QuestionI was elated when I bought my first home a couple of weeks ago, but I've become increasingly aggravated since I connected my stereo system. At my previous home, all components of my system operated beautifully. At my new house, however, I encounter severe distortion when operating the CD player and DVD player.
The noise is present in any CD I play on either component and it's most pronounced in the high frequencies. There's no background noise, but music sounds extremely muffled and filled with static. The sound is similar to that of a clock-radio struggling to play at full volume even though my stereo's volume is turned down to a modest level. Compact discs featuring consistently loud music (by Slayer, Jesus Lizard, etc.) sound especially muffled.
My turntable and tape deck sound great, therefore I doubt the problem lies with the speakers. Also, the RCA interconnects are secured properly on all components. Turning my attention to the amp and components, I thought poor grounding or a ground-loop might be the culprit. I replaced my extension cords and power strips with a heavy-duty surge protector and plugged all components into it. The indicator light on the protector verifies it is indeed grounded, but that hasn’t helped solve my problem.
Now I suspect electromagnetic interference (EMI) might be responsible for the distortion. You see, my interconnects, speaker wire and power cords are stuffed into a tight space behind my bookshelves and they’re tangled. Do you think they could interfere with one another? If so, how do I isolate the problem? Are there ways to shield my components from EMI? Would the addition of ferrite rings or clamps shield my system? Should I replace my cheap RCA cables and power cords with expensive replacements? Would shorter RCA cables reduce EMI?
I’m especially frustrated because my stereo sounded so wonderful at my previous home. Plus, I can’t figure out why the distortion is only affecting two of my components. Am I overlooking any other possible causes? I would greatly appreciate your advice.
Thanks.
Equipment:
Sansui 7070 integrated amp/receiver (made circa 1978)
Pioneer DV-578A-S DVD/SACD player
Sony CDPCX455 400 disc CD Changer
Kenwood KD-21R turntable
Tascam 112 cassette deck
Infinity Reference 3-way floor speakers
Sony SAWX700 Active Subwoofer
AnswerDave: You are delving into the spiritual, trying to figure out why there is a problem with your system when it fact it lies in something far more obvious then EMF and any of the other theories that you may have challenged yourself with. In this day and age a 5 year old receiver is considered an antique let alone a 30 year old receiver made in Japan. Consider this; I am a receiver happily performing a very simple function of amplifying sound and suddenly someone picks me up, removes all of my cables, packs me in a carton, trudges me to my new destination, takes me out of the carton, reconnects me and thinks that I'm going to be as happy as I was before. Humidity, temperature changes, possible manufacturing defects that would not have shown up until you jarred it, anything is possible. If in fact the radio & turntable work without distortion, then if I were you I'd give it a little more volume and critical listening because I think that what your hearing is from your receiver.
As far as repair, I wouldn't consider it if I were you. You can surf on line and find a receiver costing a fraction of what that Sansui cost, that will outperform it any day of the week. Remember we're not talking old Marantz, Mark Levinson or some other American made performance equipment.
