Our system does the same / similar when our daughter uses her hair straighteners
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I found a reasonably priced DC blocker online from a company called ATL Audio. Does anyone have experience with them?
I have ordered an Isol-8 Powerline Axis based on recommendations from other folk on here. Iâll report back on whether it makes any difference.
Great Film. âHey you guysâŚâ
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âBaby Ruth?â
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Hi wilro. I bought a dc blocker from ATL. Unfortunately it didnât make any difference to my humming Hicap but heâs a good guy to deal with. For the price itâs worth a try and Iâve read good things about its performance.
Thanks Metalrat. Did you find another solution for your humming HiCap?
Obvious suggestion potentially, have you had an electrician check all your circuits for continuity and importantly earth bonding, if youâve got grounding issues or high resistance to ground that could push noise in to your system. No harm having someone fully qualified to take a look at it. If the internal wiring isnât sound or your earthing solid you can end up with all sorts of issues that any number of moving things about or rewiring wonât ultimately fix.
It might be worth looking in to having a dedicated radial circuit for your black boxes to isolate them as far as is sensible from interference and sources of noise from equipment on other circuits (or in your case the same circuit) within your home. I appreciate sometimes that doesnât seem an entirely practical solution but ultimately the day or two of disruption is likely to pay dividends.
Hope you find a solution anyway!
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No. Itâs not very loud but once youâve heard it you canât ignore it!!
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In my case Iâm pretty sure that a dedicated radial would be the answer. When I had a new consumer unit fitted to replace the old fuse box the electrician recommended a house rewire and I wouldnât disagree!
Another additional comment particular to the UK but applicable to mainland Europe as supply tolerance is harmonised across the high voltage distribution networks that the UK National Grid is connected to, is the voltage tolerance which is specified at +10% through -6% against a median voltage of 230v.
If you live very close to your supply substation you may find your voltage runs higher above 240v which remains the UK specification with normalised tolerance for mainland Europe which changed to 230v from 220v in the mid 90âs. In my case having measured the supply voltage I found a correlation between times of higher supply voltage and increased hum from the sensitive toroidal power supplies in my black boxes of choice.
This fluctuation in actual voltage is normal, getting a true 240v supply that doesnât fluctuate at least a little is within spec, if itâs fluctuating a lot you mostly wonât even be aware of it unless you have sensitive power supplies which are inherently prone to producing audible noise in operation. If your supply is running higher than 240v regularly you can ask your mains supplier to have it looked at and work done on their side to stabilise it back to normal tolerance as required. They should at the least be able to check it and confirm your average supply voltage for reference.
Companies like Isotek or PS Audio do Mains regenerators which will smooth out those typical fluctuations in incoming mains supply and output a true 50 Hz 240v voltage for connection to equipment.
You have a number of options for regulating mains once itâs in your home either at the point of distribution in the consumer unit or beyond that with a reclocking/regenerating box which then sits between your lumpy mains and your sensitive kit.
Perhaps worth talking to a company like MRCU in parallel to consulting a qualified electrician to both verify the condition of your supply in and your path to Earth as well as any modifications and changes you might look at to both isolate the internal supply to your equipment and stabilise your mains supply.
You said that the xps â is super loud and can be heard in the next roomâ. My feeling would be to send to Naim . You will loose certainly time, money, try different components, pay an electricianâŚfor a very probably default in the xps .
Have you tried the xps at dealer place first?
Just bought a supra dc blocker for my growling 250dr. Complete silent :-).
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Iâm trying a trichord balanced transformer at the moment
Itâs completely stopped my DC on the mains growl
But has not changed the buzz from my amp and 555 ps
But it was the DC I was trying to get rid of âŚso quite happy really
The Isol-8 Powerline Axis is now in place and it seems to be working. The XPS DR gives off a slight hum, which is perfectly acceptable, but the noisy buzzing sound seems to be gone. Iâll give it a bit more time before I am 100% sure.
So far so good!
(Now I can finally enjoy the new XPS DR)
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Awesome! Not sure where you live but if you as in most parts of Europa can rotate the wall plug then this can also increase/decrease hum to some extent. I have a tool that can find the live connector in my wall and if I set up my system correct against the live connector the system is more calm and silent .
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Good to hear it works and that the xps was not faulty.
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All still working well! The Isol-8 Powerline Axis cured the buzzing noise from my XPS DR. Pricey but ultimately works
Great to hear you found a working solution!
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Great that Isol-8 works in your house â it did the same in our old house. Expensive but a great relief when the buzzing is gone. I suspect your slight hum might be caused by high voltage, rather than DC. In our new place, high voltage produces a slight hum too.
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