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Post by mgoldshteyn on Sept 12, 2014 20:04:25 GMT -5
I am sitting at a 4 foot distance from each speaker (nearfield arrangement / equilateral triangle) with my ears about 15 degrees off of and to the inside of the tweeter axis (i.e., they are toed in, but not too much). I can hear hiss emanating from both the tweeter and the midrange/woofer at this distance, although the predominant noise is from the tweeters. It is coming out at the same amplitude from both speakers and it is independent of source (i.e., even with the audio input unplugged it is the same). Since it is emanating from both speakers equally, I can dismiss this from being an anomaly of one of the speakers. The power to the speakers is being fed through two separate power conditioners by the way and in general the power in my house is fairly clean based on how other amplifiers perform when connected to efficient speakers. The quality of the combined woofer/tweeter noise is reminiscent of the sort of noise you hear if you put your ear to the top vent holes of a fairly noisy old CRT monitor. Those of you who have done that will know what I am talking about. The difference here is that the noise is clearly audible four feet away from the speakers. In other words it is constant. I don't know if this is due to thermal noise from the amplifiers or what, but am hopeful that inside these speakers there is a way to attenuate the sound level between the amplifiers and the drivers at the expense of maximum sound level. Perhaps other solutions would work as well, but I cannot think of any. The noise isn't loud, but it is clearly audible and disturbing. Even when my central air is running, the noise can be heard. It can be heard doing quiet (and even not so quiet) musical passages as well. I am reminded of tape hiss, except this noise is less prominent and of a different characteristic. Any advice would be appreciated. Update: Connected one of the monitors directly into a wall outlet, bypassing the power conditioners. Result: same amount of noise.
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Post by wiskers on Sept 12, 2014 20:51:49 GMT -5
Try them directly into the wall socket without the conditioners.
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Post by redog on Sept 13, 2014 8:24:52 GMT -5
Any luck eliminating the hiss?
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Post by Davecski65 on Sept 13, 2014 8:48:12 GMT -5
Definitly try going straight to wall,that is how I have mine hooked up,didnt notice any hiss,but when I get my one stealth back from emotiva I will try it and see if I hear hiss.
I am also close,at about 6 ft
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Post by Davecski65 on Sept 13, 2014 8:54:20 GMT -5
I will try it today if I get some time and listen to the one stealth that I have through my DC-1.
Do you still have hiss with the xlr cables unconnected or with them connected?
There may be an issue with the cables? Not sure what your using,I bought some new ones from Monoprice when I got the stealths.
Please let us know if you get issue fixed,just rem to try one fix at a time and test so you know which one it was,otherwise youll have to do it a couple of times.
Know this from past exp.
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Post by mgoldshteyn on Sept 13, 2014 9:12:04 GMT -5
Haven't tried going to outlet direct yet, because I have no spare outlets here. I will update my post when I do.
However, the hiss is present with the input cable completely disconnected and it is present with the input cable connected but the source device turned off. The amplitude of the hiss is also independent of the gain setting in the back of the speaker. It is coming from (being generated within) the speaker itself and is of constant volume/quality as far as I can tell. Best I can figure out, it is being generated by the amplifiers or some constant noise being present at the amplifier inputs. It is consistent between both speakers, so this is not a one off.
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DYohn
Emo VIPs 
Posts: 18,485
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Post by DYohn on Sept 13, 2014 10:13:41 GMT -5
I would call Emotiva customer service...
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Post by garbulky on Sept 13, 2014 10:17:32 GMT -5
How loud is the hiss. Some very slight hiss is normal. But not much more than that. Is it plugged into a power conditioner? Try plugging directly into the wall and see
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Post by monkumonku on Sept 13, 2014 10:37:20 GMT -5
When I had my Stealth 8's, there was a noticeable hiss from the tweeters. But at 4 feet, it may have been audible if I were straining to hear it in a quiet room but otherwise it isn't anything I would have noticed as long as I was more than 2-3 feet or more away. Definitely I couldn't hear it from my normal listening position. It wasn't loud enough to interfere with quiet or silent passages on a recording - much lower than tape hiss. But it was there. I just put my ear up to the Airmotiv 4's I have on my desktop and don't hear any hiss from them.
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Post by Priapulus on Sept 13, 2014 10:44:14 GMT -5
All of my EMO amplifiers are deathly silent; inaudible even with my ear right up at the speaker, (with no sources connected). There is no excuse for modern, well designed and made amplifiers to have any noise, hiss or hum. I'd call customer service and describe the problem.
