I noticed last night a very quiet buz comming from my Paradigm PS1000 Subwoofer.

Things I tried:

I unplugged the RCA, I turned the levels all the way down: Buzzed
I unplugged the sub: No Buzzing
I turned everything else off plugged sub in: Buzzed
Plugged the Sub into a different circuit in a different room: Buzzed
Opened the back panel on the sub: Buzzing is quieter but not comming from the speaker.
Instead, it seems the buzzing is comming from the amplifier inside the sub enclosure. When I close up the subwoofer again, the buzzing is louder because the enclosure seems to amplify it (acoustically).

So my question is: do all amplifiers have a slight buz? Am I being overly sensetive or has my subwoofer start to go bad? When the subwoofer is in the corner of the room and everything else is off I can hear the buzzing slightly.

Thanks for any suggestions!

So my question is: do all amplifiers have a slight buz? Am I being overly sensetive or has my subwoofer start to go bad?

Oh, I think it's safe to say that something is wrong. Sometimes reviews will refer to the inky blackness of a amplifier or something like that, referring to the incredibly low noise floor. But they're not comparing it to a buzz which is normally there for all other amplifiers. Now there might technically be a buzz in all amplifiers, but certainly not one which is so discernible. Maybe noticeable with a stethoscope or lab equipment or after rolling a fat one.

I see you've plugged the sub into 2 different circuits while there was no signal to the sub, and still got a buzz. I can't imagine there being enough ambient emi/rf to give you a signal which is amplified into a buzz. Otherwise everyone would buy Cardas caps to cover their unused RCA inputs. From what I understand of ground loops, that seems out as well. Someone else here discovered that their "buzz" was a crack in the subwoofer's MDF enclosure, which basically created a port, but instead of typical port noise chuffing, they got the buzz. Inapplicable to your situation. Although I think you have a busted sub, maybe a last thing to check is noise on the AC line. Who knows if the 2 circuits are still connected in some way at the fusebox to a circuit with a noisy non-home theater component. I know little about such things. If it's not too heavy a sub, can you plug it into someone else's home? Plugging it into a line conditioner IMHO wouldn't be enough to eliminate that possibility, except maybe if it was really good one. And I don't mean the ones they sell at B&M stores.

Thanks for the well thought out response. This is exactly what I thought as well.

I spoke to the dealer today and he claimed that the amp is bad. Apprantly they have seen this with paradigms. I believe it is still under warranty but the guy said it would only be a $50 repair if its not. The downside is that I will be without a sub for 3 weeks.

Thanks again!

Hey, how do you like your PS1000? Noticed others have claimed that it's boomy due to the bandpass design. But from my experience, it works well with HT and for most music.