BUZZING thru the 990!!!!! HELP PLEASE

i hooked everything up and I have buzzing coming thru my speakers. What is causing this? Can anyone make a suggestion? Thanks

Most of the time the culprit is a ground loop conflict between the cable or satellite receiver and everything else. You could try disconnecting just that. If that doesn’t do it, I hate to make you nearly start over, but if I were in your situation, I'd power down, the start with only the speakers, amp, and 990 connected to each other and to the same power strip – no sources, no subwoofer. If that tests as quiet, power down and add the subwoofer back into the system on the same power strip. If that tests as quiet, power down and add one of your sources. If that tests as quiet, add as many sources as you can until you isolate which one causes the problem. If adding any source at all introduces the buzz, try a device that runs on batteries, like a portable CD player or iPod/mp3 player, so that you can introduce an audio source without adding any additional connections to power. If it all works through the same power strip well, but plugging something else into a different outlet brings back the buzz, it could either be a ground loop problem between two circuits or one or more outlets is wired improperly, as in a hot and neutral being reversed or something like that. If a conflicting circuit seems to be the problem and you don’t have ‘electrician skills,’ you could buy a simple three-light outlet tester to determine if any outlets are improperly wired. No electrocutions please.

There are so many permutations of possible problems that a reply here, prior to some testing, could be rather lengthy with numerous suggested fixes to every possible problem. Try some or all of the testing above and then reply in the forum again once the source of the problem has been narrowed down a bit.

I unhooked my cable box and the buzzing stayed BUT the weird thing is that it is only buzzing thru my front right, both surrounds and my sub. The center and front left are fine (aside fdrom a little static every now and again). I switched the RCA inputs on my front amp and the buzzing switched speakers with the RCA cables so it is not from the amp. Any ideas???

I just disconnected everything and put it back together and now the buzzing is back to the center channel! ARGHHHHH!

My bad....i checked it again and I had the center and the sub reversed. The buzz once again is NOT in my center or front left channel. Is this the preamp?

I got more info for ya......


When i switched to 2 channel downmix (sp?) or to stereo, the humm is completely gone from the front right. When I switch back to Dolby digital it is back. Am I nuts or is this the Outlaw not working properly?

I agree that it is probably a ground loop from your symptoms, but try turning the 990 off with the button in the rear or unplugging it. I was having some buzzing from all my speakers and turning the unit off and then back on after a minute or so fixes it. Weird, but...

Try moving your audio cables as far away from the power cables as you can.

audio cables and power cables are seperated. i think this is an issue with the 990. Trying to work it out with Steve who has been extremely helpful so far.

WildWolf, I wonder if your intermittent buzzing could be caused by a damaged interconnect cable shield. Have you tried using a new stereo cable pair to sub for each of your cables in turn? It needn't be a high-end cable, a Radio Shack would do, and I don't envy you the cable swappingand hope the back of your 990 is more accessible than the back of mine. Just a thought.

Just to let you all know.....Steve has been great! He sat on the phone with me for over an hour trying to work this thing out. When we reset the 990, the annoying buzzing stopped happening in the front right speaker and just stayed in the rear. he thinks it could be a software problem or an extremely rare bad chip in the 990. in any case he sent me a replacement 990 OVERNIGHT which will be delivered today, Saturday!!!!!!!! I can't wait to get it and I can't say enough about Outlaws customer service. I will keep you updated.