h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Maybe this is a good place to pose a question I've had about my hifi. I'm a student, so I've only got one room and I sleep in the same room as my stereo. While trying to get to sleep, I notice a low noise coming not from the speakers but from the back of the amp, it's so quiet that you don't hear it during the day, but it keeps me awake at night sometimes (I don't want to switch my amp on and off as the hifi buffs have told me that it's bad for your amp to do that). I was wondering if it might be because I've got my hifi and my computer running off two mains plugs with lots of 4-adapters? (It's a student room, I can't do any better unfortunately.) Anyway, in case it's relevant, my hifi consists of:

Naim NAIT-3 amplifier (I think)
Arcam Alpha 7se CD player
Yamaha KX-393 tape deck
Acoustic Energy AE100 floor standing speakers

Hi Dogster, welcome aboard.

That sounds like a nice system - wish I'd had something that good when I was a student!

There's no hard and fast rule about leaving your amp on all the time or switching it off when you're finished. Components are stressed by the switch-on current surges, and they also stabilise over time as they're powered up, so the wisdom behind leaving it on is that you avoid those stresses, and you don't have to wait for the gear to warm up and reach its best sound quality. But the damage to a well-designed bit of kit by switch-on surges should be minimal, and capacitors can dry out with the constant heat inside an amp left on permanently, so the decision is yours.

Personally, I switch my amps off once I discovered they take 80 watts on idle, i.e. before you even start playing music. Apart from the electricity bills, there's the green issue as well. They do sound a bit coarser for the first 15 minutes or so, but if I'm planning a listening session, I just switch them on a little while in advance.

As to the noise you're hearing, it sounds as if the mains transformer in the amp is vibrating mechanically. It's normal and perfectly safe, but yes, it can be annoying. As a first step, try some soft rubber feet under the amp if it's on a hard surface. If that doesn't do it, and you're confident you won't electrocute yourself, take the cover off the amp and see if you can't tighten the screws holding the transformer (either a big lump of metal or a circular bundle of wires). Don't over-tighten them though, and then see if you can stop the amp's cover resonating. Often it's just a sheet of metal and it vibrates along with the transformer. Stick some bitumen pads of the type you get for deadening car panels on it, but don't cover any ventilation holes.

Hopefully some of these things will work, but consider yourself lucky you can hear it at all - in my student digs there was always so much racket from parties and the like that you sometimes couldn't get to sleep at all!

If you want to write a bit more about your system, I'll put it up on the site as another "room"; in the meantime, feel free to chat to some of the others and see if they have different solutions for you.

Hi Spiny, the explanation for me being a student and having a nice stereo is that I don't drink, which saves a LOT of money! Having said that, I've been living well into my overdraft since I bought it

I'm going to try some blu-tak under the amp this evening, hopefully that'll have the same effect as little rubber feet (I've no idea where you'd get these). I think I won't try fiddling with the innards of my amp, I'm sure I'd manage to break it if I did that! Thanks for the advice, the leave it on/off decision is a nasty dilemma though!

p.s. additional info on my system if you want to add it to the web page: I've also got my computer plugged into my amp which is fantastic, because it means I can play music in my MP3 collection through my stereo rather than crappy computer speakers. The tape player is currently on top of a stack of books which in turn are on top of the CD player and amp, because for some reason if the tape player is near the amp there's a buzzing sound when you play tapes, and I'm very limited for space (student room). At the moment my music tastes are mainly Jazz (Coltrane, Davis, Monk, Rollins, etc.), Indian Classical (Joh, Bismillah Khan, Hari Prasad Chaurasia, etc.) , Early Choral (Hildegaard of Bingen, Byrd, Tallis, etc.), Modern Classical (Cage, Stockhausen, etc.) and even some popular stuff (things with "head" in the title, Radiohead, Portishead, Propellerheads, etc., this is a very strange coincidence).

Sure, try the Blu-tack as a cheap solution. If it helps, then you might like to get yourself some feet from an electronics shop, or if you want to spend money, a hi fi shop. The cheapest solution amongst feet are things called Vibrapods, which are made in different weight capacities. I've got some under my speakers. They're easy to get in the States (sorry, don't know where you're from), and they're starting to appear in Britain. Or if you get the British magazine Hi Fi News and Record Review, their mail order accesories club has (had?) a good deal on a dozen Sorbothane feet. It's the grossest material to handle, but it transformed the sound of my turntable.

