Video Asylum

Posted by johnvb (A) on December 12, 2004 at 09:52:04

In Reply to: Coaxial - Don't have toslink. (nt) posted by Cut-Throat on December 11, 2004 at 20:44:42:

You could try leaving all components hooked up as is, power wise, and disconnect only the coaxial from your DAC. If the hum disappears then, it might be worth it to try to beg, burrow, or steal some type of coaxial to toslink digital converter.

There are some very inexpensive converters available. I have one toslink and one coaxial output from two HDTV receivers going to a Monarchy DIP 24/96 to drive a long 50' coaxial cable to my HT receiver's internal DAC. It isolates the ground to remove problems like yours. If you are using PCM digital, you probably need the Classic version. You can get it from Audio Advisor, and return it if it doesn't work out.

Another thing you can do is buy a pack of lightweight jumper wires with alligator clips from somewhere like Radio Shack. I found that sometimes different components need extra hard wire grounds between the two to stop hums. You can also try connecting one end of the cables to the outer case/shields of certain interconnects, connecting to the chassis of other components. If the jumpers not long enough, just piggyback them together. Then you can replace them with regular 14-12 awg ground wires, connected to chassis screws with eyelet terminal connectors.

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