Hearing local radio through speakers

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

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

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

Talk about a disaster! A radio station that I used to work at decided to build their own beautiful studios (instead of renting a building). Well, no one from management (who usually don't know Jack about electronics and radio transmission) bothered consulting with the Chief Engineer. Seems he would have told them that building the 50,000 watt AM antenna (we were both AM & FM...different formats) two hundred yards from the building wasn't such a good idea (they wanted to save on telephone line transmission charges.) EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT ON THE FM SIDE BECAME A RECEIVER FOR THE AM SIGNAL!!!! There was AM bleed through transmitted on the FM signal, and we couldn't use the production studio! The poor chief engineer spent three weeks constructing I don't know how many faraday shields! Fortunately, the other suggestions should take care of your problem, but if you need help with a faraday shield, let me know. Easy to construct, but ugly (WAF=0%) P.S.: Does anyone remember listening to WBZ radio on the telephone? Every time it rained in the summer, (the 1960's) you could hear WBZ on the telephones in Nantasket, MA due to the location of the towers!

I had this problem with my phono section in my active preamp (a forte2.. I know, I know, not a very good preamp)when I moved and there was a radio station transmitter about 1 mi. away.. drove me nuts! finally when I bought a separate Benz PP1 for my low output benz mc, the problem went away! apparently this benz phono unit is much better shielded? I was going to try mu-metal shielding inside my other preamp.. would this have worked? I tried aluminum foil around interconnects with no effect.