Possibly the strangest speaker problem ever

Scrublet

After I moved in early January, I hooked up my old Yamaha receiver and two Klipsch B-2s. One of them had picked up a buzzing noise. It plays the volume lower than it should and everything is somewhat distorted. Nothing had this problem worse than the ambient noise in the Wii menu. But the PS3 had it too. After switching inputs, wires, etc., and having it follow the speaker, I wrote off the speaker and figured I'd be upgrading soon anyhow.

Fast forward to today. I wasn't able to upgrade so I ordered a used B-2. I also got a new Onkyo TX-SR606 to replace the Yamaha I sold off. Naturally, the new speaker has the same problem. New 18 gauge Dynex speaker wire, new receiver, same issue. No distortion when running sound through the receiver to the TV speakers. No distortion on the other speaker, even after switching wires and receiver connections. I tried moving the receiver to a different outlet across the room, away from any possible interference, and nothing changed.

I assume the speaker is bad, and figure maybe I'll try to get it repaired instead of RMA'ing it. I go to Best Buy because I want to go ahead and verify that the speaker is broken. We plug it into one of their demo sources and it works. Sounds better than the Bose speakers being demoed, actually. What the fuck.

tl;dr, I have a speaker that doesn't seem to work in my house, which seems to be confirmed by switching wires, sources, connections. But when taken to the store, it works fine.

YodaTuna

The speakers can pick up interference too. I've had speakers pick up radio signals on my computer, even when the computer was off. Have you tried switching the two speakers and see what happens?

Scrublet

If you mean switching the speakers from left to right, that's what I meant by switching wires and such. If you meant trying different speakers with the receiver, unfortunately I don't know anyone well enough here yet to ask them to take apart their HT system for me. I tried to hook up the first "broken" speaker again, but it didn't put out any sound. This doesn't mean much considering it was in pieces, for two months while I thought it was broken, with some pieces hanging by their wires out the side. It could be nonfunctional cause of that.

YodaTuna

Scrublet wrote: »

If you mean switching the speakers from left to right, that's what I meant by switching wires and such. If you meant trying different speakers with the receiver, unfortunately I don't know anyone well enough here yet to ask them to take apart their HT system for me. I tried to hook up the first "broken" speaker again, but it didn't put out any sound. This doesn't mean much considering it was in pieces, for two months while I thought it was broken, with some pieces hanging by their wires out the side. It could be nonfunctional cause of that.

I meant physically moving the speakers, not just changing their outputs. Take the weird speaker, put it where the good speaker currently is and put the good speaker where the bad one was. Observe results. If the good speaker now is having the same problem, it's an interference issue. If the problem stays with the bad speaker, it's probably not interference.

Scrublet

YodaTuna wrote: »

Scrublet wrote: »

If you mean switching the speakers from left to right, that's what I meant by switching wires and such. If you meant trying different speakers with the receiver, unfortunately I don't know anyone well enough here yet to ask them to take apart their HT system for me. I tried to hook up the first "broken" speaker again, but it didn't put out any sound. This doesn't mean much considering it was in pieces, for two months while I thought it was broken, with some pieces hanging by their wires out the side. It could be nonfunctional cause of that.

I meant physically moving the speakers, not just changing their outputs. Take the weird speaker, put it where the good speaker currently is and put the good speaker where the bad one was. Observe results. If the good speaker now is having the same problem, it's an interference issue. If the problem stays with the bad speaker, it's probably not interference.

That was the first thing I tried. I also switched wires, so that each speaker was at each position with each wire. Completely frustrated, I actually picked up the receiver and both speakers, moved them across the room to a different area, and did it all over again. The "bad" speaker ALWAYS buzzed. The working speaker never did. If the "bad" speaker hadn't worked at Best Buy this would be a closed case. I'm heading to a local AV store after work in a few hours to see if they'll let me test my receiver and speakers with some of their shit. Hopefully that sheds some light.

Zeon

I know this is probably going to sound like a stupid question, but is there any chance youre reversing the speaker wires each time you hook it up? I know youve had it plugged in and unplugged a lot, but is there a chance maybe youve got the neg/pos switched at the receiver and arent noticing it at the speaker? I mean, theres no way both speakers are dead and both amps have a bad output, theres absolutely no way. That pretty much leaves a problem with your set up, or as someone else mentioned, interference, but if you moved the speakers across the room and still have the same problem, im doubting that too.

Scrublet

Zeon wrote: »

I know this is probably going to sound like a stupid question, but is there any chance youre reversing the speaker wires each time you hook it up? I know youve had it plugged in and unplugged a lot, but is there a chance maybe youve got the neg/pos switched at the receiver and arent noticing it at the speaker? I mean, theres no way both speakers are dead and both amps have a bad output, theres absolutely no way. That pretty much leaves a problem with your set up, or as someone else mentioned, interference, but if you moved the speakers across the room and still have the same problem, im doubting that too.

Fortunately or unfortunately I'm not that stupid. However, I am stupid enough to bring the speaker I KNOW won't work anymore (the old B-2 I took apart) to the store instead of the one I needed to test. However, I tested music on the "bad" speaker and found that the buzz is much more subtle than the Wii menu, and that different music makes it harder to hear. For instance, with distorted guitar it's unnoticeable...with orchestral soundtrack it was noticeable, but mostly on falling volume...on a NIN track with only piano and vocals, it was very noticeable. I'm starting to think that at Best Buy when I didn't immediately hear the AWFUL buzz I was getting from the Wii, I was too quick to assume it wasn't there. Tomorrow I'm heading back to the premium AV-store I was at yesterday (incidentally, the place I'm going to begin building my Paradigm Studio set from), and if I confirm there it was the speaker all along, lesson learned and I'll ask for this to be locked.

ElJeffe

So wait.

You had an old receiver with old speaker wire and an old speaker in a certain location, and there was a problem.

You changed the receiver, the wire, and the speaker, stuck them in the same location, and the problem persisted.

Either the location itself is the problem, or this is a stunning coincidence. I mean, you changed literally every piece of equipment you had - it's not possible that an actual hardware problem persisted to the new set-up. Unless, I don't know, you let your new speaker get too close to the bad one and it contracted speaker-herpes, or something.