Hum, Interconnects etc.

[IJ]

My old Exposure pre/power amplifier is connected by a pair of old Van Den Hul The First interconnects with AES/EBU connectors. Without any source, if I turn the amp volume past 12 o'clock I get a hum from the speakers, which increases the higher you go. I recently read that with the very first, The First's there was an issue with hum due to some shielding issues(later ones were modified). Do you think this may be the issue here?

I connect my Wadia 12 DAC to the pre-amp via a pair of Van Den Hul The Seconds with RCA connectors. Would swapping these 2 solve this issue?(not easy to get to the back of the amps)

This week I needed a digital interconnect so I could connect my Wadia back in to my new Usher CD player, looking around and not really finding a cable in my ideal price range of about £130 I came upon a second hand Purist Audio Design Proteus. It's certainly a few years old, was in excellent condition and looked the part, so I bought it and connected it up. Can't say I did any auditioning, but certainly the sound with the Wadia connected blew me away.

The thing is the shop has a pair of the PAD Proteus analogue interconnects(RCA) for around £100 as well and I was wondering if this would be a good choice as replacement for the Van Den Hul The First to go between the pre and power amps or alternatively between the Wadia and pre-amp if i use The seconds between the pre/power?

As a general question, if you have several interconnects of say various qualities, which items would you connect with the best and which with the worse or since its all in a chain does it matter?

 

[matthewpiano]

See if you can try it with some existing interconnects first.

If that doesn't solve it, I suspect it might be time to get the amps serviced to rectify any voltage leakage.

 

[IJ]

No one wants to take a stab at the last question?

 

[Big Chris]

Sorry Dude. Never even heard of them, let alone heard them.

Ask the dealer for a home trial. If they don't solve your problem, then take them back.

A chain is only as good as its weakest link, but if I had to choose, I'd use the best I/C from my source to my pre-amp, and work downwards from there.

 

[up the music]

Firstly most amps will make an audible hum through the speakers when the volume is cranked. Though this is usually a wider frequency buzz than a low frequency hum.

I used an Exposure 19 pre and pair of Super 18 power amps until very recently.

I found the pairing very easily picked up hums from adjacent equipment and reacted badly to my poor mains wiring. Tidying the cable runs helped but didn't cure my issues.

Mostly my noises were fixed level in nature and got no worse as the volume was increased.

Also, the xlr connections on Exposure amps are unbalanced, and won't in themselves help out with noise problems.

I only went so far as to tidy up cable routing and used Cambridge Atlantic and QED Qunex 4S interconnects. Like Chris I've never heard of the cables you're considering either.

To isolate the cause try experimenting with moving the amps as far from other kit as possible and try a different amp if possible to see whether the hum reduces. Feed the power amp directly with a source with variable output like an MP3 player.