sound engineer

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

I've been struggling for months to connect my computer to my receiver via audio cable without picking up an intermittent AM station or three. Different cables (laboriously routed) and various arrangements of ferrite cores have not addressed the problem. I need a local sound engineer to do a house call. How could I locate such a person, and not for an exorbitant amount of money?

Comments

[tober.livejournal.com]

Well... the best approach would be to use a receiver with balanced (sometimes this is referred to as "600 ohm" or "professional" and typically uses either XLR connectors or 1/4" tip/ring/sleeve plugs) audio inputs and/or outputs (as relevant) and a computer sound card with balanced audio outputs and/or inputs (as relevant - you didn't state whether audio is going from receiver to computer or computer to receiver) and connect the two together using a shielded twisted pair, shield connected to ground at one end of the cable and floating at the other end. If the receiver and/or computer do not have balanced inputs and/or outputs (usually this is the case except with professional or occasionally "pro-sumer" equipment) then the best thing to do is use the same sort of aforementioned shielded twisted pair cable, shield grounded at one end, with a balun at each end of the cable connecting to the unbalanced inputs/outputs on the computer/receiver... though, particularly in that case, I wouldn't guarantee it will solve your problem, though it probably will.

An example possibly suitable balun (you would need 2 for mono and 4 for stereo) would be this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Audio2000s-Acc3100-Impedance-Matching-Transformer/dp/B00D9AI708/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455635177&sr=8-1&keywords=audio+matching+transformer+xlr+1%2F4%22

(not an endorsement of a particular product, they are available from various manufacturers with various connectors on the balanced and unbalanced sides, but that sort of thing anyhow...)

[smammy]

OP said: “I need a local sound engineer to do a house call. How could I locate such a person, and not for an exorbitant amount of money?”

[twilighttremolo.livejournal.com]

*searches for the "like" button* *remembers there isn't one here*

[gingicat]

I can think of a couple of possible people whom you probably know - ok to forward?

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

Sure! But fine if I don't know them too.

[veek.livejournal.com]

chillguru knows someone who does this professionally, who did some wiring in our house. If the above doesn't work, let me know and I'll connect you.

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

Haven't yet received any pointers to people, so yes, please, connect me & them.

[veek.livejournal.com]

Have closed the communication loop with C.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

I know it's not exactly what you asked for, but having gotten fed up with an incessant hum and occasional AM interference on my own setup, I took the route of getting a good quality USB audio interface, and the shortest audio cable I could buy (which was where the hum was getting picked up), with a long USB cable to feed it.

I think with the 20 foot usb cable, 6 inch audio cable and this item: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0023BYDHK, it came in at about $45, which is cheaper than an hiring someone. It was plug and play, and it works great.

Just another approach to the problem, if you're interested in taking one more shot at this :-)

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Back in the day I had a problem with a modem that would pick up a local radio station. It turns out that the phone cord picked up the RF and fed it to the modem. The modem rectified the RF, generating audio which interfered with the modem function. The solution was to buy an RF filter module that connected to the phone line.

You might have a similar problem, and I was wondering if there is a product that filters out RF.