Heresy!
It gets worse my friend. I took my Schnerzinger Grid Protector offline last night. Tonight I am going to listen without it. It will have been powered down for 24 hours. I will leave it where it sits instead of taking it out of the room as the instructions state one should do.
My Apex Amp hum disturbs me too much. I spent so much money getting the blackest of black levels available. Now the amp hum wrecks all that. Bah.
The Stealth cables are safe.
Wine collection to me 40+ years ago was for investment! Most of my collection from 30 years ago is worth a lot of money now. In fact, their value is getting close to my audio system. The good thing is, unlike audio system, they will only go up in value. The bad thing is I seldom drink them because of their current value.
My strategy is only bringing old wine to nice restaurants, and we would get excellent service always because they thought I was somebody.
We drink cheap wine at home mostly unless it is a special occasion.
Perhaps a IsoTek V5 Syncro UNI 16 will help with the hum in your amplifier. I also often experienced a loud hum from my amplifiers. Since installing the V5 Syncro in front of my power strip, I havenāt heard any hum at all, and the sound of my system has benefited more than it has suffered any detriment.It is usually a DC voltage component in the power grid that causes the humming.
Sometimes a transformer can also hum louder mechanically because itās no longer properly secured or poorly decoupled. Or a transformer isnāt wound properly. Some transformers are potted to counteract wire and transformer sheets vibrations.
Big transformer, big hum. My mono power amplifiers also have four large transformers. But now, thanks to the IsoTek V5, I have peace and quiet in the box.
I just checked the manual. The Isotek Syncro 16 has a power rating of 3680 W at 230 V and 1840 W at 115 V.
Okay, I have learned some things today.
First, I read a review in a Polish Publication on the new Stealth Gold interconnect. They compared it directly to a V17 Sakra LE. They appreciated the improvement the Gold offered. It looks like I am going to have to get at least one.
Next, last night I disconnected power to my Schnerzinger Grid Protector to see if the not loud hum in my amp vanishes. It did not. The last thing I tried with the Grid Protector was to disconnect it from my PowerZone and plug it in to a different circuit. Tonight when I powered up the system without the Grid Protector the hum was still there. So I plugged the main power cable from the Grid Protector into the PowerZone. I may be imagining things but it seems like the hum got softer.
So I did not allow myself a listen to my system without the Grid Protector. Instead it is now properly connected and I am about to listen.
Before I hooked it up again I disconnected my subs from my humming amplifier, to test if that was an issue. Seems like it isnāt. I just now powered down the subs. Nope. The next test, later this week, will be to disconnect the Amplifier from the PowerZone and plug it into its own 20 amp circuit. If that solves it, so be it.
Good luck!
I am playing CDās and I have zero complaints at the moment.
When I comment on a huge positive improvement in sound that a new item adds to a system I describe it as a Stealth V17 Sakra level of change. Apparently, the new Sakra Gold, while offering improvement over the V17 Sakra, is not a V17 Sakra level of change. They use the same techniques to make both, the major difference is they add a bit of Gold here and there. Not a lot. So the Sakra Gold is as fast and transparent as the V17 Sakra LE, it offers a bit more heart and soul and feeling to pass through. More realism than a cable that didnāt seem to leave anything on the table. An incremental cable performance increase that those with the money can choose and enjoy. Sounds nice to me. Iāll think it over. I hope they send me one to test. A 7 meter pair would be interesting.
When itās already at V17 level of performance incremental improvement is impressive! Iāve said this since I first heard the Sakra V17 āsomeone will never improve on this!ā If they did bravo! Iām impressed!!
Ok who won the pool?
Bro, you may be staying up past your bed time, not getting enough sleep.
One good thing about switching components/improvements around is that it can negate how complacent we become with improvements we make to our system. I recently put my cheaper AQ MacKenzie interconnect into the system (and temporarily removed the Front Row Reserve) and music sounded duller and much less open. When I put the FRR back into the system the improvement was immediately obvious again, and I love the FRR interconnect. I also temporarily removed my CJ preamp for just over a week. The system sounded nice (good nice versus bad nice), but then put the CJ preamp back in the system yesterday and my jaw dropped to the floor again, as the improvement from the preamp was fresh and new again.
JUST replaced the 20A Audience Front Row with the new Reserve cable going to my P20.
Right out of the box I perceive a substantial improvement in bass depth and body. And also whatever frequency reports the finger on the bass string, the rattle of the string.
And this is ice cold and with my little F7 amp which is plugged into the P20.
Yes, Iāve noticed this phenomenon as well. Itās so easy for the ear to become jaded to improvements. Sometimes all it takes is to go back for a short while then put things back in to appreciate them all over again.
Here is a thoughtā¦
Check all of your power cables and interconnects and make sure things are as separate and perpendicular as practical. I have experienced some cable induced hum in the past that was resolved by improving the ācable dressingā.
Good luck.
That was something I checked the other night. The PowerZone outlets are really high quality. They donāt spit out cables like my previous device. I checked both ends. I fear the Apex doesnāt love the PowerZone.
In the review of my Esoteric M1 monoblocks, the reviewer took care of the hum problem with one of these. https://emotiva.com/products/cmx2
When I plug the amps directly to the wall, the hum is very obvious. But when I plug them into the P20, not only is the sound better, the hum is hardly noticeable. I donāt hear the hum at all at the listening position.
I havenāt tried the Emotiva DC Offset Eliminator yet since hum doesnāt seem to a problem right now, but maybe Iāll try it for fun later since it doesnāt cost much.
Here is what the reviewer said.
[I did have an initial glitch with the C1/M1 combo. I discovered that the M1s are sensitive to DC offset, which is a new issue I experienced after my recent home remodeling. This is not the place for a full discussion of DC offset (in my case apparently caused by the wall switches installed as part of a new LED lighting system), but it can cause transformers to develop a mechanical hum, and high-power amps generally have big transformers. Some amps are more susceptible than others, and the M1 appears to be susceptible. However, I was easily able to address this issue with a great product ā the Emotiva CMX-2 Precision AC Line Restoration & Common Mode Filter System. This product is very good, not very expensive, and does exactly what it says. It probably deserves its own review, and perhaps Iāll do that in the coming months. Suffice it to say that this product completely eliminated the issue, so I was able to proceed with the review without any transformer hum.]
I wonder if the apex needs to be isolated with its own powerzone? Not thatās an ideal or cheap solution.
The PZ outlets are Furutech GTX-D (G) outlets. Great quality and very grippy. According to Gryphon, this gold plated model was chosen over the popular rhodium one (R), because they liked the sound better.
Tonight I disconnected the Apex from the PowerZone and plugged it into one of my five dedicated 20 amp circuits. It still hummed.
I guess I own an amp that hums.
My next test is to disconnect EVERYTHING from it except power and see if it hums then.
hmmmm