Hi I’ve noticed the little power supply “lump” between the Motif Rack ES and the wall outlet makes a high pitched noise. You can hear it in a quite room. Is this normal? When I plug it out you can hear the pitch slowly lowering and the sound fading out. This has not affected the performance of the Motif Rack ES (which I love!), but was wondering if changing the power supply could help with this minor inconvenience or if it would be a waste of my money.

We assume you have the proper cable connecting the PA300-series adapter for your country’s voltage, right? The power supply is not supposed to generate sound, that is not a feature. Please have your unit and power supply checked by qualified personnel.

Hi, yes I have the proper cable and it’s an official Yamaha PA300-adapter. I don’t want to exagerate how much it sounds though. When I create music I can’t hear it because it is so low it get’s drowned in the other sound. But I sleep in the same room so it is clearly noticable when sleeping in my bed and my current solution is to unplug the Motif Rack ES every night, which works but would be nicer to just let it in. Seems strange it’s making sounds when everything is turned off, is it still converting AC to DC when the Motif Rack ES is off? Seems like it should at least be dead quite then.

Perhaps years of producing music have given me hyper sensitive hearing or something, but I don’t think that’s it, hehe.

My recommendation remains the same.

Hi,

I’d also check it out to be on the safe side.

I don’t know the PSU design, but is likely to be a switched mode design, which can “squeal” when under no load (i.e. the Motif is turned off), but if it’s making the noise when the Motif is turned off then there is likely to be a problem.

Transformers in power supplies can hum and buzz a little as they get older, but that is a low frequency sound.