Noisy Cables

Jipps0525

Power User
I often play my FM9 through my iLoud micro monitors. I bought a pair of cheap cables to connect my fm9 and iLoud monitors but the cables are causing too much noise now and it's driving me crazy. Can anyone recommend a few budget options that dont cause noise?

This is the cable I have now thats causing too much noise:

Amazon product ASIN B0824W3188
 
I have to confess, I am a cheapy cable user (always use low/mid priced never hi$). Though I think more expensive cables have a bit less noise, from my experience its barely audible if at all to my ear, so, even using cheap cables throughout my complex music room rig I find it extremely quiet. The tradeoff imo is that my cheap cables will likely fail / begin to fail more often so I have a device to check them if I suspect a problem, but even at that, it's rare I have a failed cable. If you are getting a lot of noise (a lot in imo is enough to drive you crazy as you say) then I'd suggest you either have a failed cable, or, more likely another issue:
  • Have you listened through headphones to hear if the noise is still there?
  • Have you tried swapping to any other cable to see if anything changes?
  • Is the noise there with your guitar volume completely down?
 
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I have to confess, I am a cheapy cable user (always use low/mid priced never hi$). Though I think more expensive cables have a bit less noise, from my experience its barely audible if at all to my ear, so, even using cheap cables throughout my complex music room rig I find it extremely quiet. The tradeoff imo is that my cheap cables will likely fail / begin to fail more often so I have a device to check them if I suspect a problem, but even at that, it's rare I have a failed cable. If you are getting a lot of noise (a lot in imo is enough to drive you crazy as you say) then I'd suggest you either have a failed cable, or, more likely another issue:
  • Have you listened through headphones to hear if the noise is still there?
  • Have you tried swapping to any other cable to see if anything changes?
  • Is the noise there with your guitar volume completely down?
Thanks for responding. No noise with headphones or iem’s, none at all. Don’t have any other cables for my studio monitors but I’ll work on getting some to try. Yes, still noise with guitar volume all the way down. I’m almost positive it’s the cables. It was the same problem with both my fm3 and fm9. Unit powered on, cables plugged in, studio monitors powered on and just very annoying hissing and static/buzzing without playing the guitar itself. The noise is separate from any music being played
 
hmm - well, yup must be either the cables or the speakers themselves. The issue might also be that 4pin connection between L and R (not sure you'd easily find a replacement for that). - you might think about upgrading at some point - ideally a pair of separately powered monitors with separate trs / xlr connectors on each - will make everything simpler (not to mention a big boost in sound quality) and is what most will be using here with simple xlr to xlr cables (separate L and R) from Axefx to monitors.
 
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I don’t know how those cables are internally wired, but it may be because you’re plugging balanced outputs into an unbalanced input. Have you tried going out of the 1/4” outputs instead of the XLR? That would seem more logical to me.

Does the ground lift switch affect the noise at all?
 
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