Airport Express Crackle/Pop sound when lights turned on

[j-a-x]

I have a an airport express router setup with some computer speakers, and generally everything works fine, except for one annoying thing.

Every time somebody turns the light switch on in the kitchen, it causes my speakers to make a loud POP /CRACKLE sound. It even wakes me up at night. If I unplug the speakers and plug them into something else (say an iPhone), there's no CRACKLE/POP sound when I turn the light switch. It only happens when the speaker is plugged into the airport express.

Has anybody experienced this? Is it some type of RF interference, or something with the power in my house? Is there anything that can be done to solve this?

Thanks in advance for your help.
-Jackson

 

[Makosuke]

My desktop speakers do the same thing occasionally; it's probably just interference from the house's power, and the tiny Airport Express doesn't have much filtering compared to, say, a desktop. Since it doesn't do it with an iPod, it's not noise on the speakers' power supply, obviously.

Is the AE plugged into a surge protector, or right into the wall? If it's not, a decent surge protector might add enough filtering to stop the pop, as it were. Easy to try.

 

[j-a-x]

I tried that. Actually I bought the most expensive surge protector I've ever seen that claimed to filter and "clean" the power. It made absolutely no difference.

I did notice however that if I unplug the USB printer from my airport express, the interference (mostly) goes away. Weird, huh?