radio in the speakers

[TheMacB]

i just moved to a new place and now my powered speakers pick up a radio station. anyone know how to fix that?

[Nirimba]

I have heard of stoves & all sorts of weird things picking up radio signals :o If possible, use a good electronic spray cleaner on all your connections & see if this works. Also, if you are able, check all solder joints on the speakers, a dry solder joint can do weird things ??? Good Luck

[sink]

when ever my boss comes into my edit suite his cell phone freaks out our speakers, which is weird cause they are expensive shielded production monitors, but no one elses phone does it. what kind of wires are you running from your computer to the speakers? how long are they? I once got a radio station on an electric guitar, and I fixed it by using a shorter more insulated chord.

[Nirimba]

8) Hay Saul, You & I have been walking together through this site! ;D

[BLUESPIDER]

I think this might be ground related problems. Cables, electronic devices , ah what the hell do I know, I'm just guessing. ;D

[readw]

If cleaning the connections etc does not help and the sound is coming out of both speakers then your speaker leads may be picking up the radio station. Try making them as short as possible. If they cannot be cut for various reasons, loop the excess up into a coil making it as small as possible. If that doesn't work go down to your local electronics store and get 3 (1 for each speaker and 1 for the power lead) ferrite cores. Then wrap the speaker lead through them a few times and put one on the power lead. That should fix the problem. Ferrite core are those lumps you sometimes seen on keyboard cables etc.

Also replacing the leads with sheilded ones may also help.


When I was about 10 or so I started hearing radio stations in my head. After complaining to my parents they eventually took me to the doctor thinking that I may need some sort of Psychological help (won't comment any further on that one) The doctor send me off to the dentist who replaced a filling (metal ones back in those days) It fixed radio station problem in my head. Apparently and not that uncommon a bad filling can act as a diode and in certain circumstances acting as a radio receiver.

I am ok now...

[TheMacB]

everything worked fine a couple of weeks ago in my old place. same speakers, same cables. its just since i've moved that the problem has begun. they're brand new speakers too. only about three weeks old. they're just 1/8" cables. unfortunately they are hard-wired to the right speaker. there is one between the right speaker and the computer, one between the right and the left. the connection on the subwoofer is like the connection for a keyboard or mouse (PS2?). the radio sound is coming out of all 3. I tried using my old speakers to see if the problem was in the speakers or cables but had the same issue.

[Nirimba]

:o I am not a computer guru but perhaps the problem is in the sound card. Is it possible the card may have moved during the shift ?? ???

[Dave_Fisk]

The ferrite thing should work. Do that.

On a pseudo related note....

When I got my pro tools rig a year and a half ago, I bought the Mackie HR824 speakers. For a month, no problems. Then, all of a sudden, one night when I fired them up, I was getting white noise out of them. Not the typical self noise you hear from speakers when you put your ear right up to them. This was really coming out of them. I could here it at 4 feet away. Not too bad, and most people didn't even notice, but I did. I tried everything short of returning them. I just ended up dealing with it, and got used to it. A few months back I moved into another apartment in the same building. The mysterious white noise went away. For some reason I was getting dirty power in my old place. I even used power strips that supposedly cleaned up the power, which they didn't. Weirdest thing.

That really has nothing to do with your current issue, but I thought it was interesting, so.....

-Dave