How close should I have my stereo system speakers and my computer?

[misterPK]

The title says it all really, but here's the background.

Over the last month or so I've had the occasional crash with windows usually claiming "a driver caused a STOP error" or something like that. It doesnt happen that often and I'm slowly checking hardware, drivers, and when I get the time will go for a reformat and re-install of XP.

But anyway, I'm not too woried about that yet so thats not what I'm asking about. A few months ago I got my nice shiny new Lian Li G50 case, replacing an ugly old blue chieftec. To stop me scratching it I moved it off the floor and onto my desk, right next to one of the speakers for my little stereo system.

You can just about see the top of the speaker in the bottom left corner of this picture. Its not the best, but was taken for a different thread.

What I'm asking is will having the speaker so close to my computer, especially the hard drives, have a negative effect on things?

Cheers,
PK!

 

[Burly]

Can't really see it being a problem if its not touching the case and actually vibrating it with bass. It's not like its beside a massive sub.

Just move them a little apart.

 

[Nicos Rex]

I think that the concern here may not be vibration issues but electromagnetic.

Unfortunately for me the pic is not viewable.

Loudspeakers have only minimal standards for shielding of their magnets, and frequently have large coils and electrolytic capacitors as part of the passive crossover. All of this can impact on nearby electronic equipment.

This then begs the question of if your computer problems can be laid at the door of electromagnetic interference from the speakers - the only way to find this out is to move the speaker away from the PC and see if things improve.

 

[edwardcasbon1]

I think he's thinking more along the lines of the magnetic field or whatever around the speakers.

Magnets can effect hard drive and floppy disks (any optical media i think, not sure).

I would think it would be ok though, most speakers are magnetically shielded i think, so i wouldnt worry that much, I dont.

HTH,

Other members will be a bit more clued up than me though.

 

[misterPK]

Yeah, magnetics is the key. I was wondering if anyone else had any bad experiences really, and if they knew if the field would be strong enough to affect my drives. I'm not convinced myself, but now I'm out of uni I dont have access to the required experimental equipment!

PK!

 

[Nicos Rex]

All I can tell you is that in my experience the cheaper the equipment the poorer the shielding.

Also remember that the inverse square law applies, so you will not have to move the speaker very far to eliminate it from your enquiries