I recently moved to a new apartment, and when I hooked up my home theater system and computer I got a humming sound coming from the speakers. I tediously unhooked each component one by one to find out where the problem was. After sometime and a little internet research I found out that I have a ground loop problem.

I tried disconnecting my TV cable from the wall socket and that solved the issue. I was wondering, how can I get rid of this annoying humming and obviously still be able to watch TV?

My first thought was to get a surge protector with coaxial in/out-puts. My thinking is that this would ground the TV cable with the electrical wiring in my apartment and get rid of the difference in ground voltage, but I'm not sure if this would work. I have also seen the TV cable isolators on ebay, but those look crappy and cost the same as a surge protector. What would be my best option?

 

I had the same problem awhile back and the surge protector worked for me. Or you could try purchasing Monster coax cable and replace that with the crappy one your cable company provides.

 

You need a ground loop isolator. Your coax surgestrip thingy MAY work, depends on how its internally wired.

The cheap 'easy' way is to take a piece of insulated wire (speaker wire is fine), solder/connect one end to the cable TV shielding layer (the screwon part is fine, not the center tip), and connect the other end to the ground connector on your receiver.

This isn't the best solution, and could be dangerous in a storm, but its cheapre than a isolator.

 

the other thing is make sure your place it WIRED correctly.

buy one of those yellow polarity checker thingees. i picked one up from hardbor freight a few years back.

my uncle, who is an elec eng, when walking through the new house his son just got, had one. he walked all over the house plugging this thing in, in just abut every outlet in the house.

 

thanks guys. I think I will try the surge protector, and hopefully the coaxial in/out-puts are grounded with the electrical system.

 

I've had this issue at a couple places. I got a beefy Monster power strip at GoodGuys (forget the model) and it fixed the problem.

I was going to look at fixing my household wiring, but was told to not bother as most landlords aren't interested in your sound quality.