ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area noise thru speaker

I have a customer that's having a problem with a pop coming thur his speakers every time he turns his cieling fan on.It also pop's when the refigerater water dispenser is working. Has anybody seen or heard of this? Is there a fix?

Hi Tom,
Sounds like an induced voltage problem.
Easiest way to fix it is to move the speaker wiring away from the mains wiring supplying the fan and the refrigerator.
This might be easier said than done, if it shares the same hole in the dwangs in the wall framing.
Hope this helps.


Mike.

thank's for the advice I'll check it out and let you know what I find.

I'd also check around for bad ground connections.

I would help to know a little about these speakers like where are they, how are they connected and to what.

-Hal

Or it might not be the speaker wiring at all. For example, if his amplifier is on one circuit, and his preamp and CD player are on another circuit that happens to be the same as the ceiling fan and refrigerator, then it wouldn't take much of a spike on that second circuit to generate a difference in ground reference in the line-level signal going to the amplifier, thus resulting in a pop at the speakers.

I've heard that "pop" too from ceiling fan controls. It's an arc in the control as it goes from one speed to the next. Cheap control. As to the fridge.... I don't know. I would guess it is the switch mechinism not supressing the arc enough. For the fan, I'd try a different control. For the fridge......again, I don't know.

I'll be going there friday so i'll keep you updated.Thanks for the Input.

tomselectric,

if it is contact arc, this solution has stopped the disturbance of many TV sets, MW receivers, etc. from central heating thermostats - and could help your fridge etc.

M.

just got word from the tec, everything was good and tight including all the grounds. there were no speaker wires going thru any holes.No wires were bye any speaker wires. we took the speed controls off all the fans and tried switches but it still made the pop. it is only coming thru the sub woofer. any ideas? I told he to try another sub woofer thinking maybe it,s the speaker itself.