Sincerely
/b
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Post by mgoldshteyn on Sept 13, 2014 10:48:29 GMT -5
All of my EMO amplifiers and deathly silent; inaudible even with my ear right up at the speaker, (with no sources connected). There is no excuse for modern, well designed and made amplifiers to have any noise, hiss or hum. I'd call customer service and describe the problem. Sincerely /b Do not confuse EMO amplifiers connected to far/mid-field monitors (that are six or more feet away from you) with hiss coming from professional active nearfield monitors (that may be as little as 2-3 feet away from your ears). Regular mid/far-field speakers sit in a family room with ambient noise coming from all kinds of places. Professional nearfield monitors are calibrated across the full audible frequency range (within their limits) and sit in a studio with sound isolation, insulation and elimination. With a small amount of hiss in the home, you can be dismissive and say, "Who cares, any music I listen to will make it an non-issue." When you hear hiss in the studio on a recording, your first thought is, "At what stage of the recording/mastering process was it introduced?" You examine your signal carefully and correct it in the worst case during post-processing to eliminate the noise. You certainly expect your monitors to be as true as possible to the signal you are feeding them and not to introduce noise and/or coloration of their own, completely adulterating the mastering process. Home loudspeakers come in differing efficiencies. Some are as little as 86 dB @ 1 W/1 m for an acoustic suspension design. Others are as high as 110 dB @ 1 W/1 m for a (multi) horn loaded bass reflex design. That's a loudness difference range of 24 dB. When making a statement such as I can put my ear next to a driver and not hear any noise, the efficiency of your loudspeaker (and even the driver being discussed as part of the loudspeaker) should be stated. Without a doubt, if my Stealth 6 monitors were 20 dB (or perhaps even 10 dB) quieter, there wouldn't be a hiss issue. When you mate an amplifier with a loudspeaker in the home, you can mix and match. With an active monitor, I expect the manufacturer to make an optimal match and as a consumer have zero control over monitor efficiency and the level of noise coming from the amplifier and other circuitry present within the monitor, both active and passive. All I can do is supply a clean (balanced) signal and relatively clean power. Also, it is much MUCH more difficult to control/eliminate amplifier noise with active monitors, because there is no crossover between the amplifier and the drivers - they are directly connected and any amplifier noise, given efficient speaker elements (i.e., drivers), is readily audible. This is not an Emotiva proper product we're discussing, this is an Emotiva Pro product and the needs and expectations are very different (from casual home use). Update: Added more differences between home and professional use with regard to speaker efficiency and accuracy. |
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Post by Priapulus on Sept 13, 2014 11:18:52 GMT -5
All of my EMO amplifiers and deathly silent; inaudible even with my ear right up at the speaker, (with no sources connected). There is no excuse for modern, well designed and made amplifiers to have any noise, hiss or hum. I'd call customer service and describe the problem. Sincerely /b Do not confuse EMO amplifiers connected to far/mid-field monitors (that are six or more feet away from you) with hiss coming from professional active nearfield monitors (that may be as little as 2-3 feet away from your ears). Regular mid/far-field speakers sit in a family room with ambient noise coming from all kinds of places. Professional nearfield monitors are calibrated across the full audible frequency range (within their limits) and sit in a studio with sound isolation, insulation and elimination. Also, it is much MUCH more difficult to control/eliminate amplifier noise with active monitors, because there is no crossover between the amplifier and the drivers - they are directly connected and any amplifier noise, given efficient speaker elements (i.e., drivers), is readily audible. This is not an Emotiva proper product we're discussing, this is an Emotiva Pro product and the needs and expectations are very different (from casual home use). I'm not sure what you're trying to say. But I would return any amplifier, pro or home, that had noise audible from your sitting position. Sincerely /b
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Post by mgoldshteyn on Sept 13, 2014 13:13:08 GMT -5
I have tried plugging one Stealth 6 speaker directly into a wall outlet and am getting an identical amount of noise (hiss from the tweeter and buzz from the woofer). So, the power conditioners are not the issue. At this point, it is almost certainly amplifier noise (either coming from the circuit at the amplifiers' inputs or the amplifiers themselves) within the monitors themselves.
Keep in mind that although the speaker power cable has three prongs, the ground connection is not fed into the monitor (i.e., there are only two prongs within the monitor that plug into the IEC320 C13 connector), so ground hum of any sort can't reach the monitors.
