I recently moved. At my old place, my stereo worked just fine. Now, I always hear a little bit of FM radio through the left speaker. It doesn't matter if I'm in CD, tape, or radio mode, or if the stereo is turned on but not playing any music at all. Also, the quiet-but-audible radio noise coming from the left speaker has no correspondence with what radio station I have the stereo set to. I can be listening to classical music (91.1) and the left speaker will be playing hard rock (97.9) or country (93.3).

It's really frustrating. It's just loud enough to be audible when the music I want to be listening to hits a quieter spot. Does anybody have any idea what could have caused this, or how to fix it?

by FM you mean just radio noise or actually radio channel being played ?

Actually the radio channel being played. Some days it's hard rock, some days it's country.

that is really strange. if it were just static then i would have guessed the speaker wire was picking it up .. but since its actual music i am gonna say the house is haunted.

To clarify something from my original post--the speaker only plays music if the stereo itself is turned on. If the stereo is on but idle, there's a bit of radio out of the left speaker. If the stereo is on and playing something I want to listen to, there's ab it of radio out of the left speaker. But if the stereo is actually switched off, there's nothing.

It's not that strange. I've seen it happen before. Basially with a longstory short your speaker is acting as an antenna and is broadcasting the FM channel.

What can you do? Nothing really. If you're really desperate I suggest wrapping the speaker in a wire mesh, should cancel out the FM signal.

How do you explain the demodulation of the FM waves ?

Its a little complicated and electrons suck my nut but I know that I have heard similar things happen with both home stereos and with cars. Its some random fluke in design but it can and will happen.

I remember a story about a kid that thought his room was haunted cause late at night he would hear a baptist type preacher talking in his room. Turns out he was picking up a religious nut who broadcast late at night on his speakers.

The problem is in the central unit, not the speaker itself. I swapped the speaker plugs (so now the left speaker is plugged into "right" and vice versa." The radio noise switched from the left speaker to the right speaker.

Well then wrap that unit in the mesh. Somehow the circuit in the central unit is recieving and interpreting the signal. You need to wrap the unit in a faraday cage that should isolate it from electromagnetic radiation.

Okay, I majored in Medieval European history in undergrad, not electrical engineering, so you're going to have to go a bit slower.

(1) Wouldn't wrapping the main unit in the mesh disrupt the radio reception I *want*?
(2) Where do I find these "faraday cages"? I don't think they have them at the local Albertson's, if you know what I mean. Is it basically just chicken wire, or does it need to be some special mesh?
(3) Is there any other solution, in case Mrs. Mitlov decides it's unattractive and embarassing to have the stereo in the living room wrapped in chicken wire?

And how's that degree working out for you?

It does seem strange that it's able to demodulate the signal with it being FM and all but perhaps it's making it into the output and through the demodulator (PLL circuit?). Can you try plugging the stereo into a different outlet or switching the polarity of the plug assuming it will allow it without modification.

EDIT: And the participation by those responding in this thread doesn't surprise me even a little bit.

You must live near a radio station transmitter. This used to happen all the time when I worked at a 50,000 watt AM in Oklahoma City (KOMA). That station could literally be heard on toasters. It's amazing what can demodulate an rf signal. The old story of someone hearing a radio station on their fillings is absolutely true. It happens with lower power transmitters as well like CB and ham radio. In fact, it's pretty common. The problem is that your receiver isn't shielded very well. Don't worry, most arent. I'm surprised you aren't picking it up on your telephone. My 100 watt ham radio used to get into a neighbor's VCR.

Don't mess with Faraday cages. It's a waste of time and it's ugly. You need pretty fine mesh and every seam has to be sealed extremely well, meaning you won't be able to get to the plugs on the back or the controls on the front. Faraday cages are for rf engineers, designers and technicians.

The fix is cheap and easy. I put a filter on the output of my ham radio transmitter and it cleared it right up. Sorry, the radio station won't do that for you. Go to RadioShack and get some toroid chokes and put them on both speaker wires and the power wire. That should take care of the problem. The dweeb behind the counter probably won't have any idea what toroids are so just go directly to the parts drawer and start looking. You can also order them online. RadioShack... you've got questions, we've got blank stares.

Let me know how this works. I think it will solve your problem.

Well you just need a fine wire mesh. The mesh acts as a conductor and any incoming radio waves will be grounded out by the mesh. But it will look ugly and it will disrupt you from picking up other radio broadcasts unless you have an external antenna.

See it does happen: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/index.cf...27186&forumid=1
http://www.duxcw.com/dcforum/DCForumID1/280.html

It might just be the wire doing it. Play with the wire and see if that changes the reception of the sound at all for starters.

Edit: Or you can follow the advise the post above me who hates electrons far less than i do.

Well, I get my law degree in May, and that will be what I use to get for jobs. The undergrad degree was fun, and it got me into law school. So it worked out just fine.

I'll check out some of the mechanical fixes this weekend, and see what works.

Reminds me of this neat thing I found as a kid. I was on this charter bus sitting at the back with my walkman. I flipped it to AM and I could hear all the engine noise on my walkman. Crazy shit

I have a similar with my DVD 5.1 unit. when i am watching a dvd i hear the channel is was watching on the tv before coming through my left speaker. I changed scart cables and a newer one made the noise from the tvchannel have more volume, so i switched back to an old one. It's driving me crazy..