Found source of RF interference PLEASE HELP

[brettk30]

Ok so I noticed my front right speaker playing a radio station last night and I have been going insane trying to stop it since, the issue appears to only happen, when the subwoofer LFE cable is plugged in to the receiver, and when I say the issue occurs only when its plugged into the receiver I mean it. It can be unplugged from the subwoofer side entirely and the problem still persists.


I tried ferrite cores EVERYWHERE, I tried changing the wires locations a millions times, tried running the receivers antenna near it to steal its RF signals, nothings seems to be working, I had a really old 4 foot digital coax cable (that never worked properly to begin with) that also gives the same "antenna" effect.


Have any of you experienced similar issues with your sub line being used as an antenna and how can I possible solve this? please and thanks

 

[brettk30]

the receiver is yamaha, the speakers are energytake, the speaker wiring is all really thick and good i think 12 guage, the first sub cord I tried was 15ft belkin pure av series, the second one I am not sure.

 

[brettk30]

Ok OK i found If i stack 4 ferrite cores at the receiver end of my subwoofer cable it will pretty much make the interference inaudible, is there a limit to how many ferrite cores are safe near certain devices? I am a noob at this stuff and hate christmas music invading my brain without my permission while trying to play counterstrike

 

[brettk30]

also would pluging the fm antenna in and trying to divert signal away help? or would it just attract more to the area?

 

[alkemyst]

also would pluging the fm antenna in and trying to divert signal away help? or would it just attract more to the area?

An FM antenna wouldn't make a change.


Usually interference is due to a bad cable which you ruled out, a bad port or an internal issue.

 

[brettk30]

alright well are ferrite cores safe around everything else? like video cards? tvs? hard drives? i mean they are a magnet right?

because I am considering just putting them on all my audio cables and such to be safe

 

[brettk30]

are the bigger ferrite rings that are not in clip on plastic cases the same around other devices as far as being safe? because some of those look beastly lol

 

[brettk30]

http://www.amazon.com/Amico-Outside-...s=ferrite+ring

 

[alkemyst]

alright well are ferrite cores safe around everything else? like video cards? tvs? hard drives? i mean they are a magnet right?

because I am considering just putting them on all my audio cables and such to be safe

Most magnets won't affect modern hard drives. You may worry if you have tape type media around them.

 

[brettk30]

and video cards are legit ok with it to? cuz i cant afford to replace my 680gtx 4gb if she dies, i love her .

Guess I am going to do all my speaker wires and power cables just to be safe , I cant stand hearing a radio station slightly in the background at all lol

 

[Fallen Kell]

I don't think you need to do the other wires. It is obviously a wiring issue on that particular output from your receiver which turns it into an antenna and somehow gets the signal back into your receiver to be amplified and sent to your speaker(s). The best fix would actually be to get a shielded (preferably multi-shielded foil+braid) subwoofer cable, which would prevent the RFI from reaching the cable itself and transferring back to your receiver.

 

[queequeg99]

As Fallen noted, make sure you have a shielded cable. Also, the shorter the better. And try reversing whatever LFE cable you're using. If it is shielded, it is possible that the shielding connects to the actual plug on one end only (unlikely but possible).

Did you do anything to your system that might have caused this? It's kind of odd that this would just suddenly start up on its own (unless this is a new station or it recently boosted its signal strength).

Is there any way for you to try using your existing speakers (including sub) and cables with a different receiver? Troubling shooting RF issues like this can be a serious pain.

 

[brettk30]

The only change I did was move the receiver up a shelf so now its closer under the tv, but I also moved the tv up there is like 4 inchs between them maybe 5. Also I redid all my wire ends when moved it to make them pretty, can being closer to a 50" lcd led samsung cause this? Maybe I should try moving it like 5 feet to the left on my bed to test that if the speaker wires can reach.

I ordered this new subwoofer cable let me know what your think, if it is not good enough please link me to one you guys would personally recommend, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[queequeg99]

I ordered this new subwoofer cable let me know what your think, if it is not good enough please link me to one you guys would personally recommend, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That should work (if your current cable is indeed the problem). There are a few troubling reviews about defective cables but given the number of overall reviews, it doesn't sound like a pervasive problem.

FYI, when I want to get cheap quality cables, I go to monoprice.com. Blue Jeans Cable also sells some very high quality stuff for reasonable prices.

 

[brettk30]

wow lots of cables on monoprice, which one would be best subwoofer cable?
I see they have 12 gauge speaker wiring at 1/3 the price I paid for a 100ft spool :O Now I feel stupid.

If it is the port itself on the receiver that is wired however incorrectly that causes use of the cable as an antenna, would ferrite cores be my only realistic solution?

also what is rj-45 phone cable used for? lol it seems its not the same as ethernet but similar and they seem to sell it on their site?

 

[brettk30]

well moving the receiver didnt help, I understand I probably do not need ferrite cores on evertying other than the wires giving issues, but do they cause harm to ANYTHING? any time I should avoid using them? What if I happened to have like 30 laying around lol

 

[queequeg99]

If it is the port itself on the receiver that is wired however incorrectly that causes use of the cable as an antenna, would ferrite cores be my only realistic solution?

also what is rj-45 phone cable used for? lol it seems its not the same as ethernet but similar and they seem to sell it on their site?

Depends on what "realistic" means. If replacement of the cables with a good shielded cable doesn't fix the problem, I would definitely try using a substitute receiver to eliminate the possibility of some sort of RF leak inside your current receiver. If you don't have another receiver, try borrowing a friend's for a day. This is a difficult process that often involves switching out pieces to try to isolate the problem. Almost makes you want to live in a Faraday cage.

Also, I'm not familiar with RJ-45 phone cable. Isn't that ethernet cable?

 

[brettk30]

your news destroys me lol, cant afford a good receiver till late next spring with all the spending ive done for xmas


yea I am also not sure what rj-45 phone cable line is, but monoprice sells it lol and someone left a review implying it did not work like ethernet.


I ordered both the styles that monoprice offers 3 feet long, and that other 4foot mediabridge one I linked previously. (looked at blue jean cables but I figured it cant be the cable if all the 3 new ones fail me as well lol, but I definitely want to consider some of their stuff in future, would their speaker wire be higher quality than monoprice? or just the ends are better welded as it said?)


The thing is I have a ton of ferrite core clip on things and I could put them all over to assure nothing bad, but I dont know what wires are worth doing and what ones are possibly bad?

All I know is its a ceramic magnet and it helps cut off RFI and looping cords through it is alot more effective than just clamping it on. Also I heard you should run multiple cords through same one if you can?

I have 13mm, 12mm, 9mm inner diameter ones so I could do a combo of running them together and looping at ends if it served even the slightest fraction of a purpose because they are not going to do me any better sitting in a closet.

right now using a double loop through one, and one of them just clamped on directly as close to the receiver on the cord as it can get, so that is 2 currently on the 15ft cord and I have to try super hard to hear anything at all through the speaker that was feeding the issue.


Another thought. the speaker in question is the front right speaker which is closest to the antenna ports than any of the other speaker jacks on the back of the unit, could that hint towards the issue? and the LFE port is on the complete other side, of the back panel.

 

[queequeg99]

your news destroys me lol, cant afford a good receiver till late next spring with all the spending ive done for xmas

I wouldn't necessarily go out and buy a pricey new receiver to try to find a resolution. Try to figure out what the problem is first at as low a cost as possible first. Can you borrow someone's receiver for just an hour or so? Alternatively, you could go on craigslist and buy a pretty cheap used receiver (which you could either put right back on Craigslist or keep for some secondary use).