Speakers buzzing??

Darg

Darg

Darg

Soldato
Joined
6 Sep 2006
Posts
6,302
Location
London
Hey guys,

I have an old set of surround speakers, Altec Lansing ADA885 . Earlier today I had the headphone output of them hooked up to the line in on my main PCs speakers to route the sound from the TV card through to my main PC while I watched it on my big monitor. It took me a while to realise it would just be easier to hook the main line out from the secondary PC to the line in on my primary PC. Anyway while I had the headphone line hooked up to the line in of my main computer the sound was really quiet so I had to turn the volume right up on the ADA885.

Now when I've set things back to normal I've found that at the normal volume (about 1/3) it's buzzing a lot and seems a little quieter. This basically means they're broken. I've tested the line out from secondary PC in the main PCs speakers and it works fine still so it's not the line.

Is there anything I can do to try and fix it? My guess would be that I blew out a capacitor or something with the high volume but I thought it should stand up to more then the 5 or 10 minutes I had it that high. I guess they're quite old now but they were really good for music and films so I'm hoping they can be saved.

Any help or advice is welcome. Consolations welcome too if they are dead :(
 
Anyone? I've turned treble right down and now the buzz isn't as noticeable but it's still there in the background being annoying.
 
Buzzing and humming noises can be caused by ground loops, though I am not sure why that would suddenly happen if everything is the same. It shouldn't.

Are the input cables now being run next to any mains cables perhaps? If the line level cables shielding is non-existent (unlikely), or perhaps broken when you were swapping cables about, then I believe running them near mains cables could pick up noise.

Do the speakers still buzz when they are turned on but not connected to a source? If it does still make some sort of noise, is it a different noise in any way?

The only time I have actually experienced a buzzing noise was down to grounding issues.
 
Yes they still buzz when the line cable is taken out. I thought that too myself. They seem susceptible to some outside noise although the only time I've noticed it it was the other way round. I had a CRT monitor on the subwoofer and when I turned it at an angle the screen colours went all odd and distorted, lifting it away from the subwoofer or turning it back to its normal angle fixed it.

I'll have to try the speakers on their own away from any interference and see if the problem persists.
 
Woot! It was the cable apparently or its position. I assumed it wasn't because it was fine plugged into my main speakers. It must have just been picking something up when plugged into the other ones. Swapped the cable and it works fine again.

I was sure I was testing it without the cable in and it was still buzzing but I think the cable was in just the computer off :rolleyes:

Thanks for your help markiemrboo :)
 
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