120 hz hum-- not from my audio gear but from my house-- what to do about it?

[Chrispy]

LOL. That’ll get you buzzing

Edit. I mean humming.

?

 

[AlfaNovember]

Is OP near any large datacenters? Unobtrusive warehouse looking buildings with relatively few tractor trailers and relatively more Teslas in the parking lot

Why Everything Is Getting Louder

The tech industry is producing a rising din. Our bodies can’t adapt.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[Andolink]

Is OP near any large datacenters? Unobtrusive warehouse looking buildings with relatively few tractor trailers and relatively more Teslas in the parking lot

No.

 

[OldHvyMec]

I agree with figure the source of the hum or noise. 120hz is pretty precise.

Personally I was going through some hearing issues after work and could have sworn it was noise around me. It would come and go. I kept thinking it was a
neighbor and his music.

Long story short, I wake up one morning and my stomach is boiling, just like I drank boiling oil. Sweating like I've never sweat before. I had a blood clot
from a nasty whack on the inside of my thigh and this was the result of a narrowing from the artery to my stomach. Two stents and 15 stomach boils over a
10 week period. They missed the second one at a branch under my heart.

In conclusion my weird hearing anomalies STOPPED. The thump, thump, thump, and the sound you hear after drinking to much coffee. WENT AWAY!
The meds and stents stabilized everything but my aging. Ibuprofen and Naprosyn really mess with my hearing too. Plenty of water helps.

 

[yewneek]

I have had this problem in every house and apartment I've ever lived in. It seems the electrical wiring in homes, offices, etc. always emits a 120 hz hum audible in varying degrees throughout the building. I've always been particularly sensitive to this and it has always undermined my attempts to achieve anything close to the audio ideal of a "black" background. Being primarily a classical music listener, it's especially noticable and annoying during the frequent very quiet passages in most of my favorite pieces.

Is there any way to defeat or at least attenuate this highly distracting noise in my listening environment?

If you have all those 120 humming hos....the mind boggles. I guess it's like a Barbershop Quartet, but more 'A la capella'

 

[Soandso]

I agree with figure the source of the hum or noise. 120hz is pretty precise.

Personally I was going through some hearing issues after work and could have sworn it was noise around me. It would come and go. I kept thinking it was a
neighbor and his music.

Long story short, I wake up one morning and my stomach is boiling, just like I drank boiling oil. Sweating like I've never sweat before. I had a blood clot
from a nasty whack on the inside of my thigh and this was the result of a narrowing from the artery to my stomach. Two stents and 15 stomach boils over a
10 week period. They missed the second one at a branch under my heart.

In conclusion my weird hearing anomalies STOPPED. The thump, thump, thump, and the sound you hear after drinking to much coffee. WENT AWAY!
The meds and stents stabilized everything but my aging. Ibuprofen and Naprosyn really mess with my hearing too. Plenty of water helps.

According to my medical doctor Ibuprofen can raise blood pressure; possibly why it specifically messes up your syndrome. Since acetaminophen ("tylenol") does not it is commonly prescribed instead. Well, you probably know this already.

 

[Andolink]

I continue to be plagued with an ever present 120 Hz, ambient, hum of unvarying loudness inside and outside my new house and , indeed, all around the neighborhood. Flipping off the main circuit breaker to my house does not change this in any way.

I'm left with the theory that this is mains hum originating in the power lines around my house and throughout the neighborhood.

It's incredibly frustrating in that I've done so much to ensure the lowest possible noise floor with my audio gear only to have that completely negated by this ever present "wrong note" lurking throughout all my precious recordings.

If my listening preferences were for loud rock, pop, hip-hop, etc. genres this would not be much of an issue at all, but virtually all of my listening is in classical and similar genres where passages of low dynamics are very frequent and important parts of the music's impact.

I'm at my wit's end with this and am without any practical solution except to relocate which is, for many reasons, virtually impossible.

 

[Gringoaudio1]

Could you try some noise cancellation headphones to see if they can cancel the frequency that is bothering you? Not a solution but it would confirm that the sound is in the air.

 

[ozzy9832001]

I continue to be plagued with an ever present 120 Hz, ambient, hum of unvarying loudness inside and outside my new house and , indeed, all around the neighborhood. Flipping off the main circuit breaker to my house does not change this in any way.

I'm left with the theory that this is mains hum originating in the power lines around my house and throughout the neighborhood.

It's incredibly frustrating in that I've done so much to ensure the lowest possible noise floor with my audio gear only to have that completely negated by this ever present "wrong note" lurking throughout all my precious recordings.

If my listening preferences were for loud rock, pop, hip-hop, etc. genres this would not be much of an issue at all, but virtually all of my listening is in classical and similar genres where passages of low dynamics are very frequent and important parts of the music's impact.

I'm at my wit's end with this and am without any practical solution except to relocate which is, for many reasons, virtually impossible.

Have you seen an audiologist? It sounds like something with your ear(s), especially if you hear it all over the neighborhood. If you drive 3 towns over is it still present?

Are the power cables above or below ground?

 

[Andolink]

Have you seen an audiologist?

My wife has never had any issues with her hearing and she hears it too.

All our power lines are above ground.

