Deadly Speaker Whine Driving Me Bonkers
December 5, 2006 4:32 AM Subscribe
I've just hooked up an oldish minsystem to my PC, and lo! Speaker whine that was once a few metres from the nearest thing with ears is now glaringly obvious when I'm at my desk.
The system itself is a older Luminaria setup I inherited from an outgoing flatmate, so I have no idea exactly how old it is, or what model. The AV cable hooking the PC to the minisystem is brand new, and the speakers themselves seem to be in good shape. The CD player in the system is defective, and won't read discs (hence its move onto the desk, away from the living space), but I suspect that's a problem that stems from another previous housemate playing discs that had thick layers of crap on them than any sort of wiring problem inside the system. It's probably worth mentioning too that our house receives the odd power spike strong enough to turn the system on if its left in standby; I can think of two occasions in the last month that this has happened.
My more scientifically inclined boyfriend describes the whine itself as an erratic 16KHz, and I hear a crackle in it too. It's generally not present when the minisystem is switched on, but it then cranks up with a vengance after about ten or fifteen seconds.
I've been playing music with droning qualities that drown it out, but trust me, there are only so many times you can listen to a playlist where the defining characteristic is "droning". I've also tried playing with the equaliser in my sound manager to smother the whine with other sound, but to no good effect.
So, Hivemind, what to do? Is there some audiophile trick that'll have the speakers squeaky clean without too much hassle? Should I just bite the bullet and buy myself a new set of speakers? Or should I just resign myself to the whine?
The system itself is a older Luminaria setup I inherited from an outgoing flatmate, so I have no idea exactly how old it is, or what model. The AV cable hooking the PC to the minisystem is brand new, and the speakers themselves seem to be in good shape. The CD player in the system is defective, and won't read discs (hence its move onto the desk, away from the living space), but I suspect that's a problem that stems from another previous housemate playing discs that had thick layers of crap on them than any sort of wiring problem inside the system. It's probably worth mentioning too that our house receives the odd power spike strong enough to turn the system on if its left in standby; I can think of two occasions in the last month that this has happened.
My more scientifically inclined boyfriend describes the whine itself as an erratic 16KHz, and I hear a crackle in it too. It's generally not present when the minisystem is switched on, but it then cranks up with a vengance after about ten or fifteen seconds.
I've been playing music with droning qualities that drown it out, but trust me, there are only so many times you can listen to a playlist where the defining characteristic is "droning". I've also tried playing with the equaliser in my sound manager to smother the whine with other sound, but to no good effect.
So, Hivemind, what to do? Is there some audiophile trick that'll have the speakers squeaky clean without too much hassle? Should I just bite the bullet and buy myself a new set of speakers? Or should I just resign myself to the whine?
Is this only a problem when connected to the PC? Try listening to the PC with headphones, and also try the other modes on the mini system (tuner/tape), while connected to the PC, and also while disconnected.
It sounds a lot like a mini system component causes the noise as it warms up to operating temperature.. If you turn the mini system off and on again quickly, do you get 15s of peace, or is the noise there immediately. What if you leave it off for half an hour?
posted by Chuckles at 9:34 AM on December 5, 2006
It sounds a lot like a mini system component causes the noise as it warms up to operating temperature.. If you turn the mini system off and on again quickly, do you get 15s of peace, or is the noise there immediately. What if you leave it off for half an hour?
posted by Chuckles at 9:34 AM on December 5, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by j-dawg at 8:56 AM on December 5, 2006