[jhbrandt]

--maybe the wrong posting area.. but...

Check your grounding and LOOP area. THAT may be the problem rather than cheap cables.

The shielding on cheap cables is sometimes insufficient and you may get a small amount of noise from that.. but you are running line level there (-10) and unless the EMI is incredible, bad shielding on your cables will not contribute much to your noise problem.

I would suggest that you bundle all of your power cords together and make sure that they are going to the same power outlet. (preferably on a 20A breaker and not using a vacuum cleaner in the house at the same time) -- just kidding.

The switching power supply on many laptops can be a problem, try unplugging the lappie and using it on battery to see if the problem disappears. If it does, try plugging it in the same strip as the G5. Try several things like this to find the problem area.

Does the Big Knob have a wall-wart power supply? if it is a linear supply (transformer in a box- it'll be heavy) then it could be the source of hum if your cables are within a foot from it. An unsheilded transformer will produce a smooth sounding Hummmmmmmm when you get an unbalanced line near them.

If your hum noise is hashy, buzzy, and such, you have either switching pwr sup hash or ground loop area picking it up.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

-- John