Ground Loop Isolator???

[imposter]

Im getting a low humming from all the speakers that are plugged into all my cableboxes (Tv). both my Tv's are doing this, and two different model number cable boxes are doing it. So i am wondering would a Ground Loop Isolator fix this?
suggestions?
imp

edit1: if so where can i get them cheap? RS has them for 20 bucks but thats pretty high... ebay?

edit 2: clearing up stupidity.

[Harvey041]

It's probably your best bet. If you have a powered sub anywhere near your cable boxes that could be causing it. You can unplug to see if it goes away if it doesn't then try plugging it into another socket thats not on the same one your cable boxes are. A ground loop isolator sounds like it would do the job though.

[aftermath]

Something that can sometimes help is to conect the mains loop to ground in more than one place. Try connecting it to the water main where it enters your property, if its metal/copper.

[Goonda]

What is this ground loop isolator? Is it just an isolation transformer?

[Dc5e]

I had a similar problem in my house, my dad ended up using a wire to connect from the outer jacket of the antenna/cable wire to our electrical box case (which should be grounded). The wire he used was the ground cable from what you use to wire up a outlet.

I'm not exactly sure how safe or if this is the right way to do it, but it fixed the problems in my house.

[Evilsizer]

well if your speaker cables are run near the power cables that could cause it as well.

sounds like though the boxes or what ever use the 2 prong power cable not the 3 prong. cause if it was the 3prong you would be able to run the speaker cables near power cables with out issues. also could be that something is not sheilded correctly that could be causing the hum.

[imposter]

Something that can sometimes help is to conect the mains loop to ground in more than one place. Try connecting it to the water main where it enters your property, if its metal/copper.

I will talk to my dad about this. He is the expert in this house considering he built it.
well if your speaker cables are run near the power cables that could cause it as well.

sounds like though the boxes or what ever use the 2 prong power cable not the 3 prong. cause if it was the 3prong you would be able to run the speaker cables near power cables with out issues. also could be that something is not sheilded correctly that could be causing the hum.

It is definally a 2 prong cable box. And i dont think they offer a 3 prong one, nor have i heard of one. i will call up cable vision and see if they offer it.

[Randyman...]

You can also try to "Lift" the CABLE's Shield if possible. The Head-End also grounds the shield at the D/A, so you might be getting a loop from the Cable Head-End to your house...

I'm not sure if this is kosher with Digital Cable or not. I know you can't do this with Satellite, as the Sat Cables carry DC Voltage to switch Horizontal/Vertical LNB's (but then a Satellite should not have a "ground loop" with anything ;) )...

A good quality RCA>RCA isolation xformer should work no matter what. A cheap one will likely reduce low-end response and maybe kill some highs, too...

:cool:

[imposter]

I actually realized i have one. it came with my butt kicker, so im going to try it out now. ill report back.

[Overload]

I would recommend isolating the offending component instead of covering up the problem. it can relate to other problems other than audible noise. there could be faulty wireing. generally, as i think has been stated, you get noise when signal ground and reference ground are interconnected. like you cable box, and it dumps crap onto you reference ground causing unstable circuits especially in amplifiers, ie audio & video.

[imposter]

How would i do that?