The reason your tape machine hums when it's near your amp is that its tape head, which is designed to pick up tiny magnetic signals from the tape, is picking up the magnetic field from your amp's mains transformer. You get the same effect if you stand too close to a guitar amp with your electric guitar. Good design prevents this, but usually doubles the cost! The only solution is to keep the tape deck apart from the amp, maybe by putting the CD player in between. You might be unlucky though and find the CD player has stray magnetic field as well...

It's a pain in the bum and it's one of the reasons why people buy racks that keep the gear separated. I can't put a cheap CD player I have next to an FM receiver because the radio signals from the CD's display wipe out any radio stations. Gear that carries the European CE sticker shouldn't be so bad in these regards.

Your musical taste sounds very eclectic. I haven't bothered with MP3 yet, because apart from not having a computer at home, I'm an old-fashioned guy that likes to handle something with the music on it. But I think MP3 must be great for people with limited resources to get to hear all sorts of music they probably wouldn't be able to get to otherwise. Tell me what you think about downloading versus buying a CD, I'd be interested.

Well, I spent an hour or so fiddling with my hifi and couldn't make the sound go away. I'm pretty sure you're right that there's something internal vibrating (the amp already has little feet, and putting blu-tak on didn't help matters), but I'm too scared to open it up. I guess I'll have to live with it .

As to MP3, I thinks its great, I haven't got enough money to buy all the CDs I'd like to, so MP3s allow me to listen to a much wider selection of music. The sound quality's not as good as CD, but if you record at a high enough bit rate (higher than the default) then it's pretty damn good. It's certainly better than tape anyway! The only other problems are that you have to have a computer on (which means you get the humming from the fan which is distracting) and if you use your computer while the music is playing, the sound pops and jumps.

Ah well, sorry the blu tack didn't do it. Probably means the transformer is vibrating the case and if you don't want to open it up, you are stuck with it. But there's no reason to be scared of removing the case if you disconnect the mains before you start, and you'd be hard put to do any damage as long as you don't touch any of the internal components. Then you you could try some self-adhesive pads to damp the case as I've already described. Even if it doesn't cure the hum, people say it helps the sound anyway.

I only have a computer at work, and the Evil Employer isn't too keen on us downloading all over the place, so I'll have to wait till I get a home machine to start enjoying MP3.

Do you want to write a page that details your system and musical tastes so that I can put it into a "room" for you, or shall I (when I get time), distill what you've written for you?

I think spiny is right about switching off the system at night. The point about drying out is especially good. Don't hesitate, switch off. I think I would use spikes rather than blue-tack/sorbothane/half a squash ball. You can get sets of them through HiFi News or from your nice HiFi dealer. The trouble with the latter is the temptation on all sides. I went in for some spade connectors for my nice new amp (which I then didn't use!) and bought a new switching box and ordered a stand! And whats the betting that when I go back for the stand, I end up with some new cables! Ah, but then you are a poverty stricken student, so these things don't apply!

Heh heh - I'm surprised you're not poverty-stricken yourself, Pheroneous, if you can't go into a shop and keep your hand out of your wallet

Is that new amp an MF A3 by any chance? Have you taken the plunge yet, or are you referring to an earlier visit to the shop?

As far as spikes versus soft things go, I haven't seen any cheap spikes on sale, and I was trying to save Dogster money. But that aside, are you recommending the spikes to improve sound quality, or to solve the humming problem by decoupling the transformer vibrations from the surface the amp's resting on? My intuition would be that soft things would work better than spikes for stopping hum, but I'll bow to your experience if you've tried it.

Yes, I have my A3, thats what the spades were for, but then I realised that a little bit of plastic was hiding the banana sockets, and then I went for bare wire anyway when I spotted the wiring posts were suitably drilled! Such is life!

Now, when I got my A3 CD player a few months back, there was a very noticeable improvement. Replacing the amp has given me a big improvement in imaging, voices, everything, when using the tuner (i.e. it is making far better use of the FM signal) but the CD now appears (very early days yet) to have lost some bass, gained a lot in the mid-range and maybe introduced some sibillance in female vocals. I will let you know how things progress, but I can see a cable change coming up!

