Imagine this: you’ve invited a few friends over on a Friday night to have a few drinks, chat, and listen to music.
You’re excited to show off your new home theatre, but after putting your favorite song on, you notice there’s a continuous, low-pitched buzzing noise.
This annoying scenario can something be caused by your LED lights – but why?
Radios and speakers can sometimes buzz due to LED lights, either because of a ground loop, radio interference, or unshielded wiring. Depending on the specific issue, there are several fixes for eliminating LED light interference.
In this guide, I’ll explain more on:
- The main reasons LED lights interfere with a radio or speaker
- How to determine whether it’s your LED lighting causing the issue
- Ways you can fix interference from LED lights
Why Does My Radio Get Static When I Turn Lights On? 3 Reasons
There are three main reasons why your speaker could be buzzing:
- Ground loop
- Radio frequency interference
- Unshielded wires
Ground Loops
Ground loops occur when you have two or more pieces of equipment plugged into the same AC (alternating current) circuit at different locations. Mainly, all devices in the circuit are connected via a common ground, creating a loop.
Since they’re connected, electric current can flow from one device’s ground to the second, and then back to the first. During this process, the dirty electricity produces an audible hum.
Ground loops commonly occur in areas where there are lots of high powered appliances, such as kitchens or band practice rooms. They’re also the most common cause of interference.
Radio Interference
The second cause of buzzing speakers is radio frequency interference. This occurs when a nearby appliance emits some sort of radio frequency.
Problems occur because this radio frequency is strong enough to penetrate the shielding on your speaker’s cables. In turn, the cables convert the frequency to a sound, which the speaker plays back.
If left unresolved, the radio frequency can degrade your WiFi speed and cause radio or TV interference.
Poorly Shielded Cable
Poorly shielded wires are susceptible to magnetic fields that run along parallel wires. These fields are common in US homes due to the reliance on AC (alternating current) power.
The name derives from the fact that the current reverses direction multiple times per second.
For the most part, this is unproblematic. However, every time that the current changes direction, it creates a magnetic field.
If your speaker wires are parallel or adjacent to other wires, they will pick up on this magnetic field and convert it to sound.
Ultimately, if poor shielding is the problem, the hum you’re hearing is the sound of electricity running through the wires.
How To Determine If LED Lights Interfere With Radio?
The easiest way to determine whether your LED lights are causing radio interference with your speakers or radio is to unplug them and see if the buzzing stops. If it does, then you can determine whether the fault lies with:
- LED lights themselves
- Wiring
- Power supply for your LED lights
LED lamps do generate radio waves, but LED lights operate on a higher frequency than our radios or our WiFi routers tend to operate on, which is why they don’t usually cause buzzing. But it is possible.
The easiest way to potentially fix the problem is to just replace the LED light with another, but use the same power supply. If the buzzing stops, then great; you know the radio interference came from the LED light bulbs.
If the buzzing continues, test whether swapping the power supply stops the problem.
Cheap power supplies on LED strips are a common source of friction. This is because they’re bad at filtering away 50/60Hz signals, which leads to buzzing.
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If swapping the power supply doesn’t stop the buzzing then you know it’s not radio interference, and it’s one of the wiring issues. There are a few different fixes for those.
How To Fix Radio Interference From LED Lights?
If you know that the buzzing interference for your radio isn’t caused by radio signals from the LED bulb or power supply, and you know it’s a wiring issue, here are the steps you can take:
- Try moving either the radio/speakers or LED lights onto a different plug socket, on a different circuit loop in your home.
- If that’s not possible, try moving them onto the same double outlet. Either of these steps will prevent the ground loop caused by your LED lamps.
- With a ground loop ruled out, it’s likely electromagnetic interference. Buy a cable suppressor for the wiring to see if that stops it.
- If that doesn’t work, buy a hum eliminator for your LED lamp.
Changing the outlet will break any ground loop and is the easiest solution. It depends on your home’s wiring, but moving either the lights or the radio, even a couple of feet, can fix the issue.
If it doesn’t, try a cable suppressor strip. For audio wires, you’ll probably need the 3mm size.
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Otherwise, you’ll want to try a hum eliminator. These are specifically designed to break the ground loop between offending pieces of equipment, preventing buzzing. They’ve become somewhat of a lifesaver product within the music industry.
The downside of this approach, nonetheless, is that hum eliminators are a slightly more expensive solution.
- Removes unwanted voltage and current in the ground line to eliminate ground-loop hum
- Gives you a solid, safe ground, unlike devices that remove the ground altogether
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Final Words
So there you have it. Who’d have thought that LEDs and speakers would have such a volatile relationship?
Buzzing noises may be driving you crazy, but it might just be that you need to move your LED lighting systems to a different plug socket, or buy new high quality LED lights that don’t work in the same frequency range as your AM radio, leaving your favorite radio stations working normally.
Sometimes it’s not just your radio or speakers – many LED lights interfere with garage doors and some other electronic devices, because of their wireless signal.
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