Archon 50 MkII loop noise/60hz

K707

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Jun 5, 2023
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Kind of a weird one in that my experience with both generations of the Archon is generally opposite of what you’d expect:

I had a 1st gen Archon 25 combo and don’t recall having effects loop issues. I think it was a 2015 so that may have been sorted out by the time it was manufactured.

Just picked up an Archon 50 head, I love it but man is the loop noisy. This isn’t garden variety preamp hiss, it’s 60 cycle hum presumably from the power transformer or something in the power amp side of the circuit. Definitely seems like a ground loop issue. So a noise gate or lower gain preamp tube would do nothing for this.

I had a similar experience with the MT15 as well. It happens anywhere I plug it in so it isn’t an issue unique to my house/circuit. Has happened at 3-4 different places, power conditioner has no effect.
I’d rather not warranty the amp so I’m going to try an iso transformer setup and run the send/return path through that to see if that fixes it. Just wanted to see if anyone else had similar issues and found a fix. Otherwise I love the amp but this has been a bit disappointing. I have 6 other high gain amps and none of them have this issue.

Crossing my fingers the iso transformer setup fixes it.
 
Sorry, don’t really have anything helpful. Assuming you bought it used, and I haven’t heard any 60hz hum issues with them before.
 
Bought it brand new. Isolation transformer setup did nothing.

As much as I like this brand I don’t understand why they can’t build an amp without an unacceptably noisy effects loop. They’re the only amps of the 10-15 I’ve owned that does this.
 
Check the power isolation and grounding on your pedal board. See if it changes when you play through a single pedal effect. Add and compare.
 
Bought it brand new. Isolation transformer setup did nothing.

As much as I like this brand I don’t understand why they can’t build an amp without an unacceptably noisy effects loop. They’re the only amps of the 10-15 I’ve owned that does this.
I’ve owned 3. I’ve played 10-12 others. Still have not heard one noisy loop. Oh, I had some noise in my loop and quickly traced it to one pedal, which also made my Mesa’s, Vox and other amps loops more noisy as well,
 
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