I don't actually use spikes or cushions just now, but I will shortly (as I said) be getting a proper stand instead of the old metal trolley in present service and then will experiment. However, in a showroom situation, using glass shelves, we did prefer spikes. Everywhere. Under everything. Even 50Kg Power Amps! But, it was probably a fetish rather than a strict comparison! My instinct says soft things muffle rather than cure, but our friend must try himself, and soft is cheaper I suppose.

I may never be rich, but a chap has priorities! And if I cant afford a bit of Hi-Fi messing about by now, well...

OK, I think I'll take your advice and switch it off at night, even though the noise seems to be a lot quiter recently! Maybe I'm just tired and don't notice it at the moment.

I've got another question about spikes. My speakers have spikes and I use them when I'm at home, but the floor in my room at college has wooden floorboards and no carpet, so I don't want to use the spikes. What exactly do the spikes do? I haven't noticed a huge loss in sound quality because of not having them.

OK, here's the description of my room and hifi system for the page:

My HIFI consists of an Arcam Alpha 7SE CD Player, a Naim NAIT-3 amplifier which put me into debt (I was intending to buy an Arcam amplifier, but the guy in the shop suggested I listen to the Naim before deciding and after hearing it I couldn't possibly go back). Finally, I've got a (relatively) cheap Yamaha KX-393 tape deck with no frills. I also run my computer (which sits beside my stereo) through the amp, which not only makes playing computer games a whole new experience, but lets me play my MP3 collection properly too. I'm a student so both myself and my system are constantly moving between my house and my student rooms. My room at home is small which certainly makes the music exhilarating at high volumes but unfortunately means that I can't separate the speakers much (about 4 or 5 feet, which is just enough). At college, I have a much larger room and I can separate the speakers by about 6 or 7 feet which is nice, but because the room is a lot bigger I have to pump the volume up to rather antisocial levels to get the same visceral sound I can get at home at lower volumes. None of my neighbours have complained yet. While I'm at college I mostly listen to stuff like Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Radiohead and the like, because my friends find that less offensive than the rest of my musical tastes. While I'm at home however, I indulge in hard-bop jazz (Coltrane is my favourite), Indian classical (I'm listening to Hari-Prasad Chaurasia most at the moment) and early choral music (Hildegaard of Bingen is my favourite, possibly followed by Byrd). Recently I've been trying to learn to appreciate classical music more (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart et al) which for some reason I don't really like.

Oops, I forgot the mention the speakers in my description above, amended version follows:

My HIFI consists of an Arcam Alpha 7SE CD Player, a Naim NAIT-3 amplifier which put me into debt (I was intending to buy an Arcam amplifier, but the guy in the shop suggested I listen to the Naim before deciding and after hearing it I couldn't possibly go back), a (relatively) cheap Yamaha KX-393 tape deck with no frills and finally, a pair of Acoustic Energy AE100 floorstanding speakers. Everything is black which is a whole lot better than the repellent beige of my computer, which I also run through the amp. It not only makes playing computer games a whole new experience, but lets me play my MP3 collection properly too. As far as I can tell my system is perfect, but I'm sure if I listened to better equipment I'd realise that it's far from perfect, so I'm trying my hardest not to go to the hifi shop and test out their amazing equipment! I'm a student so both myself and my system are constantly moving between my house and my student rooms. My room at home is small which certainly makes the music exhilarating at high volumes but unfortunately means that I can't separate the speakers much (about 4 or 5 feet, which is just enough). At college, I have a much larger room and I can separate the speakers by about 6 or 7 feet which is nice, but because the room is a lot bigger I have to pump the volume up to rather antisocial levels to get the same visceral sound I can get at home at lower volumes. None of my neighbours have complained yet. While I'm at college I mostly listen to stuff like Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Radiohead and the like, because my friends find that less offensive than the rest of my musical tastes. While I'm at home however, I indulge in hard-bop jazz (Coltrane is my favourite), Indian classical (I'm listening to Hari-Prasad Chaurasia most at the moment) and early choral music (Hildegaard of Bingen is my favourite, possibly followed by Byrd). Recently I've been trying to learn to appreciate classical music more (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart et al) which for some reason I don't really like.

Spikes anchor the equipment, by concentrating the weight in one (or three) point(s) the downward force is increased considerably. But, if you don't have a problem, don't fix it!

Tell us about MP3 files through a hi-fi. Obviously it works, but have you made comparisons with the same track on a CD?

