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Posted by djkonami on Sep-03-2002 15:42:

grounding a cd player?

Hi, I recently just bought a Pioneer CDJ-500G. Everything works ok, but I get that "humm" noise from it. The cd player does not have a grounding cable attached to it. Do CD players need to be grounded like my turntables? Or could it be im using crappy RCA cables?? If I do need to ground the cd player could anyone tell me where I could buy one??

Thanks.

Posted by ampburner on Sep-03-2002 15:52:

CD players don't have to be grounded. Which input (on your mixer) have you connected them to? Not the phono I hope, that's for TT's...CD players should be connected to the 'line in'.

That said.... you're grounded! Go to your room ! (the one where you spin)!

Posted by djkonami on Sep-03-2002 16:10:

Nope. Its in the line in. I have tryed all the Line In's too, all of them give me the same "humm" sound. So could it be the RCA cables maybe??

Posted by DJ LIQUID on Sep-03-2002 16:32:

yea its probably an unshieled wire...its probably just picking up feedback

Posted by djkonami on Sep-04-2002 01:09:

I just replaced my RCA cables with Monster Interlink 100's. I still get the "humm" sound.. are these cables not good enough maybe? could it be the cd player maybe??

Posted by MERiDiAN5i2 on Sep-04-2002 14:08:

you might be experiencing what is known as a ground loop. I've yet to run into this in audio equiptment, but it's common in the RF world where frequencies are much higher.

Make sure your stuff is all grounded to one place... that there are not multiple paths to ground. (ground loops are caused by more than one path to ground) Everything should be plugged into the same power strip if possible, all grounds coming back to the same bolt (preferably the ground bolt on your mixer).

It could be possible something is wrong with that channel of the mixer, also. try swapping the CD deck to one of the other channels and see if it [the hum] is still there

also try hooking the CD player up directly to a line-in of your stereo or amp - make sure the CD player itself is not generating the noise. it could be a bad power supply on the CDJ500 causing AC hum because it's not providing clean DC power to the CD deck.

Good luck
-mer

Posted by Dj Flesch on Sep-06-2002 01:48:

well, most likely, it is not the cable that would give you a hum like that. Is your mixer grounded? I know that my mixer doesn't have a grounding plug, but I plug it into an extention cord (with my cd decks) which does have a ground plug on it. Also, there are many other sources for electrical humming. Do you have unshielded speakers next to your setup? Or a really old unshielded monitor? All electrical lines have a 60Hz hum and multiples of that, which can cause interference sometimes. There are filters that you can get to eliminate that. Try asking someone at radio shack if they know what cheap fixes are availible for things like that. Also, make sure that your cables are plugged all the way in, and that they aren't in contact with other conductors at the contact tip.

Posted by Dj Flesch on Sep-06-2002 01:50:

just thought of another test you could do. Plug your deck into your reciever directly and eliminate the mixer as a source of the hum. If you have a reciever with a cd player hooked up to it alreay, then if that doesn't hum, neither should your cd deck. If it still does, then you may want to return it!

Posted by DJ LIQUID on Sep-06-2002 01:54:

quote:
Originally posted by Dj Flesch
just thought of another test you could do. Plug your deck into your reciever directly and eliminate the mixer as a source of the hum. If you have a reciever with a cd player hooked up to it alreay, then if that doesn't hum, neither should your cd deck. If it still does, then you may want to return it!

i dunno if you got my email...but im listening to ur mix right now

Posted by djkonami on Sep-14-2002 18:23:

thanks for all of the info! but I still havnt fixed it. well I found out its my computer.. when I unplugged the computer from my mixer the hum sound stopped. So I plugged my computer into the same power strip as my mixer and my cd player, but I still get that damned sound!!!! any ideas??? Could I maybe need a shielded cable running from my mixer to my computer??