static sound from my system

[aequitas]

i just upgraded my stereo system from some b&k equipment to a sunfire stereo pre and the carver m4.0t amp powering a pair of lsi9s. for the most part it sounds incredible. however there are times where there is a static sound present, most noticeable during the intros for songs. i havent really noticed it much when watching tv or a dvd, however i notice it a when listening to music (i probably do 80/20 music/other). its also not always present when listening to music. from what i can tell, i would say its more associated with the highs/mids than the lows. I didnt have this problem with the b&k equipment and im using all the same interconnects (cobalt cables), speaker wire (signal cable), etc.

I will say that I live in a frat house and the power is pretty bad. if i turn the light switch off i hear a pop sound in the speakers, when my mini fridge clicks on i hear a pop in teh speakers. so obviously we are looking at low bid construction for this place.

now i dont know all that much about the insides of these devices, but the front of the carver does say silver seven vacuum tube transfer function, so does that mean it has tubes (i thought it was magnetic, then again perhaps those two things can be combined in the same device, what do i know). if it does have tubes could a tube be bad?

could the pre have a problem. although when i do select direct input on it, it has the same problem.

i have also tried music from a different source and it has the same problem. i have things plugged into a surge protector but its not a power condition. could power be causing static on some range and not over the complete spectrum.

sorry for the length, but i wanted to explain as much as i could to hopefully help narrow the problem down. if anyone has any ideas id appreciate the help.

[jcaut]

Since I sold you that preamp, I can say with almost 100% confidence that it's not the preamp, as it was working perfectly when it left here.

Does the static sound you're hearing come from both channels equally? A power problem could be the culprit. A fluorescent light fixture on the same circuit as the amp/preamp could cause something like that. So could a dimmer of some kind. I don't have any experience with power conditioners so I'm not sure if that could be a possible solution for you.

The fact that you didn't notice it with the previous equipment leads me to believe it's not power-related, though, and has something to do with your new gear. As I said above, I know that preamp was 100%. That makes me suspect your new amp. There are a couple of things I can think of. BTW, the m4.0t has no tubes: It's completely solid-state. It's voiced to emulate the sound of the Silver Seven tube amps. Those amps are going on about 17 years old. Sometimes the input jacks on the back get worn so that they might not make good contact with your IC's. If that's the problem, you should be able to make it get better or worse by moving the cables around.

Here's another possibility that I've dealt with myself in the past: Bias adjustment on the amp could be off. I've heard that bias adjustment pot drift is a fairly common problem with the m4.0t amps. I've got a TFM-4.0 which is the exact same amp as your m4.0t, except it's black and the wording on the front is different. When I got it, it had one channel that just didn't sound right. It wasn't terrible, but there was a distortion or static present on low level signals, especially at the beginning of a song after a period of silence. Once turned up a bit it was much less noticable. It was only one channel on mine. I fixed it myself, as it's a fairly easy adjustment to make if you've got a service manual and are comfortable poking around in the amp with a meter. That said, it's NOT something you want to attempt if you're unsure of your abilities. One slip of the probe and you can wipe out the amp, give yourself a nasty shock, or both. It may not be your problem. But without actually hearing what you're hearing, it's my best guess.

Is there any way you could swap out a different amp, so that you might isolate the problem to one component?

Jason

[aequitas]

hmm...that static sound issue you had seems to be identical to what ive got going on. i sent a pm about a few things... does anyone know if there is there even a carver customer service number anymore?