Question for owners of powered speakers

[Turdus]

Had a deal pop up on a pair of JBL EON 510's that was too good to pass up. First set of powered speakers I've ever owned. One thing I've noticed is a lot more hiss (one has a slight hum) coming from these than the traditional power amp/speaker setup I'm used to. The hiss is there when the units are powered on. Does not get any louder when the sensitivity is turned up.

Are powered speakers known for producing more hiss/hum than usual? Wondering if it has anything to do with the speaker magnet being located so close to the internal amp.

[marcnorth]

I had a pair of the EON 515's with a pair of powered JRX 118's. I thought they were really shrill sounding cabinets. That's why I sold mine and went back to the non powered speakers. The hiss drove me up the wall. If I remember right the only way I got rid of it was to turn the high end down and then it never went away but there was less of it. Of course there was less high end too. I came to the conclusion that they sucked and went back to the JRX 15's with a Crown power amp. No more hiss. The 18's are great and are still being used. I always thought cabinets should be made from wood instead of plastic anyway.

[Turdus]

I gotta say that these 510s sound fairly decent. Not something I'm going to use as a primary main... only for smaller gigs for the dance troupe, where I don't feel like lugging around power amps, and bigger speakers. The hiss/hum on these is not going to drive me crazy... I don't think. But it is more noticible than my QSC/MRX combination.