i hear the radio through my pc speakers.

this is bugging me to no end! does anyone know why i hear faint radio in the background of my cambridge soundworks speaker system? it's a fairly old system and is not magneticaly sheilded. could that be what it is... my speakers are picking up radio waves because it's not magnetically shielded?
grrrr, it makes mer feel like im hearing things.

Probably just signals being crossed. I assume these are cheap speakers and old speakers, so that is probably what is happening. This happened to someone else here a while ago, but can't remember who.

mdcomp said:

Probably just signals being crossed. I assume these are cheap speakers and old speakers, so that is probably what is happening. This happened to someone else here a while ago, but can't remember who.

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well, that's my next upgrade (this is driving me nutz), a new quality speaker system. no more strange voices in the night for me! lol!
btw - i accidentally posted this on the wrong board, but thanks for the reply...
cool penguin too.

Thanks. New speakers will make a huge difference with sound qaulity. I need to get myself some new speakers, too.

Jerky said:

this is bugging me to no end! does anyone know why i hear faint radio in the background of my cambridge soundworks speaker system? it's a fairly old system and is not magneticaly sheilded. could that be what it is... my speakers are picking up radio waves because it's not magnetically shielded?
grrrr, it makes mer feel like im hearing things.

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What station are you getting?

yep, the sheilding on your speaker wire is no good. get better sheilded wire and try to run the wires straight not looped. if it runs in a loops back on itself it will basically act as a large antannae. also try not to cross the wires across power cords this can induct noise. if you have to cross a power cord do it at a 90 degree angle.

try using headphones and see if you still get the radiostation and try a second set of speakers if you can, has this problem always happened or did it just start recently?

The signal could be coming throught the air or it could be coming through the ground of your power outlet. you can buy things that you plug into the outlet that eliminate interference (try radio shack).

You wouldnt want to go out and spend your $$$ on great new speakers only to find out you still get that signal. if you have a radio station near your house that would be a likely cause but the only way to stop that would be to use tin foil for wall paper...

my buddy had the same problem on his guitar amp... he got better wires and grounded it and that seemed to do the trick... you could try it on your speakers... or just do what you were talking about and get a new set

That problem is usually caused by the audio input cable acting as an antenna and picking up AM radio signals. You might try getting a better cable if it can be unplugged from the back of the subwoofer. Other options are to wrap it in foil. Tying a knot in each end or buying a ferrite core may help as well. Or you can take other people's advice and buy some new speakers. But those suggestions may help until you can afford the new speakers.

Ahh... The good 'ol "German Radio Syndrom".. A known problem with some Cambridge sets, and Creative actually offered to fix the sets if faulty! Had the same problem, but I never bothered.

A little background info:

In most cases the radio station picked up is german, hence the name. At least in Europe.. I live in Norway and still pick up german radio, so it's got to be a somewhat powerfull station.. The problem is caused by bad shielding of the speaker wires, so changing the wires may help. Also relocating them, making them go in other directions may help. I moved the speakers around a bit and the problem dissappeared. If you know your way around an amplifier you can probably do something in there too.

Three possible solutions:

1) Move the speakers around and possibly change the wiring to them as well. (Should also improve sound quality a bit..)

2) Try to get Cambridge Soundworks or Creative to fix them. As mentioned they offered this some time ago but I can't seem to find any info on it right now.

3) Get a new set!


good luck!

speaker wires themselves are not shielded... it is only two wires that go to the speakers, some high end speakers (like my altec lansing ada 885s) may have shielding on the front speakers b/c they go near the monitor but in general speaker wires are not shilded. shielding goes around the wire like with coaxial cable (TV cable), there is a wire in the middle and some type of conductive material or a wire wrapped all around the the outside of that wire (not touching it).

as avatar28 said it may be the wire that goes from the sound card to the subwoofer is usually shielded and it may be picking up the signal. it may also be coming trough the ground wire of the outlet which can also act as an antena.

if you plug headphones into the computer (plug them in to the soundcard with the speakers unplugged) and still get the radio station I would suspect its coming through the outlet. If it disappears then I would think its coming in through the air, in which case a better cable going from the card to the speakers may get rid of the sound.

Yep, flaming gerbil, and DaddyB are right. It's the wires that are picking up the signals. You could just replace the wire with better quality, but take into consideration of the cost of the new wire and the work involved to re-wire everything. (I don't knnow how good you are with soldering, and such) As opposed to just going out and getting a new set of speakers.

It is coming through the air as in most cases the radio could be heard also after the computer is turned off. In some cases it was also reported to continue after the sub (also holding the amp) was disconnected from the computer. And yes, I know that speaker wires are not generally shielded, but using shielded wires should help as it is the speaker wires that transport the radio interference to the amp. I had a lot of links to information about this, but it's a while ago and I've changed computer since then.

My advice still sticks, either move your speakers, change the cable or buy new speakers