Z-5500 developing intermittent buzz

[Yuriman]

I've had my Z-5500's for around 12 years now (?) and I suspect something inside is finally starting to go. I'm getting an intermittent buzz from the satellite speakers that doesn't happen when the speakers are muted or on standby. I'm handy enough with a soldering iron, but before I pull it apart, can anyone point me to some common problem areas and perhaps give some suggestions for replacement parts? Is this likely to be in the control pod, or the amp inside the sub?

 

[Wall Street]

I'm sorry, but I don't think that the Highly Technical Forum is the right venue for this question. You should post this in Peripherals.

But to answer your question, the parts that usually go on speakers are the pots (the volume dials) and the caps. You can try spraying some contact cleaner fluid in the pots to see if it fixes it. Otherwise, I wouldn't really bother trying to hunt down the problem.

 

[Yuriman]

There are no pots on this set, it has a digital control pod, but google agrees with you that bad caps will cause this. Any suggestions on a forum that might be better for this specific question? A few caps sounds like a much better option than replacing a $400 set of speakers that (objectively) still sound pretty good.

 

[inachu]

buzzing = feedback usually.

Simple cures for buzzing is move lamp away a couple of feet.
Use twisty ties for sound wires get them away from other buzz sources such as transformers for your speakers and or lamp or iphone/ipad,switch,router, desk fan.

 

[soccerballtux]

I think a bad capacitor would do it

 

[inachu]

I think a bad capacitor would do it

I've seen bad caps do that but I have seen simple things like speaker wires to close to a light source or microphone or a small desk fan do the same thing.

 

[john3850]

After getting a new g500 mouse I started getting feedback or noise on the Z-5500 analog settings so now I use optical or coax only.

 

[CZroe]

These are essentially just redesigned Z-680s. When one of my Z-680 channels went out I got horrible buzzing and screeching on other channels in certain modes. Check the channels. The fuses are shrink-wrapped with through-hole axial leads marked "F1," "F2," "F3," ...

 

[inachu]

Also related to the buzz depends on how close a cell phone is.
I say at this point you gotta try to experiment. How about trying to make the sound worse? Using that logic then you should know then how to lessen the effect.