Alright, Dogster, thanks for the description - I'll get that posted as soon as I can. You've hit the nail on the head then - "my system sounds perfect" - long may it continue to do so. You'll save yourself hours of grief and wads of money, which you can spend on ... music!

However...

The speaker spikes situation... obviously you're not comparing like with like if you run them on spikes in one room and not in another. Spikes on speakers can help tidy up the bass, but it's not a hard and fast rule, and it's what YOU like that counts. I have my Tannoys on Vibrapods, which made the sound a tiny bit smoother but strangely seemed to require higher volume control settings for the same sound level. Plus it's made them wobbly!

If you want to avoid marking the floor to try out the difference with spikes, it'll cost you 40p. That's eight 5p pieces, one for each spike. And if you worked for some hi fi mags, you could no doubt evaluate the differences between silver and copper coins, but I suggest you just enjoy the music instead.

If you don't like Beethoven et al (personally I love him - his fifth piano concerto is one of my desert island discs), try some of the 20th century guys like Bartok, Stravinsky or Prokofiev. And if you want some gloroious choral music, track down the Scottish composer Thomas Carver, whose 20-part works envelop you in sound. I can find out details of record labels for you if you get stuck.

Re MP3 files, I haven't yet tried out the same track on CD and through my hifi, but there are many difficulties with the comparison. Firstly, you can record MP3 at different quality levels (taking up more or less space on your hard disk), I'm recording at a level one higher than the standard setting because I can definitely tell the difference. Hard disk space limitations have stopped me using higher quality settings for the moment. Secondly, it depends on the quality of your soundcard, mine is a SoundBlaster AWE64 which is the sort of standard cheapish sound card which comes preinstalled on a computer. So if I were to compare my CD player with my MP3 collection it would be an unfair comparison. However, I will give it a try maybe later this evening or tomorrow and get back to you, although the results won't be conclusive.

Re speaker spikes, I might have a go using the coins, it sounds like fun .

Re Beethoven, I'll follow your suggestion and look into these guys. Are there any particular recordings you'd recommend I try and find?

Hi Dogster, your "room" is now up.

The best guide to classical music is the Penguin Guide to Compact Discs by March, Greenfield and Layton. It's expensive, but you can often find a well-thumbed copy on the counter of classical music shops, and most don't seem to mind you having a look at it if you know which work you want buy. It'll give recommendations and descriptions in Full-, Mid- and Bargain Price categories, and you can also scan it quickly for the "rosettes" they award for exceptional recordings.

As an example, EMI CD-EMX 2184 - 2 is a rosette-awarded medium price recording of Beethoven's 5th Piano concerto with Stephen Kovacevich at the piano and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. You could take a chance on that at only £7 or so. I also love Rachmaninov's piano concertos for some sweeping Romanticism, especially number two.

And the Naxos series, which you often find displayed on a seperate stand, are well worth taking a punt on at around £5 each.

If you want to try some Stravinsky, the Rite of Spring is a bit of a belter if you play it loud, and you might find it combined with the Firebird Suite, which has one of the lushest finales you'll ever hear. Don't be put off by older, cheaper recordings, after all, a lot of the jazz you like was recorded in the 50's and 60's. The expensive recordings are just because they're new and the artists are getting heavy promotion from the companies, just like in the rock world.

As far as introducing more stuff to you, I'll have a think about that based on your descriptions of your already fairly eclectic taste.

You could go to some of the record companies' own sites; many of them stream audio. A particularly good one is Hyperion Records, who've got a hundred or so decent-length extracts, sometimes whole movements, for you to audition [URL removed by moderator]

Good luck!

Thanks again for the recommendations, fortunately Christmas is coming up so hopefully I'll be able to persuade people to get me lots of music! I think my Dad might even have that Penguin Guide, I'll have a look at it.

hi,there was a url removed,a whole conversaton?to a hi-fi site,i wasn't done laughing at some of the speaker enclosures.and it had a page on vintage turntables,thinking of getting a kurt-cut i think its called.i know where one is at that will prpaobably never spin another record unless i do save it,hope its not setting out in the rain now

Can't think of that URL james. Can you point me at where it was to refresh my memory, and I could e-mail it to you if it was one I put in.

thinking about it it might have been in the entry pheronous made on hi-fi ,in a reply to something in one of the conversations

okay then