Need speaker help, buzzing sound (studio speaker).

PolishPete · Nov 15, 2009

Anyone know what might be the cause/solution to a buzzing speaker?

I've got some Samson Resolv 65a studio monitor speakers hooked up to a mixer and some decks. The speakers had blue grills around them, but today I took them off and painted them a grey/black charcoal like material color. Anyway, this meant raising up the tweeter a little and putting tape underneath to keep the paint away. Didn't really bother the components at all in the painting process, just taped off, spray painted, and that's it.

Now, one of my speakers has a buzz, and I don't know how to fix it. Normally, when there's no music playing through them, they're silent, but now the one, as stated is buzzing, all by itself.

Anyone know anything about these things and know what I might need to check/fix?

Any input is MUCH appreciated.

Thanks!

Audiofyl · Nov 15, 2009

does it buzz while sound is playing?

did you switch the speakers side to side and see what happens?

Wink · Nov 15, 2009

Check ground or ground loop?

PolishPete · Nov 15, 2009

Wink said:
Check ground or ground loop?

Any idea where I could check this?

It's a powered speaker, guess I should have mentioned that before. They plug in from the mixer by 1 rca (the white). If I plug in the good one, no noise, I can turn up the music, great music. This broken one plugged in alone, has buzzing with no music, when I turn up the music, it sounds fine. (never did buzz before).

Does seem like probably a loose connection, and the ground would be a good check. Maybe I'll post up some pics of what I'm working with.

PolishPete · Nov 15, 2009

Audiofyl said:
does it buzz while sound is playing?

did you switch the speakers side to side and see what happens?

Just answered in post above sort of. With a name like Audiofyl I'm really hoping you can help!! :lmao:

Side has no effect, all buzzing with no music playing through it while it's powered on. I'm redoing the room where these are in. So after I painted, I hooked up em' just to make sure all was good, and sure enough, all wasn't good with the one.

PolishPete · Nov 15, 2009

Here are some pics of of the speaker. Hopefully this can help someone think of what it might be wrong.

Front, Back, Taking off the tweeter part, taking off the sub part/inside of box.

Devil Dog · Nov 15, 2009

Start with replacing your input RCA cable to the back of the speaker. If the noise still persists, check and make sure that your wiring from the input (inside the speaker) is not touching or near the power leads. You may also have a bad input terminal.

Audiofyl · Nov 15, 2009

do you have these plugged into a different wall power outlet than they were before? is it a grounded power cable? try removing the ground.

C2M · Nov 15, 2009

I say rca cable

Also what other electronics are around the speaker wire that might be causing interference

PolishPete · Nov 15, 2009

C2M said:
I say rca cable

Also what other electronics are around the speaker wire that might be causing interference

Thanks for the tries guys.

So far no luck. I would have thought RCA too...however, if I plug the other one in, same RCA, no issues. Just to be safe, I tried a different RCA, also tried the output form the mixer for monitor vs. the main output as it is/was.

Had the parts apart with it on, wiggled some wires to see if I can get SOME SORT of change, either no buzzing, louder, software, whatever, just to figure out if it could be one of the cables...but nothing. No matter what I moved, same amount of static, at the same volume.

Tried a different outlet as well, no change either.

Any other thoughts. If I can't figure it out, any idea where I take it to? Does guitar center do repairs?? Guess I should check.

Thanks again...keep the ideas coming!

Audiofyl · Nov 15, 2009

try one of these.

PolishPete · Nov 15, 2009

Thanks for the try Audiofyl. Ok, tried the no ground plug thing, no luck. Still buzzing.

Morrand · Nov 15, 2009

OK, take it one step at a time.

You had a speaker that worked fine, no buzz. Then you pulled out the tweeters, taped off, painted. Now there's a buzz in one of the speakers (and not the other).

First, eliminate the amp and anything upstream of the speakers. You're saying that you've swapped speakers and it's very definitely this one, and not what it's connected into. You also haven't touched anything upstream of the speaker, and it's sensible to start with the stuff that's changed recently rather than assuming there's some coincidence at work here.

You haven't described the buzz very well. Is it 60 Hz (power line), 120 Hz (ditto but rectified), or something else? Is it a raspy buzz or more of a smooth hum? These things help isolate the problem.

When you paint and tape, I'd think of two possibilities. First, that you've set up a mechanical vibration somewhere. For example, by taping under the speaker mounting and thus loosening up the speaker. That seems like it should make the speaker buzz along with the sound, though, and probably not all on its own.

Second is the possibility that you've messed up the shielding somehow. I notice in the photos that there's a stud sticking out of the speaker case just below the tweeter. Any chance that's supposed to be a ground connection to the faceplate of the speaker? Is it possible that you've painted/taped over it and insulated it from the faceplate? That could mess up the shielding and let in interference. All guessing at this point but it's worth a check.

For the record, you should never permanently cut off the power ground from your equipment to stop interference. It's dangerous.

PolishPete · Nov 16, 2009

Thanks for all the input guys. Been really busy last night, so wasn't able to play with it, but I'll try again tonight hopefully and update.

Thanks again.

beac83 · Nov 16, 2009

Also, Try powering the speaker with NO audio input cable connected. If it still buzzes with no input cable connected, the problem is in the speaker. If the buzz goes away when the input cable is disconnected, then the problem is coming from something other than the speaker.

Even better is if you have a shorted RCA Male connector to plug into the input jack to eliminate the possibility of RF interference coming in on the input. If you don't have one, don't worry, but still do the test with no input and see what happens.

Need speaker help, buzzing sound (studio speaker).

PolishPete

Audiofyl

Wink

PolishPete

PolishPete

PolishPete

Devil Dog

Audiofyl

C2M

PolishPete

Audiofyl

PolishPete

Morrand

PolishPete

beac83

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