The Voices Inside My Computer Speakers Have Ceased!

Yesterday, I finally retired the pair of Jensen desktop speakers that have been dutifully audibilizing my home computers for the past 22-plus years. It’s not that they failed. They worked fine. It’s that for the past five or so years they’ve been intermittently connected to another dimension. Specifically they’ve been broadcasting at veeeery low volumes and typically only early in the mornings, some Spanish-language talkradio station — unknown whether it was a licensed one on the AM or FM bands, or some pirate shortwaver.

All I know is that typically in the still of the early mornings, I could come down and if I listened carefully I could hear it, and upon doing so I then couldn’t get it out of my ears. And no, I’m not crazy. Click the following link for my search of radio broadcasts through my damn computer speakers and you’ll see I’m neither nutz nor alone. The problem is ascribed to Radio Frequency Interference (RFI), with the most likely cause being my proximity to such broadcast origins combined with any unshielded speaker wiring connected to my computer, that thus acts as an antenna.

The solutions are generally as follows: 1) Move the speakers to another location. 2) Shorten up the wires. 3) Purchase and attach filtering Ferrite clamps or rings to the wiring . I tried the first two, to no avail. I even swapped out the connector wire with others I happened to have. No go. So I was just about to purchase the last suggested option, when I decided to hell with ferrite doohickies, and instead just buy a new pair that were properly shielded. It didn’t take long and later that day I unceremoniously removed the Jensens and plugged in a properly protected $22 set of Logitechs.

In the predawn this morning? When I sat down at my computer with fingers crossed to the point of being painful and brought her out of sleep mode? I listened. I listened caaaaaarefully. ¿El silencio? ¡Era de oro!

 

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Will

Will Campbell arrived in town via the maternity ward at Good Sam Hospital way back in OneNineSixFour and has never stopped calling Los Angeles home. Presently he lives in Silver Lake with his wife Susan, their cat Rocky, dogs Terra and Hazel, and a red-eared slider turtle named Mater. Blogging since 2001, Will's web endeavors extend back to 1995 with laonstage.com, a comprehensive theater site that was well received but ever-short on capital (or a business model). The pinnacle of his online success (which speaks volumes) arrived in 1997, when much to his surprise, a hobby site he'd built called VisuaL.A. was named "best website" in Los Angeles magazine's annual "Best of L.A." issue. He enjoys experiencing (and writing about) pretty much anything creative, explorational and/or adventurous, loves his ebike, is a better tennis player than he is horr golfer, and a lover of all creatures great and small -- emphasis on "all."