What's up with my one monitor speaker?

[Gemini Ambience]

Hey gang,

Sorry for not posting much lately...I'm graduating in 4 weeks so I'm trying to finish on a good note.  hehe

I've noticed something funky happening with my left monitor speaker. It's happening almost daily now...but, it seems to be picking up radio frequencies and static. Like talk radio and lots of high end hiss. I find it really odd that only one of the monitor speakers is doing this.

Any advice or help? It's really annoying when I'm trying to watch a movie or listen to music at low volumes.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Jim

[Gemini Ambience]

Nobody?? 

[APK]

Not had the problem myself, but something in your setup is picking up radio waves and its getting amplified in that speaker.

Are they amplified speakers ... if so do they make the same sound with nothing else connected to them ?

You can reverse your speakers and see if it still happens, or if it happens in the other speaker this time, in case it is prior to the speakers.

One problem could be earthing --- the earth picking up the radio and you have a feedback loop in there (that gets amplified) because of different gear being earthed separately (its often a cause of hiss and noise).  Use process of elimination to see what wiring change (wiring or gear disconnection) stops the sounds.

If it happens with just the speakers on their own, check the earth of the speakers (or the amp that supplies them).

[Exuviae]

I don't know if these are at all related, but when my wife fires up her Treadmill in the other room, my monitor speakers (if they are on) go apesh*t with static and odd frequency noise. Now, while I find this incredibly useful for sample-food, I don't think it's doing my monitors any good. Anyone else know more about this stuff?

[LNerell]

You might want to check to see if the treadmill is on the same circuit as your studio. If so then you should probably move the treadmill or your studio to another line as the motor from the treadmill is sending junk down the line and your monitors are picking it up.

I use to have the radio problem in my studio, back when all my wires were unbalanced. I suspect you studio is the same, only two wires per cable instead of three? If so then you need to switch to balanced cables which are designed for such problems.

[Gemini Ambience]

They are amplified near-filed monitors (Event TR-8's).

It's not happening all the time...which is making it weirder for me to figure out. I had a new neighbor move into the apartment next to mine, so I'm wondering if they have something behind the wall that the amp is picking up? Or maybe my MacBook Pro is picking something up?

I don't hear it in the headset when I plug into the audio interface; only in the monitor speaker. And yesterday I noticed it in both of them (for the first time).

I guess it's time to knock on the neighbor's door and ask if they have a radio or something against the wall.  LOL

Thanks for the input and helping figure out where it's coming from!

Peace,

Jim

[Chad Hoefler]

Hi Jim,

I experienced the same phenomenon:  muffled radio signals (NPR in my case) coming through my left monitor (and I have the TR-8s too).  After I moved to Ohio 3 years ago, it hasn't occurred.  I'm about to move to the Philadelphia area in a month or so, so we'll see what happens this time.