Forums - Speaker Ground Help

Nrobhenry

Verified Member

Posts: 11

Speaker Ground Help
03/24/23 at 20:43:06

Apologies if this is a major dummy issue, but my speakers (Klipsch Heresy III) are putting out a low level buzz when connected to my UFO2, even when the UFO2 is not connected to power or any other sources. Playing around a bit, I've found that if I have a connection between the speaker terminals or speaker wire and the input jack, such as my finger or a piece of wire, the buzz goes away... I'm assuming this is because I'm eliminating the ground loop. I can't figure out why the connection from the UFO2 to my speakers is creating a buzz unless grounded to the input jack. I subbed in my 2011 SE84C+/CKC and didn't have this issue. Any idea what would be causing the buzz on my UFO2?

Thanks so much for your help!

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milkplus Verified Member Posts: 11	Re: Speaker Ground Help Reply #1 - 05/13/24 at 11:55:33 Hey there. Did you ever get this fixed? I'm having a similar issue after introducing a subwoofer into my system. Loud buzzing even when everything is switched off...
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Nrobhenry Verified Member Posts: 11	Re: Speaker Ground Help Reply #2 - 05/13/24 at 17:52:30 Nope, my fix was to place a bit of speaker wire. Will try to remember to send a photo when I get home this evening.
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milkplus Verified Member Posts: 11	Re: Speaker Ground Help Reply #3 - 05/13/24 at 18:41:40 Thank you. I'd appreciate it.
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Nrobhenry Verified Member Posts: 11	Re: Speaker Ground Help Reply #4 - 05/15/24 at 18:39:53 Here you go. Not elegant, but it works. If there's someone smarter than me that understands the wiring going on below that could throw out a theory of why this solves for the hum, I'd love to hear it.
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Donnie Seasoned Member Why does it hurt when I pee? Posts: 2236	Re: Speaker Ground Help Reply #5 - 05/15/24 at 19:36:53 It has something to do with magnetic fields. Or ohms, or capacitance, or micro-farads . One of those electrical terms I'm just a machinist. Electricity is a magic thing to me, kinda like how does gravity work.
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LiquidBlue Seasoned Member Posts: 116	Re: Speaker Ground Help Reply #6 - 05/15/24 at 20:51:14 Interestingly gravity and ground have a really strong affinity to each other.
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Nrobhenry Verified Member Posts: 11	Re: Speaker Ground Help Reply #7 - 05/15/24 at 22:29:04 For the record I understand grounding. I’ve just never encountered another instance of a speaker posts not being grounded along with the rest of the amp.
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CAJames

Seasoned Member

"I've run every
red light on memory
lane."

Posts: 1952

Re: Speaker Ground Help
Reply #8 - 05/15/24 at 22:35:49

Quote:

Interestingly gravity and ground have a really strong affinity to each other.

Yep.

But seriously, Donnie is right…maybe. The OP doesn’t have a ground loop if there is buzz with no source or power cords, i.e. only speaker cables attached to the amp, because there is no connection to ground. To me it sounds like the speaker cables are acting like an antenna and picking up some kind of EM noise. How long are the cables? And if you move them around does the noise change at all?

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[FOOBAR2000 | Jay's CDT2 MRK3] -> Denafrips Terminator 2 + Gaia
Sumiko Pearwood -> Mapleknoll Athena -> Luxman SUT -> Maple-tree Phono 3E
STR-1002 -> Woo WA22 -> 2x UFO25s, balanced monos
Omega SAM , Hifiman Arya, Audeze LCD-XC

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CAJames

Seasoned Member

"I've run every
red light on memory
lane."

Posts: 1952

Re: Speaker Ground Help
Reply #9 - 05/15/24 at 22:55:30

Quote:

….I’ve just never encountered another instance of a speaker posts not being grounded along with the rest of the amp.

I can’t find a reference ATM, but this is in fact a feature of the UFO amps. The “floating ground” allows bridging into mono without any loss of sound quality.

The other thing, that I didn’t notice the first time I looked at your picture, is it looks like you’re connecting the red/hot speaker wire to the RCA jack, not the black/ground one. That makes me think it is even more likely you are picking up noise.

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[FOOBAR2000 | Jay's CDT2 MRK3] -> Denafrips Terminator 2 + Gaia
Sumiko Pearwood -> Mapleknoll Athena -> Luxman SUT -> Maple-tree Phono 3E
STR-1002 -> Woo WA22 -> 2x UFO25s, balanced monos
Omega SAM , Hifiman Arya, Audeze LCD-XC

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Nrobhenry Verified Member Posts: 11	Re: Speaker Ground Help Reply #10 - 05/16/24 at 22:21:32 Thanks, I had totally forgotten about that. I can’t recall whether I had disconnected my powered sub when I was experiencing the issue, but that could explain it for the other user running into similar issues.
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