Speakers that don't go "beep beep beep" when you use your cellphones

If you shield the wire with something you should be able to keep from picking up SMS interference.

My speakers wire? Would wrapping it with aluminum foil do?

I'm not entirely sure what causes the beeping, but I'm fairly sure shielding the wires shouldn't help, as the wires receive the same amount of noise and it should cancel itself then

Try shielding your speaker cabinet instead

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Original post by alnite My crappy speakers I bought for $15 constantly making "Beep beep beep" noise whenever my cellphone is active. It's getting rather irritating, especially when I forget to turn the speaker off before I go to sleep. I have another speaker that doesn't make the noise as loud, but it still does it from time to time. Do you guys know any speaker that won't pick up cellphone signals?

It's not the speakers themselves that are picking up the signal, nor the speaker wires, it is the wire that runs from your computer/device to the amplifier. It is essentially a really long antenna. You can shield it, try running it along a different route, or re-arrange the speakers for a shorter cable-run length.

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Original post by JSoftware I'm not entirely sure what causes the beeping, but I'm fairly sure shielding the wires shouldn't help, as the wires receive the same amount of noise and it should cancel itself then Try shielding your speaker cabinet instead

How on earth would it just 'cancel out'? Almost every kind of electronic wiring, both digital & analog, is shielded at manufacture for the very reason that it doesn't cancel out. Speaker wire isn't because the audio signal itself is high-power, and the noise is insignificant/not strong enough to move the diaphragm of the speaker audibly. Shielding a speaker cabinet is to protect other devices from the speaker, not the other way around.

edit: Note that, in all likelihood, the amplifier is built into one of the speakers.

i'm thinking of mixing that wellknown beepbeep once in a liveset (not too loud) and watch people searching their phones... :)

i have the problem, too, at home. not solved yet here..

i think it's more of a

drrrrrrrrr BIP dit-da-dit-dit-da-dit-dit-da-dit

i just keep my phone away from my speakers.. normally a foot away is all it needs for the speakers i have and theyre at the back of the desk where i wouldnt keep my phone anyway, though the missus' speakers tend to pick it up a bit farther

With a balanced twisted pair cable longitudinal inteference does cancel itself out, because it effectively is inducing the same emf in both directions around the circuit.

I think you just need better speakers or better audio equipment. Also don't spare any thought for those rip-off £50 cables (ever spare thought for the hundreds of feet of copper wire inside the speaker coil itself? copper does a decent job). Just anything designed for audio. It can be cheap.

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Original post by AshleysBrain Just anything designed for audio. It can be cheap.

As long as it works, that is. A lot of the super cheap audio and video cables have quality control issues.

You could try insDIT, DIT DA DIT, DIT DA DIT, DIT-DAerrite bead on the speaker cable. You can get them for cheap at Radio Shack, and DIT DA DIT, DIT-DA cutting down RF interference.

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Original post by AshleysBrain With a balanced twisted pair cable longitudinal inteference does cancel itself out, because it effectively is inducing the same emf in both directions around the circuit.

I don't know what speaker cable they sell where you live, but in the states the vast majority of speaker cable is not twisted pair.

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I think you just need better speakers or better audio equipment. Also don't spare any thought for those rip-off £50 cables (ever spare thought for the hundreds of feet of copper wire inside the speaker coil itself? copper does a decent job). Just anything designed for audio. It can be cheap.

The speakers & 'audio equipment' are not the problem. A better speaker could, at best, just reproduce the beeping more accurately, and a better amplifier to make it louder. It's just the device->amp connection.

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Original post by AshleysBrain I think you just need better speakers or better audio equipment.

I don't think so. I've got a $100 pair of speakers that do the exact same thing. As mentioned before, its most likely caused by interference on the cables running from the sound card to the amp (which is probably built into one of the speakers).

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Original post by Moe As mentioned before, its most likely caused by interference on the cables running from the sound card to the amp (which is probably built into one of the speakers).

Get speakers that support digital input? Can't be too uncommon; I have a cheap pair of powered studio monitors with an S/PDIF connector.

Build an enclosure for the wire that polarizes in cell signal. Then run the wire perpendicular to the E field. The most complex solution is usually the most entertaining.

I tried wrapping the audio cable (the one that goes from my PC to the speaker) with aluminum foil. That didn't work. I'll try that ferrite beads thingy.

Guys. This noise is caused when cellphones from ATT, Tmobile, or Nextel try to connect with their cell towers. The frequency used will inject noise into poorly shielded speakers. A simple solution exists. Take your phone and lay it on top of an anti-stati bag. The noise will be disbursed and eliminated from your speakers. If you dont have an anti-static bag you can go to spam They have them for sale. It's also where I learned about this solution.

Its not just computer speakers, its also my telivision set.

This is why audio tech turn of the mobiles during gigs, I've seen $120,000 audio desks react to a mobile so its not a case of your speakers being cheap. Some mobiles are more prone than others, I find the newer phones ie 3G and NextG (oz) don't seem to cause the problem as they run on a higher band. It is basically a matter of seperation and shielding, reducing cable length will also help. With cable sheilding you can't just wrap the wire in foil etc it has to be grounded correclty which is a black art in itself. Either upgrade your phone or keep it further away from your PC.

The actual signal traveling through the speaker wires is low voltage and high current. Meaning it would take quite a lot to inject interference into the signal. If you do have any interference it is likely on the amplification end. You either need to shield your amp. Although, even considering that possibility, it would seem odd for the extremely high frequency carrier wave of cell phones to cause any type of audible interference, as they are way, way, out of range of speakers, they are usually 824 Mhz and up. Even considering that's possible, the grounding of the amp should prevent this. Make sure your amp is properly grounded.
And with all of this taken into consideration, i must ask, are you sure the phone is the source of this interference?

I used to have that problem but upgrading to a better phone made it go away.