 

[sam_adams]

Lucille Ball knows your pain.

And . . .

"The C.I.A. Cafeteria menu for the week of May 15 is as follows: Monday, shepherd's pie . . ."

 

[JSmith]

I continue to be plagued with an ever present 120 Hz, ambient, hum of unvarying loudness inside and outside my new house and , indeed, all around the neighborhood. Flipping off the main circuit breaker to my house does not change this in any way.

That must be very annoying... have you contacted your energy provider or the entity that manages the local power infrastructure?


JSmith

 

[pseudoid]

Can you use something like this to try to find the location of the hum? 3.5mm jack can be connected to a MIC in.

I don't think you will ever find a FR spec for such a device... and unlikely that it will go down to 120Hz.
But hey! For $8USD, you can always use it to listen to your neighbors! evilgrin.gif

 

[Andolink]

have you contacted your energy provider or the entity that manages the local power infrastructure?

No, and that's something I hadn't thought of. I can anticipate being ignored as a crank unless I assemble a horde of "hum-hearers" from around the area where I live. Undoubtedly it's only a big deal to the very tiny fraction of my neighbors who are fussy audiophiles like me.

 

[JSmith]

I can anticipate being ignored as a crank unless I assemble a horde of "hum-hearers" from around the area where I live.

I wouldn't be worried about that... if their infrastructure is causing an audible hum in your area, then it needs to be addressed.

Is there a large transformer/sub-station near you? Unless this is some kind of structural-borne vibration issue due to some device that is not properly isolated.


JSmith

 

[Andolink]

Is there a large transformer/sub-station near you?

I don't think so.

Unless this is some kind of structural-borne vibration issue due to some device that is not properly isolated.

That's an issue I've thought about but don't know how to address.

 

[Philbo King]

My workplace had a screen room, a small copper clad room used when measuring electronics requiring complete isolation from RFI. Electrical power outlets in the room had special filtering to prevent them from carrying RFI into the room. Ventilation duct was also designed in a way to stop RFI ingress. We manufactured electronic modules and some of them required use of the room in their testing. We had one employee, a test system operator who claimed that the tester was making her sick due to some sort of radiation. The testers were just racks of low power voltage & signal sources and various metering equipment, and they could not have radiated anything that could sicken someone. The company had a hand-held RFI meter, and I explained to her that it could measure and show any radiation. Running it near the tester showed just background noise. I asked the operator to come into the screen room and see if she got any relief from the discomfort in there. I explained to her that the copper cladding kept RFI out of the room. She claimed immediate relief! Unbeknownst to her, I had set up an RF generator that generated random RF noise into a small antenna, and when I turned the RFI meter on in that room and showed her the reading, the meter showed a large reading. I then told her that she was lying about discomfort at the tester, because the room had enough RF in there to nearly fry an egg! We went back to the tester, where the meter showed just a bit of background noise. She quit complaining after that. I said that if RFI were strong enough to cause discomfort, surely other employees would have noticed & complained about it. No one else did. The company let her go a couple of months later. She just complained too much about anything and everything affecting her health in some way or another.

I spent 6 months in a screen room while developing circuitry and test methods for a new instrument landing system. I didn't experience bodily detection of RF, but the screen room acoustics started getting on my nerves after about a month. Very hard to describe the sensation, but it was related to the weird reflections off the brass screening from test gear fans. I was very relieved when that project wrapped up.

 

[Philbo King]

I have had this problem in every house and apartment I've ever lived in. It seems the electrical wiring in homes, offices, etc. always emits a 120 hz hum audible in varying degrees throughout the building. I've always been particularly sensitive to this and it has always undermined my attempts to achieve anything close to the audio ideal of a "black" background. Being primarily a classical music listener, it's especially noticable and annoying during the frequent very quiet passages in most of my favorite pieces.

Is there any way to defeat or at least attenuate this highly distracting noise in my listening environment?

Have you tried noise cancellation headphones or earbuds? They don't do a lot above 300 Hz, but they are pretty effective for bass freqs.

 

[AnalogSteph]

Have you tried noise cancellation headphones or earbuds? They don't do a lot above 300 Hz, but they are pretty effective for bass freqs.

Unfortunately ANC gear is commonly afflicted with some degree of hiss. Not a big issue on a noisy plane, but could get bothersome at home.

A whole-room ANC might make a fun electronics project for someone. Or rather, a mains hum canceler. Use a transformer to obtain mains, filter it a bit, and feed it to several channels of variable phase shifting (P103), volume control and power amps going to speakers dotted about the room. Actually it may suffice to DIY only the first part and buy up all the used subs with a continuous phase control in the area. Adjust volume and phase to null out the offending hum. If there is hiss, that's nothing a cushion or 2" of sound-absorbing foam in front of the driver couldn't fix.

Whole-room ANC isn't as outlandish as it sounds. I believe some airplanes are using it to quieten down the passenger cabin. Here's what's going on in a Dash-8 Q400:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249357638_Active_Cabin_Noise_and_Vibration_Control_for_Turboprop_Aircraft_Using_Multiple_Piezoelectric_Actuators

 

[AdamG]

bedrock

Can you change the station to BedClassical? Or maybe you have a bad case of Bedrock Humbugs.