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Starry Night · Jun 11, 2004, 01:20 PM

Aloha,

I've had a 1.25 SP G4 PowerMac for about a year. The other day I purchases a pair of inexpensive ($23) Logitech X-120 speakers to go with it. The speakers sound great for my needs, however two annoying issues have surfaced:

1) When I turn on the power to the speakers, a loud "pop" is heard. I get around this by plugging in headphones when I turn on the power. Still annoying.

2) When the room is quiet I can hear a low level hum come through the speakers. When music is playing, you can't hear the hum at all, just when there's no sound coming though. Adjusting the volume knob has no effect on the hum.

Logitech's website says that such a hum is "normal", even for their more expensive line, and the solution is to put the speakers far enough away that you can't hear the hum, not an option in my case.

My question is this. Do your speakers make such a low level hum and or pop? Do all computer speakers hum? Or would a different brand (Apple Pro, Creatures, Soundsticks, whatever) not hum or pop?

Thanks!

Chito · Jun 11, 2004, 01:26 PM

My Creative iTrigue L3500's don't do either. I hate to say it but I think you get what you pay for. Less expensive speakers just aren't shielded as well as most more expensive models.

Starry Night · Jun 11, 2004, 01:32 PM

Originally posted by Chito:
My Creative iTrigue L3500's don't do either. I hate to say it but I think you get what you pay for. Less expensive speakers just aren't shielded as well as most more expensive models.

Thanks, that's what is was wondering. But Logitech's support page claims that the "pop" is to do with other things plugged into that electrical circuit, and that the low level "hum" is normal, even for their more expensive speakers. They blame the hum on the soundcard. I'm wondering if all of that is just Logitech schtick

High end amps, like YBA, do make a pop when powered up. They remove that shielding in the theory that the overall sound will be better. But there ain't nothing high end about $23 speakers......

Chito · Jun 11, 2004, 01:42 PM

You're welcome....and if I came off as offensive about using cheaper speakers I really didn't mean to. The one's I have were only about $90 and I absolutely love em. I had the Apple Pro speakers and an iSub but for various reasons I like these better.

Starry Night · Jun 11, 2004, 02:21 PM

Originally posted by Chito:
You're welcome....and if I came off as offensive about using cheaper speakers I really didn't mean to. The one's I have were only about $90 and I absolutely love em. I had the Apple Pro speakers and an iSub but for various reasons I like these better.

Oh, to be sure, the Logitech X-120's are "cheap" speakers, no offense taken

They're in the same room as a $1600 per of speakers, believe me, they're cheap! They sound surprisingly good for the $, except for the annoying attributes......

Weezer · Jun 12, 2004, 11:03 AM

It's most likely do to "dirty power." My speakers used to do that until I got a Monster Surge Protector that "cleans" that power. Now the hum is gone

Starry Night · Jun 12, 2004, 03:23 PM

Originally posted by Weezer:
It's most likely do to "dirty power." My speakers used to do that until I got a Monster Surge Protector that "cleans" that power. Now the hum is gone

I have a $140 monster surge protector on my stereo and tried the speakers over there, same thing on both fronts. Big pop and then low level and annoying hum. As we say in Hawaii, "junk kine speakers"

Logitech's support website actually says that the low level hum is normal and that the pop is due to dirty power. I think it's schtick so they don't have to fix stuff. It still pops with clean power and I'm sorry, but the hum may be "normal", but it stinks!

I've ordered some Creatures ($70 @ amazon) in hopes the build quality is better, wish me luck!

Starry Night · Jun 17, 2004, 10:36 PM

The Creature II's arrived today. They sound great, at least for computer speakers, and have absolutely no hum or pop, yahoo! Got them in grey, thus they match my MDD G4 perfectly.......

davidflas · Jun 18, 2004, 06:27 AM

The hum is most likely due to the power coming out of the wall. Sometimes power conditioning products help, sometimes not... If I plug my DP 1.25 into my APC UPS I get an awful hum. This is with well shielded speakers that cost $300USD a pair. If I plug my Mac into the same outlet as my stereo system, I get now hum

The plug in question is a dedicated line, no other plugs in the house are on the same circuit. What I"m saying is try different plugs if you have that option...

Starry Night · Jun 18, 2004, 02:00 PM

Originally posted by davidflas:
The hum is most likely due to the power coming out of the wall. Sometimes power conditioning products help, sometimes not... If I plug my DP 1.25 into my APC UPS I get an awful hum. This is with well shielded speakers that cost $300USD a pair. If I plug my Mac into the same outlet as my stereo system, I get now hum The plug in question is a dedicated line, no other plugs in the house are on the same circuit. What I"m saying is try different plugs if you have that option...

In my particular case, it turned out to be the speakers. The Logitechs hum, in fact Logitech claims that the hum is normal. The JBL's are whisper quiet

iCol · Jun 21, 2004, 08:50 AM

Yeah, poor quality speakers usually have a low level hum as their built in amplifiers are of very low standards. I can't stand any sort of speaker hum, but then again, I am a bit of an audiophile.

My 1.25 is connected to my marantz amp with a reletively good quality 'wet' cable, which then goes to my bi-wired (mmm) Gale 3030 cabinet speakers. I dont get any hum

I was suprised initially about how good the sound quality is from the Mac in comparison to a PC I had hooked up to my stereo a couple of years back, that sounded terrible, but I guess the cheap sound card in that box didnt help matters much!

Col

wulf · Jun 21, 2004, 09:32 AM

Originally posted by Starry Night:
My question is this. Do your speakers make such a low level hum and or pop? Do all computer speakers hum?mn

I've got some chirpy-cheep-cheap Logitech's at home, and they pop and hum just the same. Nasty.

The Altec Lansing speakers and sub that sit here in the office are completely silent when there is no signal through. Nice.

They were probably a bit more expensive than the Logitechs though.

Starry Night · Jun 21, 2004, 01:07 PM

Originally posted by iCol:
Yeah, poor quality speakers usually have a low level hum as their built in amplifiers are of very low standards. I can't stand any sort of speaker hum, but then again, I am a bit of an audiophile.

My 1.25 is connected to my marantz amp with a reletively good quality 'wet' cable, which then goes to my bi-wired (mmm) Gale 3030 cabinet speakers. I dont get any hum

I was suprised initially about how good the sound quality is from the Mac in comparison to a PC I had hooked up to my stereo a couple of years back, that sounded terrible, but I guess the cheap sound card in that box didnt help matters much!

Col

That's interesting. What's a "wet" cable? I have a pair of bi-wire Meadowlark Audio Kestrels with a YBA amp in another room. For future reference, how exactly does one go about hooking their mac up to the stereo?

Also, have you tried the (I believe) new option at the iTunes store that Apple claims will satisfy audiophiles?

iCol · Jun 21, 2004, 08:55 PM

basically, what I call a 'wet' cable is one which connets a minijack to the amp itself. To hook up to most normal stereo amps you will need a cable which has a standary minijack on one end, and left/right channel ports on the other. Simply plug one end into the amp, the other into the audio out port on the Mac and away you go!

Unless you have a G5 with an optical out, and an amp with an optical in, that would be better!