Ghost Music

April 27, 2004 9:13 AM

Why do my speakers play music when no music is playing? (More inside)

I have a set of pretty low-quality Benwin BW2000 flat-panel speakers connected to my iBook. Have used them for several years on several computers. I recently rearranged my home office and now they're right by the window. When I turn them on they pick up a classical music radio station that can be heard at a low volume, but not really through the actual speaker set -- just from inside the mini woofer. If I play MY music loud enough it gets covered up, but it's annoying anyway. Why does this happen and can I stop it? (Aside from moving them away from the window.)

posted by bkeaggy to Technology (7 answers total)

Your speaker wires are probably acting as antennas and picking up the radio station. This induces a current in the wires which is apparently strong enough to be heard. A friend of mine in college lived right under the radio station antenna and our college station could be heard on his speakers even when his stereo was turned off.
posted by caddis at 9:52 AM on April 27, 2004

I used to live right across the street from Mass. General Hospital, and my speakers would occasionally pick up radio chatter from the arriving/departing ambulances.

Needless to say, the first few times it happened, we were fairly surprised.

This may not help you with a solution, but it does show how the problem (and its cause) can be fairly common.
posted by Icky at 10:13 AM on April 27, 2004

yeah, this happened to me at an old apartment, too. ham radio traffic or something, but I only got one side of the conversations.
posted by Hackworth at 10:18 AM on April 27, 2004

If the sound is really annoying you might try placing ferrite beads on the speaker wires. Audio specialty (not your typical Best Buy) shops sometimes carry them. A search of ferrite bead on Froogle shows a lot of potential sources.
posted by caddis at 10:49 AM on April 27, 2004

I've heard from people who claim to know about such things, that one should avoid having your speaker cables wound up in a coil as this can lead to this sort of problem or make it worse. I personally have had this problem with guitar cables that I haven't unwound properly and usually a good shake out does the trick
posted by dodgygeezer at 1:58 PM on April 27, 2004

The other thing to consider is higher quality speakers and speaker wire which are shielded. This will help reduce or eliminate this kind of problem
posted by gen at 9:13 PM on April 27, 2004

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone!
posted by bkeaggy at 8:48 AM on April 28, 2004