How much noise is acceptable when no music is playing?

[Mouse]

Update:
A nordost dealer was kind enough to loan me heimdall 2 XLR cables to test out my problem. No noise improvement. There was a small yet noticeable improvement to sound though. My wife noticed a huge improvement though, she must have better ears.
They're going to loan me an isotek next and maybe some isolation feet.

My Mc dealer might loan me a MPC1500 but he's trying to talk me out of it and pushing me to audioquest niagara. They don't do much in demos, and they complain about returns up front before I've even made my first purchase. So hearing a MPC1500, Niagra, or PS5/10 will be a challenge. No one near me carries Shunyata, I'm not a big fan of buy and return. I've heard of forum members getting banned from online sellers after one or two returns.

[Cohibaman]

The way I’d attack this....I’d flip off all breakers except for those required for the system. If it’s quiet at that point, I’d start flipping them back on one-by-one until I identified the culprit circuit. Once I know the culprit circuit, I can look for the culprit device for the noise. If it’s not quite, I’d concentrate on the system, accessories, components, and the power feeding the system.

[bigblue]

Two things that solved a similar situation for me:
1) make sure no interconnects are running parallell to the power cords.
2) Use a separate ground cable and hook it up to the Pre. Then attach it one at the time to other components in the chain to see if you get an improvement.

[Mouse]

Originally Posted by bigblue

2) Use a separate ground cable and hook it up to the Pre. Then attach it one at the time to other components in the chain to see if you get an improvement.

Can you elaborate on this a little?

[rushca01]

I have a c2300 mc402 setup and I get a little hiss starting at 75 at one meter away turn to 100 and it’s more noticeable.

[Mouse]

A dealer let me borrow an Evotek EVO3 Aquarius. I think my noise complaints are mostly gone. I'm ordering a Evotek EVO3 Sigmas based off my demo from Aquarius. I bought one of those silly monster cable noise analyzer off of ebay. While the proof is that it cuts noise significantly to my ears, it's cool to watch the meter fluctuate at 0.6-2.0 on my Panamax and drop to 0.0-0.2 fluctuation with Evotek. It did introduce a new oddity but it's not Mc related.

When I'm on my Blu-ray setting it's pretty much silent. Hardly noticeable at 3 ft despite the knob turned up to 100%. This is getting close to what members here hear, and approaching my Boulder Amp demo at 100% without filtering the amp power (in the store).

On PHONO I get tons of noise despite nothing connected. I hear this is normal due to that a record player puts out such a low signal that the channel is super sensitive. I'm told this is why a Phono record amp is important. I'm not sure I'm going vinyl anytime soon, but I'd like to. It seems fun.

On the TV Audio I still get noise. It's not crazy loud, but it's approaching audible at the listener position if the house is quiet and the knob being 100%. Perhaps this is noise from the TV.

[Mouse]

It's sad I'm getting a lot more support from the Boulder Amp dealer than my Mc dealer.

[JMD]

Mouse

Based on the noise issues another member had with your exact Mc amp have you thought about seeing if you can try another amp from another dealer and see if the noise goes away. Doesn't have to be a top dollar one just another amp. Not likely the Mc dealer is going to offer if he hasn't up to now. If the noise is coming from the fronts just borrow another two channel amp. Maybe a friend or other forum member in your area has one you can try.

[bigblue]

Originally Posted by Mouse

Can you elaborate on this a little?

I used this trick as I had slight hum coming from the speakers. It was present only when I was playing vinyl - never with cd.
At first I could not figure out why as I all ready have a ground cable (earth cable) between my TT and my RIAA. And from my RIAA to my amp I run XLR.
So I added another ground cord going from my TT directly to my Amp.
Ahhh - the silence
If you have a spare ground cable with forks on both ends attach one to your pre and then the other to your amp, or CD or streamer etc.
Hopefully you will have the same success as I had.

[Mouse]

Originally Posted by bigblue

I used this trick as I had slight hum coming from the speakers. It was present only when I was playing vinyl - never with cd.
At first I could not figure out why as I all ready have a ground cable (earth cable) between my TT and my RIAA. And from my RIAA to my amp I run XLR.
So I added another ground cord going from my TT directly to my Amp.
Ahhh - the silence
If you have a spare ground cable with forks on both ends attach one to your pre and then the other to your amp, or CD or streamer etc.
Hopefully you will have the same success as I had.

So they only get grounded to each other and nothing else?