My Speakers Are Catching a Radio Station.. While They're Off!

[bobber205]

I have a 15 dollar set of speakers that catch the radio.
Even when the switch is set to "off", as long as they're plugged in, they play some rock station. Sometimes very loud. It even tries to play the station during when my cd player is trying to put input into it.

Any ideas why? It's only done this since I've moved to Oregon.

 

[stridey]

It's your power source. More than that I don't really know (somebody probably knows the details better than I).

 

[someguy]

Sometimes when I have my speakers off (while surfing around 2-3am), sites with those advertisements that have sound in them will sometimes softly play from the subwoofer in my speaker setup. I don't know how this works, but it freaks me out sometimes.

 

[zimv20]

neat!

disconnect the cables and see if it still happens.

 

[bobber205]

Ah! Good Idea!

 

[CanadaRAM]

The OFF switch only turns off either the battery powered amplifier of the speakers, or perhaps just turns off the bass boost. In either case, the speakers are still acting as passive speakers driven by the headphone output.

Picking up a radio station is almost always the result of a break in the cabling or the shielding somewhere in the signal chain - either in the wires to the Mac or inside the speakers. Occasionally, it can happen when the plug is oxidized and is making a poor connection with the headphone jack.

Edit: As above, RF can also leak into the system from the power source if it is poorly shielded inside. Basically, you have a $&%( set of speakers - best bet is to ditch them and get better ones.

 

[iSaint]

I get the fuzz talking when they drive by sometimes.