I recently went through a flurry of buzzing and humming.
I had MKIII cables, but I suspected them because they were cheap cables (I bought the BL8000 used with the cheap cables)
I tested various cables I had between all my different speakers BL9 and BL8000 and this was the result:
All of the following with cheap cables:
- Connecting a battery powered source, in this case an iPhone, there was no buzzing/humming. Soon as I connected a preamp, or a source connected to mains, the humming was there, in my case, a flagship Yamaha preamp.
- Connecting one BL9 with a cheap cable, no buzzing/humming... as soon as I daisy-chained to the second BL9 with the cheap cable, humming/buzzing started.
I took out all the cheap MKIII cables, and used high quality ones, and all the buzzing/humming stopped, no matter what configuration I tried. I even used a B&O MKII to one of the speakers because I ran out, and no humming.
Basucally, the only time the cheap cables worked was when I either connected a single speaker, or when I connected separate lines from a Beosound 9000 CD player. Good quality cables worked in all circumstances. I’m currently using the Yamaha CX-A5100 preamp with no issues.
Bottom line is that if you have a mixed bag of low quality cables, try to get all new good quality MKIII cables and see how it goes before getting a new preamp... it worked for me. Buy from a reputable maker like Steve. If anything, if it doesn’t help, at least you can use those new cables with a new preamp, and be resting assured that you’re doing a good job on the cables. Out of the 6 B&O speaker’s connected to my Yamaha preamp, only one still buzzes/hums a little, and sure enough, it’s the one long cable run that is scuffed-up and has the plastic sheath torn and filleted up in places. On my next cable set purchase, (I’m going to be adding 2 additional BL6000 speakers for a total of 8) ill be replacing the damaged cable.
