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louped garouv
03-06-2006, 01:37 PM
anyoen use shielded twisted pair type speaker cable?

have run into some RFI issues when 'finishing' the wiring of my system....


from some 'quick and dirty' reading seems as this may (or may not) solve the unwanted radio station on my system....

each stack's speaker cable runs are about 10' and 30', four channels per stack

boputnam
03-06-2006, 02:32 PM
anyone use shielded twisted pair type speaker cable?Yes, always. I have no RF noise issues.

Can you position your amps closer to the "stacks" and then make your "long runs" some balanced cables? Would save wire costs, while reducing noise (although I'm surprised you have much noise in those relatively short runs... :blink: )

hapy._.face
03-06-2006, 02:37 PM
(although I'm surprised you have much noise in those relatively short runs... :blink: )

Yeah, me too. What are your neighbors up to?

louped garouv
03-06-2006, 02:45 PM
Yes, always. I have no RF noise issues.

Can you position your amps closer to the "stacks" and then make your "long runs" some balanced cables? Would save wire costs, while reducing noise (although I'm surprised you have much noise in those relatively short runs... :blink: )

unfortunately, not possible to switch to balanced connections... my Xover is single ended piece....

(the gear is highly sought after --- sounded great before I tried to place the last leg of the system (subwoofer feed) into service..... then all of a sudden when i powered up, the radio station appears)

looks like I will be in for some fun STP wiring....

louped garouv
03-06-2006, 02:58 PM
Yeah, me too. What are your neighbors up to?

scared to think..... :blink:

louped garouv
03-07-2006, 05:00 AM
got home yesterday night, powered up the stereo, no noticable RFI..... just clean audio :D

still need to upgrade teh speaker cable to prevent RFI in the future though... :banghead:

scott fitlin
03-07-2006, 09:52 AM
got home yesterday night, powered up the stereo, no noticable RFI..... just clean audio :D

still need to upgrade teh speaker cable to prevent RFI in the future though... :banghead:You could try some ferrite cores, placed on the cable itself right where they connect to the amps inputs! Will keep the RF out of your amp, if this is the problem.

Small enough, and cheap enough ones available at Radio Shack, worth a try!

4343
03-07-2006, 01:27 PM
got home yesterday night, powered up the stereo, no noticable RFI..... just clean audio :D

still need to upgrade teh speaker cable to prevent RFI in the future though... :banghead:

Check your grounds... Last time I heard an AM station in the speakers whenever the amp was on it turned out the speaker wires inside the walls were grounded to the conduit at one end.:p

scott fitlin
03-09-2006, 09:11 PM
I was reading one of my engineering encyclopedias last night, and it was explaining that they ground the chassis of an amp to the earth ground, and having the chassis connected to earth keeps the RF in or out of the amp, whatever the case may be!

Is the amp your using when this occurs properly grounded?

louped garouv
03-10-2006, 09:07 AM
The amp is grounded fine to the best of my knowledge....

I think I found the issue to be:





me not grounding my White 4400s.....


I was running my system with the Eqs in the loop of my preamp, no issues

when I got my crossover back from the tech, decided to try to run the preamp into the EQ into the crossover -- no problems at first (when I was hooking up the first three channels (tweeters, mid-bass, bass) -- then when i tried to add the final leg (subbass), I got the radio station



so i went out and got some more wire, sheilded 18ga 4 conductor copper strands (to save some unsightly wire runs)... still had the RFI

so then I went and swapped what I should have in the first place and put the EQs back into the loop, RFI disappeared -- I guess i had some sort of false confidence that this was not the issue, due to me having the first three legs up and runnign with no RFI issues... (I was wrong)

I need to get some spade lugs and properly ground the EQs and see if that was in fact the issue, but with me running the EQs in the loop, I am having no issues....






should have checked the ground on the EQs first

:banghead:

on another 'good practice' note, I also moved the speakers to the other side of my room and put the amp rack closer to them... now the amps are about 8ft on each side of the amp rack.... :)