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speaker cable static sound

Can anyone help with a technical question:

I am using audience au24 speaker cables ( I believe they are unshielded) and there is a tv nearby. The problem is that even when the tv is not on or even plugged in I sometimes get a mild static sound coming out of one of the speakers. The weird thing is that its only out of the right speaker even though the tv is equidistant to both speakers. The other weird thing is that the static sound does not immediately happen when I turn on the amp but comes after a few minutes and will often just go away and then come back and then go away.

I have tried lifting the cables off the ground and moving around the monster ac outlet strip. No, none of the audio equipment goes into the ac outlet strip nor do they even share the same wall outlet.

I like the speaker cables but maybe I should get a shielded cable? Any recommendations. I currently used purist interconnect dominus between amp and preamp and use the emmlabs dcc2 as preamp and dac with their cd transport. My speakers are Wilson Watt Puppy 7's.

Thanks

Michael
128x128karmapolice
karmapolice's avatar
karmapolice OP
141 posts
 
thanks for the advice, I will try today the various tests.

I began to notice the static on right speaker only after changing the speaker cables from nordost to audience so that is why I suspected the speaker cable (especially since au24 unshielded sppeaker cable).

I have already tried a different ic between preamp and amp and get same right channel static so I know the problem is not the ic going into the amp.
edesilva
768 posts
 
The intermittent nature of the problem makes me think its either something in amp, like a switched power supply, or you are getting some EMI. Any chance the "right" speaker cable is running near something like in-wall power line for a heat pump, water heater or something else that switches on and off? You might try simply re-routing the speaker cable, since those kind of EMI effects should drop off at 1/d^2, where d is the distance...
karmapolice's avatar
karmapolice OP
141 posts
 
I have now tried a different speaker cable and switching the interconnect but still have the same problem.

The right speaker is not near a switched power supply.

I have tried slight changes in the routing of the right speaker cable without success.

Maybe the problem is that for the tv and video components I am using a monster video outlet strip and again the tv is closer to the right speaker than the left. However, none of the audio equipment goes into the monster video strip nor do the audio equipment go into the same wall outlet as the video equipment.

Michael
jlind325is
113 posts
 
Any chance you had a drier or dishwasher going when you heard the buzzing? or flourescent lights on? My background gets noisier when more things are on in the house, even with my UPC.
metro04
222 posts
 

Karmapolice,

Just to be clear, did you CROSS (not swap) the interconnect cables into the amp (left into the right chnl.)? If the static moves to the left speaker, it's not the amp or speaker cable location, thus pointing to either the preamp or source. Bypass the preamp if possible, as mentioned earlier.
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