Radio coming from speakers!

[Two|Bit]

I just got a pair of speakersAltec Lansing (http://www.alteclansing.com/product_details.asp?pID=VS3121). When I have them plugged into my computer i can hear a slight radio playing...its very strange. It seems to get louder if i plug in a pair of headphones. Also, if i turn the speakers OFF i can STILL hear the radio. It seems to go away if i unplug it from the computer. I have no idea where the signal is coming from or what. Are the russians spying on me?

[blue60007]

Is your computer on or off?

[Two|Bit]

.....on. When I unplug the speakers it still does the same thing... right now I can only hear static but some times i can actually hear music and voices. Could it be my onboard sound? I was planning on getting a sound card for christmas.... could this solve it? It try to do some more testing to see if the speakers aren't connected, if they make the same radio noise

OK if i unplug them from my computer I can still hear the radio lol this is odd...anyone know?

[Two|Bit]

Update: I was reading the manual online and in the trouble shooting it said if you got radio interference that you were too close to a radio tower. Is this my wireless router? Manual (http://alteclansing.com/downloads/VS3121_MAN.pdf)

[RazorDX]

I think a new card may fix that. I believe it's just the way the sound interface is designed that it picks up interference. Other than that, look for any wires that are coiled up or in a bundle. Whenever my guitar leads coil up I pick up classical music, or public radio talk shows at night.

[bailey]

this would be normal for cheap and poorly designed speakers.
if properly designed and with proper shielding, this would not happen.
and yes, being too close to a broadcasting station will do just that, but there also is some steps that can be taken to prevent this from happening.
proper shielding, filtering and circut design would stop this.

you could take them to a good radio repaire shop and they can correct the problem, it is not something that the adverage person should take on by themselves.

also one thing you could try is to go to radio shack and get some ferite core rf chokes and install them on the speaker leads, that may help you.

[Two|Bit]

Well I know its not my onboard sound causing the problem because when I unplug the speakers, they still give off a radio sound. I had a coil of ethernet cable but that did help removing it. I unplugged my router and it solved nothing. I have wireless phones in my house, could this be it? I don't hear my family members talking through my speakers, which would be really strange... Im getting static through them constantly, but i assume that that is just the radio, but I just can't make out whats being said. Anybody?

This message was in response to razor not bailey

[Two|Bit]

ferite core rf chokes? What is this? What would the radio shop do? I don't want to have to spend any more money on these speakers...even though i got a really good deal. The store was selling them for $100 canadian, and i got them for $25

[bailey]

the ferite chokes are something that is used for blocking RF on speaker wires, power cords, and anything else that has that problem, they are split in half and you close it over the wire, very simple to use.

I don't know who in canada has things like radio shack, but you might try any place that sells computer stuff and it is also used on some networking problems.

[catacon]

I had some cheaper speakers that did the same thing. Only happened when I turned them up loud, though.

[Two|Bit]

These are high quality speakers... this shouldn't happen... they were the ones on display i think... i work at futureshop... so thast why i got the deal. Any other ideas? what could be interfering with it? Im listening to country as i speak :p

ferrite chokes ehh. I google imaged it and they look like the things on my motherboard... coils of copper...am I right? Could I make these myself?

[bailey]

These are high quality speakers... this shouldn't happen... they were the ones on display i think... i work at futureshop... so thast why i got the deal. Any other ideas? what could be interfering with it? Im listening to country as i speak :p

ferrite chokes ehh. I google imaged it and they look like the things on my motherboard... coils of copper...am I right? Could I make these myself?


what is happening is, the speakers are acting as a antenna and picking up the signal from the radio station, it is then going into the audio amp inside the speakers which is detecting it and feeding the audio to the speakers.
you need to remove the rf from the wires before it gets inside, the ferite rf choke is the simplest way to fix it.
the other way to fix it would be to move further away from the radio station

ferite is a solid materal, not wire, your computer does have some, monitor and keyboard for example, notice the bulge in the end of the cord ?
thats a ferite choke.

[Two|Bit]

Yes there is a ferrite at the end of my USB cable and I believe PS2 controllers have one... I was looking on ebay and there seems to be some for sale. They cost like $2, is that too much?

[Two|Bit]

So is this the descisive solution? I don't believe i live near a radio tower... but seriously this shouldn't be happening to everyone that lives her. What else can I do to solve this problem that won't involve buying any little parts and such?

[Two|Bit]

OK well I spoke to some guys at work and they say that I could get a Monster Power bar that filters the power so that no RF goes through...I thought I would need this anyways to protect against power surge from an electrical storm. Would this solve the problem?

[bailey]

no.
but it can't hurt anything.

its like I said before, your speaker wires are acting like a antenna ans picking up the strong signals from the radio station, the amplifier inside the speaker is detecting this signal and sending it to the speakers, so you can hear it.
this is a very common problem and the only way to fix it it to filter out this strong signal before it gets to the amplifier, until you do this , it will keep happening, you can get the ferrite chokes at any radio shack store.
just wrap a few turns of the speaker wires around the choke as per the instructions that come with it and the problem will be cured for good.