Tick, tick, tick.....Tick, tick, tick

[Jerome W]

Excellent one Serge !
Thanks for sharing this experience Dan. Often hifi troubles can turn into a nightmare, looking into a component while something else completely different is to blame.
Your story reminds us how sensitive our gear can be to RF or other electromagnetic perturbations.
I wonder now if you could hear a sound quality difference in your system by completely getting your Sonos out of the room ? It may be a very thin difference ( or no difference at all ) but your very good ears could possibly hear it.

[Blatrie]

Thanks for sharing this strange experience and maybe saving us time...

[W9TR]

Thanks for posting Dan - a cautionary tale for all of us.

Wifi is packet based which probably accounts for the ticks. It is also power agile, meaning that transmit power is adjusted to minimize transmission errors. So you can place a wifi component in a system and not have any interference, but then experience interference later as something else in the house changes in such a way that the transmit power of the wifi component increases.

Tom

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by Jerome W

Excellent one Serge !
Thanks for sharing this experience Dan. Often hifi troubles can turn into a nightmare, looking into a component while something else completely different is to blame.
Your story reminds us how sensitive our gear can be to RF or other electromagnetic perturbations.
I wonder now if you could hear a sound quality difference in your system by completely getting your Sonos out of the room? It may be a very thin difference ( or no difference at all ) but your very good ears could possibly hear it.

Jerome.......I rarely use the Sonos system to stream any kind of music or radio from the Internet, especially since I now have two Aurender music servers that stream from the Internet, including Tidal and radio. The Sonos Zone Player in the living room system is the main hub for two other zones and is Ethernet wired to the router in the office. It is then WiFi connected to a second Zone Player in the studio system and to a Sonos Connect amplifier that drives a pair of outdoor speakers. I occasionally play the outdoor speakers powered by the Sonos Connect, and that is why I keep the Sonos Zone Player in the living room system.

You may be correct about possible RF interference leaking into the sound system but I have been unaware of any audible interference until the incident with the tick, tick, tick noise when the Zone player was located directly above the C2300. One of these days when I am in the mood to tinker I may try removing the Sonos Zone Player to see if I can hear a difference. Right now I am satisfied that I was able to identify the source of the ticking noise in the C2300 and eliminate it.

[AudioGremlin]

Try a portable AM radio receiver near to your digital devices, its a an audio indication of leakage from your equipment. The noise picked up is quite impressive.

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by AudioGremlin

Try a portable AM radio receiver near to your digital devices, its a an audio indication of leakage from your equipment. The noise picked up is quite impressive.

Interesting !

[audioguy3107]

Originally Posted by W9TR

Thanks for posting Dan - a cautionary tale for all of us.

Wifi is packet based which probably accounts for the ticks. It is also power agile, meaning that transmit power is adjusted to minimize transmission errors. So you can place a wifi component in a system and not have any interference, but then experience interference later as something else in the house changes in such a way that the transmit power of the wifi component increases.

Tom

Hi Tom, that’s interesting info.....have you or anyone else on here ever done comparisons in sound quality with WiFi devices turned on and then off? I’ve read that WiFi signals can have an effect even if they’re in other rooms but never done any comparisons.

- Buck

[BlueSky]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Tick, tick, tick.
Silence is golden, and thankfully all is silent again with the C2300, and no more tick, tick, tick noise from my left channel speaker. Sure wish I had thought about moving the Sonos before I disconnected everything, pulled the C2300 from the rack, and replaced the line stage 12AX7 tubes. At least I had the opportunity to give the C2300 a good cleaning while it was out of the rack. So there it is. Just thought someone else might benefit from this experience.

Dan, I am glad you were able to work it out. Most devices made for delivery in the US have been designed to meet certain FCC specs, class B but I could be wrong, for emitting and accepting certain types of interference.

Do you think the SONOS was emitting too much of whatever type interference it was generating, the Mc being overly sensitive to radiated interference or a synergistic combination that simply "would not be denied"?

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by BlueSky

Dan, I am glad you were able to work it out. Most devices made for delivery in the US have been designed to meet certain FCC specs, class B but I could be wrong, for emitting and accepting certain types of interference.

Do you think the SONOS was emitting too much of whatever type interference it was generating, the Mc being overly sensitive to radiated interference or a synergistic combination that simply "would not be denied"?

Joe.......The Sonos Zone Player has a sticker on the bottom that says it complies with Part 1.5 of the FCC rules for emitting and receiving RF noise. Obviously it does radiate a certain level of RF that impacts the C2300 when in close proximity. In my case with the C2300 preamplifier, the tubes are located directly below a glass window in the case cover. When I placed the Sonos on the shelf directly above that tube window there was approximately 2 inches between the two components, with the line stage tubes directly under the Sonos. The glass window that provides a view of the tubes through the top cover of the C2300 provides no shielding. If the top cover of the C2300 was all metal, I suspect the Sonos may not have interfered with the C2300. As it is, I think the RF energy radiated by the Sonos penetrated both the top wood shelf of my rack and the glass window in the preamp cover allowing this radiated energy to be picked up by the tubes. I doubt the Sonos fails to comply with the FCC rules. I think this issue centered around the close position of the tubes in the C2300 to the bottom of the Sonos zone player on the shelf above it. As soon as the Zone Player was moved away from the top of the preamplifier glass window the noise disappeared.

[PHC1]

Dan, do a search on Amazon for RF and EMI shielding fabric/mats.