Arcam Alpha 7 - Buzzing

Liam

Liam

Liam

Soldato
Joined
24 Jul 2004
Posts
3,192
Just moved house and since then i've got a buzzing coming through my speakers. I've tried changing the phono cables, using a different plug socket etc. My amp has a DIRECT button on it which uses the natural sound from its source, if the DIRECT button isn't pressed the noise gets much worse! It sounds low frequency. My amp is 10 years old so maybe its time to replace it? It worked fine in my old house so im really not sure what to try. :(

Any suggestions?

Thanks :)
 
I have the same amp, and found that I used to have odd noises etc before I moved it to the other side of the room. I never had buzzing, but my guess is that there's some electrical interference nearby. You should try it in a different room and see what happens. It's a really nice amp, and so would be a shame to get rid of it if it's OK.
 
scruffeh said:
I have the same amp, and found that I used to have odd noises etc before I moved it to the other side of the room. I never had buzzing, but my guess is that there's some electrical interference nearby. You should try it in a different room and see what happens. It's a really nice amp, and so would be a shame to get rid of it if it's OK.
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I'll give it a go later. I'll try and unplug everything and see what happens. Lovely amp, first one I actually bought. Cost me £270 10 years ago.
 
The buzzing that your hearing is probably a dc.If you got a multimeter you can easily test your amp for dc at the output.
short one of the input and set the amp to that particular input.Now connect the meter to the channel that is making the
buzzing noise.Connect the meter black cable to amp negative and the red one to the positive/red and set the meter to
dc and set it to 50v/200v around that setting and turn on the amplifier.Any dc reading above 0.5v is not good and dont
connect your speaker just to be sure.
Open up the amp and post some high res pix of the inside.
 
AtaRo said:
The buzzing that your hearing is probably a dc.If you got a multimeter you can easily test your amp for dc at the output.
short one of the input and set the amp to that particular input.Now connect the meter to the channel that is making the
buzzing noise.Connect the meter black cable to amp negative and the red one to the positive/red and set the meter to
dc and set it to 50v/200v around that setting and turn on the amplifier.Any dc reading above 0.5v is not good and dont
connect your speaker just to be sure.
Open up the amp and post some high res pix of the inside.
Click to expand...

I don't have one but my girlfriends Dad might. The buzzing is coming from every output, as soon as I plug any phono cable into any output it starts. Obviously can't hear any buzzing with just the speakers plugged in. I don't have a high res camera but i'll see what I can do.
 
If you cant hear any buzzing when only the speakers connected then thats good as the buzzing your hearing
is probably just some noise pickup by the circuits before the main amp stage.
Set the amp to cd and short the cd input and see if the buzzing is still there also try increasing the volume slowly up to 1/2.
 
AtaRo said:
If you cant hear any buzzing when only the speakers connected then thats good as the buzzing your hearing
is probably just some noise pickup by the circuits before the main amp stage.
Set the amp to cd and short the cd input and see if the buzzing is still there also try increasing the volume slowly up to 1/2.
Click to expand...

How would I short the CD input mate? At the moment I only have my TV and Blu Ray running through the amp.
 
the easy way to do this is if you got some spare rca (phono cable) cable.cut the cable (strip out the cable) and connect the inner and the outer cable,
do the same for the other cable this way you got the left and right cable shorted to ground.connect this to the cd in or other
inputs of choice and increase the volume to 1/2, if yoy dont hear any buzzing with the ins shorted then its probably noise pickup.
 
Earth loop? Try disconnecting the earth wire from the amp mains lead plug as a test.

If you are not sure how to do this safely then don't. Do not leave the earth disconnected without further advice.
 
Sinopa said:
Earth loop? Try disconnecting the earth wire from the amp mains lead plug as a test.

If you are not sure how to do this safely then don't. Do not leave the earth disconnected without further advice.
Click to expand...

Girlfriends Dad's an electrician and is coming round tomorrow. I'll get her to ask him as im at work. Thanks for all the advice given.

Cheers
 
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