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Hearing local radio through speakers

I just bought a Rega Cursa/Maia and Planet for my B&W 602s with Audioquest Diamondback interconnects and Monstercable speakerwire. It sounded fantastic. I then took our christmas tree down and i moved my rack about 2' to its normal place. The only other thing i did was coil up the power cords (stock) with a rubber band. There is a local radio station tower about a mile away but i never heard this until i moved my system. Where do i start, Cardas caps, High $$ powercords?? Thanks and happy new year.
dfd9
cornfedboy
1,645 posts
 
dfd9: i'd start by uncoiling the pc's. you've created an antenna with your wires somehow ("classic" rfi). reconnect EVERYTHING and make parallel runs of ic's and pc's, tho not touching one another, if possible. try not to cross ic's with pc's. if you must cross, do so at 90 deg. angles. if you're to start on the wire upgrade path, i'd begin with your speaker cables. -cfb
gboren
143 posts
 
dfd9: I laregly agree with Cornfedboy. However, I just had a similar problem: I live across from the local phone company and 3 blocks from a major radio transmitter. I was getting great sounding radio and I don't even have a tuner. I tried everything including wasting a bundle on "better" cables, rf reduction devices, power conditioners, etc. Like the common cold, there is no real cure. You will notice that even products directed directly at the problem (like audioquest "RF Stoppers") only claim to "help reduce RF noise". I'd be glad to be proven wrong, but I'll bet that Cardas caps will do absolutely no good.

If Cornfedboy's suggestions don't work, you may try a few other things: (1)Move the system around; (2)try RF Stoppers (or just get some heavy iron plumbing pipe sections and run your interconnects and/or speaker cables through them. They do not have to fit snugly as long as they are made of iron and form a complete ring around the cable; (3) play around with the grounding. I could not advise ungrounding your system by using "cheater" plugs, but it does often work. You might instead want to get an inexpensive ground lift device (check radio shack). (4) put your Christmas tree back up.

BTW, what eventually worked for me was getting a new phono stage pre. All the ones I had tried were acting as a very powerful rf antenna. When I got the Linn Linto, my problems ended in an instant.

Good luck,
gb
rayd
81 posts
 
dfd9, sounds like Cornfedboy is right. Try his suggestions. My own problem was one where I could hear a radio station without the use of a tuner. I tried moving my system countless times and then I switched to Canare interconnects and speaker cables. Bye-bye RF problem.

Rayd
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