Hum on hi gain. Cause?

Thread Starter

Bigbizkit

Joined Oct 29, 2015
44
Hi made a bass preamp by Elliot Sound.
I am having problem eliminating the hum.
Everytime I turn the volume control up, the hum gets louder.
And when i increase the gain level, it produces a hissing sound.
But @ lower volume/gain, the preamp is working fine.
I am planning to put a voltage regulator using 7815,7915.
Wondering if it will work
Note: my wiring arrangement is messy,
Im thinking its one of the reasons why my project is noisy!humming.
http://sound.westhost.com/project152-1.htm
 

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Dodgydave

Joined Jun 22, 2012
11,285
You need to use a pcb really for amplifiers, veroboard is notoriously noise prone with stray capacitance. If you can post the circuit, and have a separate audio amp to test the preamp output.
 

DickCappels

Joined Aug 21, 2008
10,152
That is an impressive looking circuit board!

Yes, it is a very good idea to use a regulated power supply for your preamp because the opamp has a a finite Power Supply Rejection Ratio.

You might want to go back and re-read the author's advice about the power supply "The power supply will not be inexpensive..."

Hum can also be picked up by capacitive coupling from AC mains wires near the circuit. Some shileding might be required. I've noticed that the fast transitions on the output of triac lamp dimmers, in this case a soldering iron power control, is one of the worst offenders.

Hum can also result from getting the power supply grounds "mixed up" with the signal grounds, resulting in a ground loop.

About the hiss: There will always be some hiss, the challenge is to make it so low that you don't notice it. Since the design is by Elliot Sound a safe working assumption is that the design is good. If, when you set the gain to its normal working range and the hiss is still objectionable then you might have a damged opamp (assuming you are using the opamp version of the preamp). One of the potentiometers might be noisy.
 
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