Has anyone tried the new Hum X Plug by Ebtech?

myguitar123 · Fierce Puppy Joined: 16 Oct 2003 Posts: 236

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I was wondering if anybody has one and if they actually work? I am thinking of getting one for my guitar setup as I have a hum that is caused by the dimmer switches connected in our sound booth and my pastor, who is also a licensed electrician, says that is what is causing major hum in our church when the miusical instruments are plugged into the wall sockets! You see the church was built in the 70s when only the microphone from the PA was used! Today, it is a whole different story, as you have several different instruments, keyboard, guitar, bass, etc. plugged in the wall sockets and going out through the PA! So back then, hum was not a problem because you didn't have all of the modern instruments we have now plugged into the wall and being magnified through the PA system! I was just wondering if this is the same thing as this "ground loop hum" they speak of, that the hum X is supposed to get rid of? So......Has anyone tried one of these in a live setup?? Here is a harmony central review of it. (the ONLY one I could find on the net!)
http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp/2003/Hum-X.html
And here is Ebtechs homepage
http://www.ebtechaudio.com/index.html
Finally, here is about what they are selling for on the net
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...ase_pid/150452/
It would be great if they finally made a plug that got rid of unwanted noise, but has anyone tried this thing out in a "real world" setting?? Also, what do you think the differences are between the Hum X and the Hum Eliminator??

Steve · Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 5:36 am Post subject:

I haven't seen these in use so have no direct experience, but balanced circuits are an advantage for getting rid of hum, which is why National Association of Broadcasters uses low impedence as its standard for radio stations Nationwide.
It probably works, though ground loop hum can also occur when equipment is plugged into different power circuits coming from different banks of circuit breakers, and then joined together through the ground circuits of amps and P.A.'s.
We had a church where the sound system was in the back, and the plugs up front were powered from a completely different circuit. It was impossible to use direct boxes or line outs. We also were in danger of shocks.
That would be a true test of the product!

Bates15 · Moderator Joined: 19 Feb 2002 Posts: 1084

And remember, ground loops can accour on many occaisions. Just think about lighting, machines, Even the neighbour using his food processor can give you a nasty hum on the mains.

I have never seen this type of product (might be couse it is from the USA, and we have a different plugging system).

To get you guys started again without buying all kinds of stuff you shoul take everything out of the mains and plug them back in, one by one and see were the hum comes from. Sometimes two devices together will hum, and alone the wont. Crazy thing, earth leaks. The church described sounds very much as our old building. We got rid of the hum eventually, just take the time to work it out.

Oooo, and when you have a guest band over, you can sort it all out again hehehehe...

Steve · Posted: Wed May 05, 2004 5:11 pm Post subject:

Bates15 · Moderator Joined: 19 Feb 2002 Posts: 1084

Hahaha, i guess i have spent to much timein a none profit organisation. If you can do it without spending money, do it!

No kidding, if you guys have the same problem we used to have you can sort it out by goin down all the gear and signal cables. I used to run two amps stereo and that gave me a big hum, disconnecting one of the amps was enough. We had the keyboard on the output 2 going into the monitormixer of the drums, cousing a big hum to. Now we had to do something about that and we used a transformer box. something like a DI box. That took away the mechanical coupling and got rid of the hum......

Latrz

Steve · Posted: Sun May 09, 2004 6:30 am Post subject:

sharring · Tiger Joined: 04 Feb 2004 Posts: 812 Location: Texas

"Crazy thing, earth leaks." Nate, I love the way you explain things. scott

Bates15 · Moderator Joined: 19 Feb 2002 Posts: 1084

Only thing is that my technical English is not so great! I sometimes wonder if I get the point across or that by misstyping all the time it turnes out to be a funny story and not a solution to the problem!

BTW
We had a baptism pool made into the stage! Looks great, workes just fine. We had 48 people under water 14 days ago! The technicians made a huge heating element and two pumps to circulate the water. Gues what happend when the turned everything on! BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

It took me 5 days to find were it came from and another day to fix it. Naturaly nobody told me about the extra pumps and heaters in the pool! Specialy when connected to my sound power group! Smile