seti Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 Ok so I am cleaning and testing my Onix SP3 MKII so I can sell it on audiogon. My khorns now reside in the living room. I've used it on this system before without issue. This time I hear spanish radio with mariachi music "Hey loco americano que salir en la radio mexicana en que los oradorespara que usted loco, aunque no tiene sintonizador conectado".... This is insane. My tv is not on my source is on pause so I switch to the source which is empty with more mariachi music taunting me. Khorn -->zip cord speaker cable --> integrated tube amp--->laptop on one source input nothing on the other. With no source hooked up you guessed twilight zone mexicana!! WTH any advice appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennie Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 Wow! Kinda Krazy! I have a similar "ghost" in my system, but I know what it is, from my 70's CB radio days. Every now and then, I hear "talking" coming over my system. It doesn't matter if it is on or not. If I am listening to CD's or LP's or the radio. It effects all speakers in the house and even the two in the backyard. One of the teenage or early 20 year old kids in the neighborhood, has a amplified CB in his car and when he gets close, he comes over my speakers. Now it does not sound like Mexicali radio, it sounds like a young person on a microphone being an idiot. [8o|] I don't know if this is your phenominon or not, but I wish you luck figuring it out. Dennie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebse2a3 Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 (RFI) Radio Frequency Interference breakthrough. Something in your setup is acting as an antenna picking up the RFI and converting and amplifying that stations signal to ultimately become audible in your system. It can be caused by several things like grounding issues, cables and their layout, even due to the copper circuit trace layout of one piece of your systems equipment. One example of this I remember was Hafler had a problem with their DH110 pre-amp being susceptable to this problem and their solution was to cut a ground trace and reroute it and also install some capacitors to ground at a key points of the circuit. Anyway unused and especially high gain inputs(such as some phono inputs) can be one area were RFI is getting in. Sometimes system wire layout changes or different cables might help. Sometimes installing some ferrite rings on cables or input leads can help as well as trying different grounding of the componets to each other and earth ground. Is the problem in both channels? There are ways to track this down to some extent but if it is caused say due to the Onix SP3 MKII (if that is what your worried about since you are wanting to sell it) just realize that this (like the Hafler I mentioned earlier) might not experience the problem in a different location (in your house or another part of the country) or in a different system configuration. You could google and see if a large number of people ownig this model of Onix are experiencing this issue and if any easy solutions are mentioned. mike tn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted September 28, 2009 Author Share Posted September 28, 2009 Dennie, that has to be really annoying LOL.... (RFI) Radio Frequency Interference breakthrough. Something in your setup is acting as an antenna picking up the RFI and converting and amplifying that stations signal to ultimitaley become audible in your system. It can be caused by several things like grounding issues, cables and their layout, even due to the copper circuit trace layout of one piece of your systems equipment. One example of this I remember was Hafler had a problem with their DH110 pre-amp being susceptable to this problem and their solution was to cut a ground trace and reroute it and also install some capacitors to ground at a key points of the circuit. Anyway unused and especially high gain inputs(such as some phono inputs) can be one area were RFI is getting in. Sometimes system wire layout changes or different cables might help. Sometimes installing some ferrite rings on cables or input leads can help as well as trying different grounding of the componets to each other and earth ground. Is the problem in both channels? There are ways to track this down to some extent but if it is caused say due to the Onix SP3 MKII (if that is what your worried about since you are wanting to sell it) just realize that this (like the Hafler I mentioned earlier) might not experience the problem in a different location (in your house or another part of the country) or in a different system configuration. You could google and see if a large number of people ownig this model of Onix are experiencing this issue and if any easy solutions are mentioned. mike tn Thanks mike. This is the first time I have experienced this oddity. I was giving the onix a good run through and testing before selling it. It was both channels. I got a different pair of interconnects moved the amp and speaker cables around. I just powered it back on and it is quiet as can be. Listened to a couple songs. It wasn't very loud but it was clearly mariachi bands taunting me. There were several wires criss crossed so I cleaned it up abit. The weak link may be the unshielded speaker cables as they are fairly far apart. I am going to try again tomorrow to see if it does it again. Very strange. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtnfoley Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 I swear on a stack of Holy Texts of Your Choice the following is true: My brother was practicing guitar on his little practice amp when he was about 20 and I about 16. While playing Stairway, a commercial broadcast of Stairway started coming thru his amp... quiet but perceptably at first, then getting a little louder. Closest thing to a religious experience he's ever had. [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groomlakearea51 Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 At least it was not "Sympathy For The Devil"...... [H] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted September 29, 2009 Author Share Posted September 29, 2009 Well at least I am not the only one. This all started with a tube bias problem I thought I had. It turns out it was a bad tube because I removed all my vintage and put back stock new production tubes. One of these new tubes could be microphonic and tuning in radio mariachi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timmikid Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 If your set can pick it up this way. A radio should be able to pick it up as well. Would be fun to find out exactly which freq and station... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted September 29, 2009 Author Share Posted September 29, 2009 If your set can pick it up this way. A radio should be able to pick it up as well. Would be fun to find out exactly which freq and station... I'm almost certain it was 88.3fm community radio. If not it could have been an AM station. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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