Hum / distortion / ground loop

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Comments

7 comments

  • Official comment
    Tony W.
    Product Support Manager

    Hi Ronald

    Ground loop issues are always troublesome to locate and can be caused by a number of factors.

    When applying an earthing cable on the analog out, the humming disappears.

    I think you answered your own question. That being said, I have forwarded your feedback to our Quality Assurance team as they are always looking at ways to improve the experience.

  • Ronald van der Kraan

    Hi Tony,

    Thanks for your answer and it was indeed cumbersome to locate where it came from. But that does not say how to get rid of it, therefore the SR. As I cannot apply an earthing cable permanently at the spot where I need to plug in my audio cable. The hum seems to come from the chassis of the RCA terminals, do you have a resolution for that?

    Ronald

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  • Tony W.
    Product Support Manager

    Hi Ronald

    3 basic things to check...

    1) Change your RCA Cables

    2) Change your Analogue input cable running to the NODE 

    3) Ensure your Analogue source is in fact grounded properly

    Either way, you must find out where the circuit is open and close it.

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  • Ronald van der Kraan

    Further investigation shows the root cause is the mains in my house, what the electrician should and will fix. So it is not the Node to blame although it is the only device that really was getting distressed about it. It is quite sensitive to bad mains. Honestly thankful to find out, since I am an advocate of proper power for audio (having 3 separate 16A glass fuses main groups installed for audio only).

    Thanks for the support which is great!

    Best regards,

     

    Ronald

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  • Tony W.
    Product Support Manager

    WOW!

    Glad to hear you found it Ronald

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  • James O'Sullivan

    Hi Ronald

    I get exactly the same issue plugging it into my XTZ Edge a2-300 Class D power amp and Roksan M2 Power amp Class AB via RCA outputs (high frequency sound this time). The Node (3rd gen) is the only streamer/dac to do it out of other streamer/dacs that causes this issue. Although you mentioned it's not the Node, what exactly did the electrician do to prevent this noise? Was it as simple as replacing the fuses?

    Regards

    James

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  • Ronald van der Kraan

    Hi James,

    In my case it turned out to be a Powerline adapter from my Internet/television supplier (Ziggo), which uses the power network to cast the television signal to a 2nd TV. It introduced a noise on the power where the Node was quite sensitive to. Even having completely seperate groups for audio, homecinema and the rest of the house didn't prevent it from happening. So ditched the P2P powerline overall which solved the issue. Check if you have some HF distortion on your power as well (TV- or WiFi repeater)?

    All the best

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