Having a weird little problem and the people here are so knowledgeable I was hoping someone might be able to shed some light.
Details: Have a vintage setup in the garage; 4 Cerwin Vega loudspeakers, Technics 55w stereo receiver, Technics EQ deck, all from 70s. Also an 80s CD deck. All works great and has been for months.
Recently added an IMP150 digital media player (DMP) ...plays movies or music off USB stick. Added this so I could listen to FLAC music files over the system.
Needs to be connected to a video source to navigate the software, so put my old LCD desktop monitor out there, and got a composite-to-VGA converter. (The unit only has RCA/composite OUT or HDMI OUT, but I can't use HDMI in the garage as there is no HDTV and I need the RCA audio out for the stereo receiver.)
So everything works great BUT it started making intermittent crackling noises through the speakers, ONLY when using the digital player. Not the CD or radio. (CD works off the same TAPE1 Playback port as the digital player so it's not the receiver.)
Turns out by a lengthy process of elimination that whenever the brick (i.e. power adapter) for the LCD is plugged in and I am also switched to the media player, I get crackle ... if I use the CD deck instead, no crackle. It's like the power adapter for the media player can't handle whatever "noise" the monitor's brick introduces into the circuitry... regardless if the monitor is off/on. Just having it plugged in creates crackle when using the DMP.
So tried plugging the brick into a different junction box, but same problem. Next used a very long heavy duty, grounded ext cord to plug the brick into an outlet in the house that is on a completely different circuit. Same problem! And the second I unplug it, blissful silence.
So my question is.... what can I do to eliminate this? Is there some kind of 'silencer/conditioner' I can put inline with the brick... or ?
I have 2 more of these digital players in the house but both of those are using HDMI OUT as they are connected to HDTVs /entertainment centers. They have no such problem, even when I brought the monitor and brick in and plugged it into the same outlet just to see if it would create noise. It did not.
Also tried swapping the digital media's power adapter in case it was bad, and also tried swapping the media player itself for one in the house, but same result. It just doesn't like playing with the LCD brick when using the RCA outputs. (I also tried swapping the RCA/composite cable that came with the player ... no diff.)
I just ordered an HDMI-to-RCA converter to see if switching to the HDMI output on the digital player will eliminate the problem. Maybe just using the HDMI port and another cable instead of the RCA port/cable will fix this. OTOH maybe you guys know how to silence the brick another way?
Apologies for the length and thanks to anyone who finished.
EDIT DAYS LATER: On the off-chance this is ever relevant to any other reader, I ended up getting an HDMI-to-VGA converter that includes an audio jack. All of $9 on eBay. So I can use the HDMI OUT port on the digital device now, to to straight to VGA. An audio cable with 3.5mm male jack on one end and RCA L/R on the other goes from the converter to the receiver . This completely eliminates the crackling noise from the monitor's brick, which was the result of using the composite/RCA OUT port on the digital device.
Details: Have a vintage setup in the garage; 4 Cerwin Vega loudspeakers, Technics 55w stereo receiver, Technics EQ deck, all from 70s. Also an 80s CD deck. All works great and has been for months.
Recently added an IMP150 digital media player (DMP) ...plays movies or music off USB stick. Added this so I could listen to FLAC music files over the system.
Needs to be connected to a video source to navigate the software, so put my old LCD desktop monitor out there, and got a composite-to-VGA converter. (The unit only has RCA/composite OUT or HDMI OUT, but I can't use HDMI in the garage as there is no HDTV and I need the RCA audio out for the stereo receiver.)
So everything works great BUT it started making intermittent crackling noises through the speakers, ONLY when using the digital player. Not the CD or radio. (CD works off the same TAPE1 Playback port as the digital player so it's not the receiver.)
Turns out by a lengthy process of elimination that whenever the brick (i.e. power adapter) for the LCD is plugged in and I am also switched to the media player, I get crackle ... if I use the CD deck instead, no crackle. It's like the power adapter for the media player can't handle whatever "noise" the monitor's brick introduces into the circuitry... regardless if the monitor is off/on. Just having it plugged in creates crackle when using the DMP.
So tried plugging the brick into a different junction box, but same problem. Next used a very long heavy duty, grounded ext cord to plug the brick into an outlet in the house that is on a completely different circuit. Same problem! And the second I unplug it, blissful silence.
So my question is.... what can I do to eliminate this? Is there some kind of 'silencer/conditioner' I can put inline with the brick... or ?
I have 2 more of these digital players in the house but both of those are using HDMI OUT as they are connected to HDTVs /entertainment centers. They have no such problem, even when I brought the monitor and brick in and plugged it into the same outlet just to see if it would create noise. It did not.
Also tried swapping the digital media's power adapter in case it was bad, and also tried swapping the media player itself for one in the house, but same result. It just doesn't like playing with the LCD brick when using the RCA outputs. (I also tried swapping the RCA/composite cable that came with the player ... no diff.)
I just ordered an HDMI-to-RCA converter to see if switching to the HDMI output on the digital player will eliminate the problem. Maybe just using the HDMI port and another cable instead of the RCA port/cable will fix this. OTOH maybe you guys know how to silence the brick another way?
Apologies for the length and thanks to anyone who finished.
EDIT DAYS LATER: On the off-chance this is ever relevant to any other reader, I ended up getting an HDMI-to-VGA converter that includes an audio jack. All of $9 on eBay. So I can use the HDMI OUT port on the digital device now, to to straight to VGA. An audio cable with 3.5mm male jack on one end and RCA L/R on the other goes from the converter to the receiver . This completely eliminates the crackling noise from the monitor's brick, which was the result of using the composite/RCA OUT port on the digital device.
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