Touching the Airmotiv 5s backplate causes a buzzing noise.

[jra]

I have a pair of Airmotiv 5s's which sound wonderful, but I noticed when having to move them recently that if one of them is on and I touch the back-plate with my finger it causes the driver at the front to emit a noticeable buzzing noise. The noise stops as soon as I remove my finger. It only happens with one of them. Both of them emit a slight "hiss" when on and my ear is next to the tweeter, but that's normal.

I hadn't noticed the buzzing-when-touched before, and it only happens on one of them.

I tried changing the power cable (wasn't using the original Emotiva cable) and also adding a 3-2 prong power grounding adapter, which made the noise a little less (which makes me believe this must be power-supply related). When not being touched and playing the unit still sounds great, and I can't hear anything untoward if I stick my ear close to the woofer or tweeter when music is on.

I know this falls into the "doctor, doctor it hurts when I do this - then don't do that" category as I don't make a habit of fondling the back-plate when the speaker is on, but it made me wonder if this a sign of impending doom in the amp or something.

Any thoughts or advice welcome !

[DYohn]

Try swapping the signal cables between the two speakers and see if the behavior moves with the cable.

[jra]

Yeah, I tried swapping out the RCA cable, but it still happens. It's getting a signal via a OAW4 transmitter and I'm wondering if that might be giving out a noisy signal somehow. But why does it only buzz when I touch the Airmotiv 5s backplate ?

[DYohn]

You are using wireless? That could be the issue as well. Try direct connection to the source and see if it changes. The buzzing due to touch is because something in your system is poorly grounded and you are creating a ground loop when you touch it.

[rbk123]

Just don't touch the backplate?

[jra]

Nov 15, 2020 9:06:36 GMT -5 DYohn said:

You are using wireless? That could be the issue as well. Try direct connection to the source and see if it changes. The buzzing due to touch is because something in your system is poorly grounded and you are creating a ground loop when you touch it.

Yes, I think you're completely correct. I think the RCA cable coming from the OAW4 transmitter may be the problem as if I touch the RCA connector on the back of the Airmotiv 5s when it's plugged in the noise is the loudest. I have an alternative wireless transmitter on the way, so I'll see if that makes a difference.

Thanks a *lot* for the help and advice !