There was a bit of a pun in the title :)

Anyways, I moved our XS8 in the basement where I can finally get some work done. The wife ain’t happy but it just had to be done ;)

So I’ve been struggling with some YHS-80’s for quite awhile now and to put it bluntly I’m just about ready to toss them outside!
There noisy buggers(hiss) and they are really getting on my nerves. Initially when I got them on our SE90, I said to myself… they were acceptable at 5+ feet anyways. But now with lines to and fro’ there really getting into the ambient noise levels.

It’s pretty bad when my monitors are louder than my fan swirling PC(thank-you Antec).

So the question is, what are my options at this stage?
I thought of XLR’s but the XS8 doesn’t offer XLR out’s.

Would it make sense to get a decent board with shorter 1/4’s and break out XLR to the HS80’s? They hiss with or without connectivity btw(real buggers).

If anyone has a wiring setups to share. I’d be more than happy to try it also. There must be a way to silence those #&*@^$@#&* HS80’s!

Lovin’ the new formu btw!

i’m no expert. but i’d say you should get like a hum eliminator. also try 1/4” to xlr. seperate the outlets the speakers are connected to.

The knob on the back that most people believe is a VOLUME control (because it does effect volume) is actually an INPUT SENSITIVITY potentiometer… you are supposed to use it to match the incoming source material.

You don’t quite say how you have things connected but if you have a source that is +4 coming into the Yamaha HS80M speakers - a quick look at the Input Sensitivity knob will show that it should be set to 12 o’clock.

If you have say your Motif XS (which defaults to an output of +6dB) you would probably need to set the knob to about 11 o’clock.

If you turn it up (like a guitar player would) you will get the “ambient” noise just like a guitar player… These are studio monitors not guitar amplifiers :)
Try setting the sensitivity control to match the level of incoming signal.

If you are routing signal from a mixer - it would be +4dB.

If you are plugging directly in from some ‘weaker’ signal source, then and only then would you increase the sensitivity… If you look closely I’m sure the MAXIMUM setting is to match a weaker -10dB signal.

So the NOISE you hear is most likely improper setup. Now, if you are getting ground noise, then that is a different feathered bird altogether… don’t blame your speakers they are usually never to blame… They only reproduce what you send in.

Even in the instance where it is not ground, knowing that the LEVEL control on powered monitors is not subjective VOLUME but it is there to match input. Therefore plugging and S90 ES or a Motif XS directly in would mean setting the sensitivity to match the keyboard’s output.

These are near field monitors so with a signal coming in at +4dB (12 o’clock) you should be sufficiently loud enough to mix your music. You can always increase the signal coming in at the source… But set your HS80 LEVEL control to match the rated input. (As my teacher used to say: “There are no noisy systems, only noisy engineers.")

Hope that helps.