Weird Audio Setup Story

[Eric++]

This isn't terribly long or complicated, just rather strange. I'm sure one of you will have a reasonable explanation as to why things happened the way they did but it's still astounding!

 

So a little bit of backstory. I have a cheap set of Logitech speakers + sub. I also have a cheap amp. The amp came with a pack when I was gifted a guitar last Christmas. I decided that I should add the amp to my speaker setup to boost my volume/audio quality. Other than a little bit of trouble getting windows to actually use the amp in addition to the speakers I was up and running. For a few days everything was great! And then one night I heard some faint music and I figured I just left my spotify on with low volume. I checked and it wasn't playing. After that I just went to bed and didn't worry about it. The next day, things are still pretty good. Unfortunately, I eventually notice the faint music again, at this point now that I've noticed it twice, I notice it all the time. My explanation this time was that maybe my neighbors had left some music on and I was just hearing it through the walls. Again another night passes. Now when I go to my computer I almost immediately notice the faint music. It's much louder now, still not sure why it got louder. It's loud enough that I start to make out what's actually playing. My amp is playing a local radio station (I live in Houghton, MI, which is basically the middle of lake superior so we have like 3 radio stations). So I started troubleshooting. The fact that it was only coming from my amp and not my speakers at all told me it wasn't an issue with my computer. So I start googling. Apparently amps picking up radio stations is a normal thing that happens if the amp is cheaply made without enough shielding. It's also much more common for guitars to pick up radio stations while they're being played. There was only one thing that didn't add up, the radio station was only picked up when it was connected to my computer.

 

Long story short, the only thing left was the aux cable. So I apparently acquired an aux cable that's so terrible it picks up radio stations. It's the most standard looking aux cable you could imagine. Roughly 5ft with two green 3.5mm ends. I've replaced it and everything works wonderfully again. I also now own a cable that acts as a radio whenever I feel like messing with people.

 

Sorry if this story wasn't exciting enough for ya. I thought it was pretty neat. Let me know if you've had similar experiences or if science can explain this better than just saying the cable had poor shielding.

[Enderman]

It's not super rare to have audio equipment pick up radio waves accidentally.

This is why a lot of people use optical or USB connections instead of 3.5mm.

[Eric++]

Just now, Enderman said:

It's not super rare to have audio equipment pick up radio waves accidentally.

This is why a lot of people use optical or USB connections instead of 3.5mm.

I just found it odd that the cable was the point of failure. Like what are the odds? There are so many cables around it, including other similar audio cables and just the one cable was the issue.

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, Eric++ said:

I just found it odd that the cable was the point of failure. Like what are the odds? There are so many cables around it, including other similar audio cables and just the one cable was the issue.

It usually is just one cable, with a very specific impedance and length and the circuitry inside the device too.