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Post by redog on Sept 13, 2014 13:14:44 GMT -5
I know what I would do
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Post by jevans64 on Sept 13, 2014 13:23:21 GMT -5
I'm getting hiss from my Stealth 6 as well but it is very, very slight. The fans in my computer generate WAY more noise than the Stealth 6 do and the current PC I have is optimized to be quiet... less than 32dB at 1 meter. I have to stick my ears right up against the Stealth 6 drivers to hear the hiss.
One thing I have noticed about the Emotiva active speakers is that they appear to NOT be grounded. There are only two prongs at the speaker but use a three-prong cord. This is the case with both my Stealth 6 and Airmotiv 5.
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Post by mgoldshteyn on Sept 13, 2014 13:27:29 GMT -5
I'm getting hiss from my Stealth 6 as well but it is very, very slight. The fans in my computer generate WAY more noise than the Stealth 6 do and the current PC I have is optimized to be quiet... less than 32dB at 1 meter. I have to stick my ears right up against the Stealth 6 drivers to hear the hiss. That's interesting, because I have a fairly noisy computer here and I can hear the speaker noise in addition to the greater amount of (less intrusive) noise coming from the computer. This may have to do with the fact that the speaker drivers are slightly closer to my ears, are almost facing me (except for the 15 degrees off axis) and the quality of the noise produced (electrical hiss/buzz vs. computer fan noise). The Stealth 6 noise is also doubled, since there are two monitors. By the way, I am a man in my mid-forties, not a teenager, so my hearing isn't exactly top notch here, but the noise is clearly audible. How far are your ears from your Stealth 6s' drivers and could you please characterize the noise coming from the individual drivers (i.e., tweeter vs woofer) when you place your ear on them? I have a hiss coming from the tweeter and a low frequency buzz coming from the woofer. |
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Post by jevans64 on Sept 13, 2014 13:36:25 GMT -5
I'm getting hiss from my Stealth 6 as well but it is very, very slight. The fans in my computer generate WAY more noise than the Stealth 6 do and the current PC I have is optimized to be quiet... less than 32dB at 1 meter. I have to stick my ears right up against the Stealth 6 drivers to hear the hiss. That's interesting, because I have a fairly noisy computer here and I can hear the speaker noise in addition to the greater amount of (less intrusive) noise coming from the computer. This may have to do with the fact that the speaker drivers are slightly closer to my ears, are almost facing me (except for the 15 degrees off axis) and the quality of the noise produced (electrical hiss/buzz vs. computer fan noise). The Stealth 6 noise is also doubled, since there are two monitors. By the way, I am a man in my mid-forties, not a teenager, so my hearing isn't exactly top notch here, but the noise is clearly audible. How far are your ears from your Stealth 6s' drivers? I sit about 34" from the drivers and they are toed in about 15 degrees. I edited my post to state that I have to put my ears up against the drivers in order to hear the hiss. Something isn't right with yours but it could be noisy power at your location. I don't think the speakers are electrically grounded. The power where I'm at is pretty stable. Stable enough to where I don't have to run the speakers through my CyberPower conditioner/UPS. If you have something like an APC or CyberPower UPS, you could try that as these units, with sine wave filtering, generally clean up the power pretty good. Something like a Monster Power HTS-1000 would probably work too if you have one for any A/V gear. |
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Post by Davecski65 on Sept 13, 2014 14:00:51 GMT -5
So I had my stealth on and plugged into my DC-1 and I got right up to tweeter and woofer,I couldn't hear any hiss at all coming from mine.
I turned volume on DC-1 all the way up and down and could not hear a thing,No hiss at all.I
I would call emotiva on Monday.
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Post by Davecski65 on Sept 13, 2014 14:02:09 GMT -5
Maybe try a different outlet in a different part of the house?
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Post by Percussionista on Sept 13, 2014 16:20:20 GMT -5
However, the hiss is present with the input cable completely disconnected and it is present with the input cable connected but the source device turned off. ... Best I can figure out, it is being generated by the amplifiers or some constant noise being present at the amplifier inputs. It is consistent between both speakers, so this is not a one off. I have Stealth-8's on my desk PC system, they are sitting 2-3 feet from my ears. When I turn on the 8's I can tell there is a subtle hiss present. More obvious when I put my ears up to the speakers' AMT drivers. They are connected to an XDA-2 at the moment, but even with that off, the hiss is present, so it's coming from the speakers themselves. Barely noticeable though. The 8's are plugged into a Monoprice power conditioner box, though I suspect it isn't the cause. Anyway, too subtle to bother about here. The fan noise from the PC is FAR louder anyway! |
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