any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. I will keep all updated!

I am having a similar issue with my 7500. It only occurs for the center channel with balanced mode input selected.

I've submitted a service ticket and was asked to call back technical support but have not been able to get through for past 2 days!

Markpog

Your situation sounds very much like mine. I also did the change from the 7125 to the 7700 and have the same problem with a faint noise that eventually goes away after the amp being on for 20 minutes or so. It is thru the center channel and the right surround, all other channels are clear. I also get the "hiss" like decompresion after turning it off.

Aside from that I have done quite a bit of listening in the last several days, both 2 channel music and selected movie scenes from DVD and despite my first impression there is a noticable difference on the plus side. I really like the 7700. Like a friend of mine said "the new one (7700) is like the first one(7125) there is just 'more' of it".

I will be keeping the 7700 but hope Outlaw can explain the disapearing noise and the "decompresion" hiss. Sounds like there may a general problem with the 7700.

Well let me weigh in on this as well. Got the 7500 on Thursday and hooked it up today. Turned it on and....hummmmm. All 5 channels. Went to the manual and followed the instructions. First disconnected all cable TV inputs. Still humming. Then disconnected the unbalanced interconnects from the 990 pre/pro. No hum, quiet as a mouse. Started plugging in interconnects one at a time. Each time the hum was back. Maybe it's the interconnects? Pulled out my old Yamaha receiver and hooked up the same interconnects to the outputs that bipass the receiver's amp. Just a nice quiet hiss so I'm thinkin' it ain't the interconnects either. Maybe it's the 990 except there was nothing when it was hooked up to the 7125, in fact it was stone cold quiet regardless of how high I adjusted the volume. What's going on? I guess I'll be on the phone with Outlaw on Monday (if they're in on the holiday). Maybe I've got to try balanced interconnects.

The amp's performance however, is very nice. Made the new Axiom M80v2 speakers that I am trying out come alive. They seem to love the extra power and the dynamics have changed considerably. Very crisp and clear. Here's hoping I can get to the bottom of this because the amp sounds great.

korkster

Have you noticed if the hum gradually disapates and then disappears after 20-30 minutes?

mzpro5

No, I just had it on for the last couple of hours and the "hum" hung around the whole time. It's very soft; however, you don't notice it at all unless your not playing anything or what you're playing is at a very low volume, and I mean very low. But it's there, and it wasn't at all with the 7125. Nothing, not even the slightest hiss.

When I test my system ungrounded the hum through my speakers is pretty quiet. That is when I noticed that the hum would disappear after about 20 minutes. But when it is grounded, the hum does not go away.
Here is the progress I have made.

Since I need a safety ground, I decided to ground this outlet to a 6' grounding rod outside my house. Testing the system here, the hum and noise comming through the speakers has decreased even more. After I did that, I have managed to get the hum considerably better by removing my TV cable, which initially did not help. So I am now left with a quiet hum with some static noise through my speakers. I still get the "meow" hiss when powering down. I too have called Outlaw on Friday with no return call as of yet.

I was told that Furman products are to help ground loop noise. I'm going to call them on Monday to confirm this with Furman.

I too have noticed an improvement from the 7125 to the 7700. My Paradigm 100's love the extra power, giving me even better sound. I hear more detailed sounds on some movie clips I have watched. (this is why I am trying so hard to get the 7700 to work)

My next quest is to try balanced interconnects. Has anyone tried this and noticed any improvements?

I'm going to pursue the balanced interconnect question with Outlaw when I call them as I need to get interconnects for my DVD-Audio connection anyway, and could use what I am currently using for the pre-pro/amp connection for that purpose and then use balanced interconnects, if it will solve the problem. Like I said, the hum isn't bad, but it shouldn't be there at all.

Markpog, not to changed the subject, but did you consider Axioms at all before you bought your Paradigms? I've got the Axioms home right now but I have also been listening to the Paradigm Reference series (Studio 40's and 60's) as an alternative, and I'm having a lot of difficulty making up my mind. Because the Axioms are only sold factory direct I can't do a side by side comparison without buying the Paradigms and bringing them home. I really don't want to do that if I don't have to.

O.K., so I'm not the brightest guy in the world. I just simply disconnected the cable from the cable box and that did it. No more "buzzzz." Regardless of whether any of the t.v. interconnects were attached to the pre-pro or not had nothing to do with it. I guess the cable was introducing a ground loop into the A.C. outlets, I guess. I obviously don't know much about this stuff. All I know is that as soon as the cable seperated from the cable box the noise went away, and I had nothing but quiet throughout the system.

Don't know if this will help anyone but it worked for me. At least for now. Now i guess I need to

......finish my sentence (I hit the add reply button a little too soon). Now I guess I need to find a ground loop isolator. Hopefully that will solve the problem. Something new to learn.

Regards.