RF interference driving me nuts!

pmckeealaska

I posted elsewhere about this issue in the past but its driving me crazy! I can hear a radio station in my surround speakers when I listen to music in surround mode or watch movies in 5.1. I bought a couple if ferrite clamps to put around the cables but they dont do any good. It isnt very loud in the surrounds but its loud enough to drive me batty! Any other suggestions to deal with this??

[Deleted User]

Hello,
The first step is to determine where the RF is getting into the system. It could be the receiver, the speaker wire or the speakers. First thing to do is remove the surround speaker connections at the receiver. If the RF is gone then it is being rectified by the receiver's circuitry and being fed to the speakers. If so, try placing the receiver in a different location, especially one that is not near an outer wall. If the RF remains, try removing the speaker wire from the back of the speakers. If the RF goes away then you're going to have to use shielded speaker wires. This would be connecting wire that has an outer foil shield that can be grounded at the receiver's end. If the RF remains with no wire connected then it is coming directly into the speaker (highly unlikely, but possible).
Let us know what you find.
Regards, Ken

pmckeealaska

Thanks so much for the advice Ken! I will try your suggestions. Will get back to you after I follow your advice.

pmckeealaska

Before I start, I must let you know that there really isnt any other place that I can put the reciever if that ends up being the issue. I just switched by A/B speakers off on the reciever and that shuts off power to the surrounds. When I did that, the RF stopped. At any rate, I'll follow the afformentioned suggestions!

VR3

Im guessing it is the receiver/amp...

Not much a speaker can pick up in terms of what you are getting... anytime I have had this problem its been the amp

pmckeealaska

Well, I disconnected the speaker cables from the reciever and boom...no more RF. So...I guess its the reciever. I have no idea what I can do now since I cannot move the reciever anywhere. Do I just have to live with this??

fishbones

My money would be on the reciever. Some designs of recievers will allow the sound from the tuner to bleed into the other circuitry. Do you have another reciever to plop in there to see if it does the same thing...or can you borrow a buddies?

EDIT: To clarify....the tuner sounds are bleeding into the CD/Surround functions within the reciever itself.

pmckeealaska

Nope. I dont have another reciever that I can use. I suppose that I can live with it if I have to. For 2 channel high rez, I can just turn off Speaker A and that seems to do the trick. For surround high rez, I guess I may just have to get used to it??

Would it be worth it to buy shielded speaker cables for the surrounds or will that do nothing since the issue is with the reciever??

fishbones

How do you have your cables run? Are they crossing all over each other in the back of the units, with IC cables running alongside AC cords? If so, you could try (and should anyway) seperate cords as much as possible from each other. Like using small zip ties to seperate IC's away from AC cords.

pmckeealaska

Yep fishbones. The scenario you describe it what it looks like behind my equipment rack; a veritable rats nest of cables and IC's. I will follow your advice when I get some zip ties and try and clean up behind there. Sounds like an easy fix and if it works then so much the better!

fishbones

If that doesn't solve it. Next you could try the sheilded IC cable idea. But, you might end up needing a different reciever?


BTW, if you can't avoid having some AC cords near IC cables, your better off to cross them than to run alongside them. This creates the least amount of contact.

pmckeealaska

Thanks for the suggestions. You would think that a $1500 reciever like the one I have wouldnt be giving me these kinds of problems. At any rate, the quality of sound I got once I bought the NAD more than makes up for any annoying issues like the RF interference I'm dealing with now.

fishbones

You could also do a google search and see if this problem is something other owners have experienced?