Is the persistent buzz sound in your car speakers annoying and distracting you? Every time you plan a movie night with your family or friends, does the humming sound in your home theater speakers frustrate you?
Well, buzzing in speakers is a common issue; however, it can greatly diminish your audio experience, making it impossible to enjoy your favorite movies, music, podcasts, and so on. Nevertheless, the good news is that you can easily identify why your speakers are producing the buzz sound and fix the issue real quick using this quick guide.
Read further to identify issues causing buzzing in speakers and how to fix them in some simple steps.
Why Are My Speakers Producing a Buzzing Sound?
Here are six potential issues that can produce a constant buzzing sound in your home audio, karaoke, car or party speakers and recommendations to fix them!
1. There Is Electrical Interference From Nearby Devices
Electrical interference can lead to buzzing in speakers when radio frequency (RF) signals or electromagnetic fields from nearby cables, nearby devices and power sources interfere with the audio signals your speaker is transmitting. This interference can distort the original audio signals, triggering a noise that may manifest as a static sound, buzz or hum.
Here’s a quick list of electrical interference sources that can produce buzzing in speakers:
- Nearby electronic devices: Electromagnetic radiation emitted by nearby devices such as televisions, PCs, laptops, cellphones, and Wi-Fi routers can interfere with your speaker’s audio signals causing a buzzing or humming sound.
- Power cables/cords: If power cables or cords run parallel to your speaker’s audio cables or cords, the electromagnetic field created by the power cables or cords can induce signal disturbances in the audio cables or cords, resulting in a buzzing noise from your wired speaker.
- Dimmer switches or fluorescent lights: These devices can produce electrical noise that may interfere with your speaker’s audio signal, producing a buzzing or hissing sound.
- Damaged or poorly shielded cables: Damaged, poorly shielded or low-quality cables can pick up interferences from external sources and produce buzzing noise in a wired speaker.
How to Fix
- Maintain a reasonable distance between your speakers and other electronic devices.
- Separate power cables/cords from your speakers’ audio cables/cords.
- Replace damaged or poorly shielded cables with new ones.
- Avoid using dimmer or fluorescent lights in the same room as your audio system.
2. There Is a Formation of Ground Loops
If you connect different devices in an audio system to different ground points, ground loops are formed. These loops can lead to buzzing in speakers by building an unintended route for electrical current to flow between different devices in your audio system.
The electrical current flowing through the ground loop can produce low-frequency buzzing or humming, which is then amplified and played by your speakers.
Differences in ground potential at different points within a building or system result in the formation of ground loops.
How to Fix
- Ensure different devices within your audio system are properly grounded to a common ground point to eliminate ground loop issues.
- Install ground loop isolators to break the ground loop.
- Use balanced audio cables to minimize the impact of ground loops.
- Use the best home theater power manager or power conditioner for uninterrupted power supply.
3. There Is a Connectivity Issue Between Your Audio Source and Speaker
This is applicable to both wired and wireless speakers. Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity issues between an audio source and wireless speaker can lead to a buzzing sound in the speaker. Similarly, a loose connection between your audio source and speaker (or audio source, amplifier and speaker) can result in a hissing or buzzing sound in your speaker.
How to Fix
- Ensure the connection between your wired speaker and audio source is properly secured.
- Re-establish the Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection between your audio source and wireless speaker. Ensure you are within the Bluetooth distance. Also, remove any obstacles or objects between your audio source device and wireless speaker to avoid any signal interference.
4. Your Audio Equipment Is Overdriving the Audio Signal
An overdriven audio signal can produce a buzzing sound in your speaker. In fact, the buzz sound you hear is nothing but a distorted audio signal.
In simpler words, when an audio signal is overdriven, it is too strong for an amplifier to tackle, causing the amplifier to clip or distort it. When the amplifier sends this distorted signal to the speaker’s driver, the distortion in the audio signal moves the speaker driver in a non-linear way, resulting in a buzzing sound.
How to Fix
- Adjust the gain setting on your amplifier to avoid overdriving the audio signal.
5. Your Speaker’s Cone Is Damaged
The speaker cone is a thin and lightweight material (typically plastic, paper or metal) which responds to the audio signal by vibrating to generate sound waves.
When the speaker cone is damaged, it moves unevenly, leading to audio signal distortion which can be heard as a buzzing or rattling sound through the speaker.
The most common cause of speaker cone damage is physical damage from falls, punctures, tears, and impacts.
How to Fix
- Repair or replace a damaged speaker cone to prevent further damage to your speaker and stop the buzzing sound.
6. You Have Not Placed Your Speakers Correctly
When you place a speaker too close to the corner, walls, or other objects (such as furniture), sound waves can reflect off the corner, wall or object can interact with other sound waves in the room. This interaction can increase the speaker’s volume and lead to audio signal distortion, which can be heard as buzzing, humming or ringing.
How to Fix
- Position your speaker away from corners, walls and objects.
- Ensure it points directly to the listener’s ears.
- Place the speaker on a smooth, stable and vibration-free surface.
- Consider adding acoustic diffusers to the room to minimize unwanted sound wave reflections.
Final Words
Now that you have identified different reasons why you are hearing the buzz sound in your speakers, leverage the quick solutions mentioned above to fix the issue.
If you have any questions or want to share more ideas with your fellow readers, feel free to use the comment section below.
