Ghost in my speakers

Well, not really, but it is a little spooky. When I moved out into the country, my speakers(Logitech X-530) started picking up foreign radio channels. I've been listening to italian music and a person with a deep english accent that did a news report, aswell as some polish channel or something, and many more, for the last week. Unfortunately, there is no way to change the volume on the radio, just the computer, though if I turn the speakers off, the radio is silenced, of course. I regard myself as fairly knowledgeable about computers, but I've never heard of anything like this.

Wait, so the speakers themselves pick up and play the foreign signals?
Because the phrase "if I turn the speakers off, the radio is silenced" is tough to interpret correctly since it seems like you might be talking of a separate radio apparatus.

But I have no idea how speakers could pick up radio signals.
They don't have a built-in radio receiver like some headset earphones sometimes do, do they? :eh:

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Originally Posted by Merlock

Wait, so the speakers themselves pick up and play the foreign signals?
Because the phrase "if I turn the speakers off, the radio is silenced" is tough to interpret correctly since it seems like you might be talking of a separate radio apparatus.

But I have no idea how speakers could pick up radio signals.
They don't have a built-in radio receiver like some headset earphones sometimes do, do they? :eh:

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Yeah, the speakers pick up the radio signals themselves. I have no idea how they do it. I asked my brother, who is a little bit more technical, and he was amused to say the least, though he had heard of radiosignals being picked up by old wood stoves with quartz. Another person said that it might be my sound card that is causing it. I am just happy that I'm not going crazy. Though I have no idea how to fix it.

Well, first I would suggest to narrow it down like with any other PC problem.

Replace the speakers with a different set and then see if it continues. If it does, then replace the soundcard with a different one.

A different set of speakers shouldn't be tough to get. Ask a friend to bring theirs over or some such. As for the sound card, well, they aren't that expensive or if you have good friends that can come over then they aren't likely to mind pulling out their sound card for a bit.

Oh, but is your sound card built-in or a separate card?

It is a seperate card. I'll see if I can get my hands on some other speakers.

This used to happen on my guitar amp when I lived in Berlin; it would pick up turkish new channels and stuff. I'm almost certain it's the speakers, not your computer. I'm not sure what you can do about it though.
It also happened on the headphones on my keyboard, come to think of it, just not so much.

Sorry not to have a solution :?
Google it ;)

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Originally Posted by Lord Toaster

This used to happen on my guitar amp when I lived in Berlin; it would pick up turkish new channels and stuff. I'm almost certain it's the speakers, not your computer. I'm not sure what you can do about it though.
It also happened on the headphones on my keyboard, come to think of it, just not so much.

Sorry not to have a solution :?
Google it ;)

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Its quite funny though. It doesn't really bother me that much, though the chatter does get a little loud sometimes. I didn't find much through Google. Gonna plug them into another computer later, to see if the problem persists. If that certain computer is ever available. :roll:

It sounds like your wires arn't insulated enough. Thats bad factory work or not putting enough material on the product to save on money. Ohwell, any wire will pick up any signals, but thats why they make them insulated from outside signal frrequencies, so it won't disturb the purpose of the product. Just get better speakers. I hate it when my speakers would start making funny noises just because I would get my cellphone close to it. But getting better wiring solved the problem.

My old cheap guitar amp used to pick up a local AM station. Probably the cheap cable I was using. I have also picked up airplane transmissions from the local airport from my computer speakers when I was using headphones once.

Hi there.. i live in Manchester, UK and today i bought some Logitech X-530 and for last 3 hours ive enjoyed listening to Dutch and Taiwanese radio :D

my old 5.1 speakers were years old and and virtually no insulation on the wires and they were fine.. thanks logitech for adding LW/AM/FM to my speakers... always an added bonus

using google it seems others with the same speakers have the same issues

I heard somewhere that people w/ metal plates in their heads could pick up signals, but that could be complete crap.

I had a microphone once that would pick up perfect quality radio signals if I put my thumb over a little piece of it... Then we threw it out because it was a piece of garbage. The mic picked up radio signals better then it did voices.

Weird, I'm glad I read this. A long time ago (like 25 years, before cell phones), I had a phone that started picking up a radio station. At first it was quiet enough that you could still use the phone, but it got louder and louder til eventually it was unusable. I even moved once with the phone and it still kept happening. At first it was a country music station, then I think it switched to something else. It was funny but annoying, nobody believe that my phone turned into a radio.

I never heard of something like that happening to anyone else.