Help with Buzzing Beolab 6000

Hello all

Got some weird problem here.

So in my old house my lab 6000’s were on wall brackets

Took them down and moved to the new house

Installed them in the new house.

Used for a week on V1 as the eclipse was not moved straight away.

So connected lab5’s with original cables (to short for new house)

Connected lab 6000’s using original cables.

All ok at this point.

Ordered some new RJ45 to PL cables and all run into nice trunking.

Sat down put TV on and lab 6000’s has a low buzzing noise on the left speaker.

This is also heard but lower on the right one which is daisy chained and also has the PL from the eclipse.

So after being very stressed, un plugging, trying the speakers connected to essence MK and the V1 again it still buzzes annoyingly.

Got annoyed pulled all cables out and started again and still buzzing.

So speakers connected to different devices and they still buzz.

Bear with me

Got annoyed and thought as I kept hurting my hand I will take the speaker off the wall bracket and test again upstairs. Stopped buzzing.

Plugged in fully wired new cable to rogue lab 6000 and daisy chained with older PL cable to left one no buzzing

Places speaker on wall bracket, no buzzing, Great and I am happy.

Today screwed in the speakers to the wall bracket is was sat on and buzzing starts again.

Decided to unscrew but leave the speaker on the wall bracket.

Took out right screw and still buzz

The second I started taking the left screw out there is a bit of static sound / crackling, the second the screw came out it stopped buzzing.

So lovely brofams what is going on?

I could put it back on its floor stand and put the screw in and see what happens.

Speaker seems to buzz when the screw goes in but not when it’s touching the wall bracket which is aluminium.

Could I have gone through a cable in the wall? There are no sockets near this part of the house at all.

Frustrated and loosing the plot but happy that I have worked out what the cause is still no idea what is causing it.

Any thoughts ?

Sounds like a grounding issue to me honestly, does is buzz extra when going volume up and down?

Hi Mikey

Nope buzzing stays at the same level.

Weird how it buzzes only when the left screw is in it.

My initial worries is that A) there might be a cable behind the wall bracket and connecting the speaker with a screw to the bracket causes it which seems unlikely as it would happen when the speaker touches the bracket as aluminium is conductive.

Other though might be the PL connector is damaged but only after screw is in putting pressure on a connection.

Hello all

So I took the lab 6000 off the wall and all is well, then few weeks go past and now one of the lab5’s has a slight crackle when turned on.

Looks like this house perhaps has a bad / less than clean earth, I have changed three sockets and still not fixed.

This house doesn’t have an earth provided by the electric company it has an earth rod outside in the ground.

After research and talking to some electrical installers it might be that the earth is dirty or not great and noise from boiler, fridge or washing machine etc is leaking into the neutral.

As Bang and Olufsen only uses two pins of the socket its prob picking up on the noise on neutral, i know the moment had a grounding cable to dump electric hum on the earth connection, maybe i need one of these for the TV.

Does anyone know if you can get a grounding cable for the earth for the eclipse or a speaker to dump this noise?

Cheers

Sean

hello there

So the situation has generally changed and is driving me nuts

this week I disconnected the PL cables to the rear high and surround speakers.

My beolab 5 is hissing and I can hear a crackle from the right one only.

Left it a few days.

I plugged back in the 4x rear speakers and the left surround started buzzing again randomly, not all the time but at random times, I unplugged the fridge, boiler and still it happens.

Mikipidia:

Sounds like a grounding issue to me honestly, does is buzz extra when going volume up and down?

I noticed when the rear surround lab 6000 is buzzing and I use the volume it does make a weird noise like louder buzzing, can describe it as a dirty version of when you turn the M5 up using the disk it ticks with each volume stage, muting stops the buzzing and it goes away.

I then unplugged the lab5 front right and no more buzzing from that (obviously) while the lab 5 is unplugged the rear surround still has its buzzing randomness.

I spoke to Steve who said I can send back my cables to have them tested which is great just in case one is damaged maybe by me during the install.

So frustrating! I have a new TV, New House, new cables and I am at a loss what is going on.

I tested all sockets and they are at 231V, no open ground etc, all test OK.

Checked the house earth all OK

I think I will unplug the PL cable between the two lab 6000s and test with my multimeter this weekend making sure all pins have a circuit and also If all pins do not leak to other pins if that makes sense to ensure there is no open circuit on that PL cable.

Loosing the plot :)

Steve is great!

Maybe a silly question, but how dry is it inside and how shaggy is the carpet?

It’s odd that the sound can move around like that, so that makes me think of dry static. I had it here recently when where i was close enough to a speaker to arc it and it turned off

The sound you describe sounds exactly like a grounding issue in the pl cable. You’ve double checked everything is fully seated too?

Hello there

its dry inside and the carpet is pretty thick.

I need to check all of the PL cables, I was thinking of buying an ethernet cable tester and connect the PL cables to it using the RJ45 to PL adapters to check those that have a PL end.

I will check every cable one by one as something is grounding.

Its driving me nuts :)

I think I have fully wired for the lab 5's

Fully wired to to the first lab 6000 and 4000

the daisy chains I think one has a triangle on it and one of the daisy ones does not but that should not matter.

Time to get the old cable tester out and check all 8 pins are correct and the shield is working too.

Mikipidia:

Steve is great!

 

 

Maybe a silly question, but how dry is it inside and how shaggy is the carpet?

 

It’s odd that the sound can move around like that, so that makes me think of dry static. I had it here recently when where i was close enough to a speaker to arc it and it turned off

 

 

The sound you describe sounds exactly like a grounding issue in the pl cable. You’ve double checked everything is fully seated too?

Just ordered a cable tester for ethernet cables.

I will test all of the cables one by one to check they are not short, broken etc as my first check.

fingers crossed its as simple as one is damaged and causing a problem.

 

I have had the same issue with BL4000 and got it solved.

Surround left had a little humming. Surround right was connected via the left speaker and had a bit more humming. 

I changed cables and concluded humming was gone in both speakers.... Until I put the surround right speaker in the wall bracket. Weird.

I put electrical tape on the back of the wall bracket and on the front around the holes for the screws. I also put electrical tape around the top 1 cm of the screws before mounting the wall bracket to the wall. Now there were no electrical connection between wall and speaker/bracket.

Problem solved.

Inside my walls there are paper covered with aluminium. This was used in the 70s as vapor barrier. That caused the grounding issue.

Regards 

Ravsted

Hello there

Thanks for the reply and your situation sounds massively similar.

This house was built in the 70’s also, little cottage type.

One thing I remember was when I planned to put the wall brackets up I used a stud and cable tester for the walls to make sure I was not going to hit a cable.

Interestingly I returned the tester as it literally made a sound everywhere on the wall and I remember joking saying this wall is made of metal apparently..

I wonder if this house has the same issue.

When I took one lab 6000 off the wall the buzzing stopped but then it came back intermittently.

I think I will try your solution and put insulation tape around the bracket, maybe I can also buy some plastic screws, then the 6000’s and 4000’s will not be in contact with the wall at all.

Massive trial and error to get this right.

Real interesting reply thank you

Sean

Hello hello

Some changes today

The Ethernet tester didn’t turn up yet

I separated the mains cable from the speaker cable on the Lab5 front and no more buzzing.

Still some low volume buz at the rear and sometimes the volume clicking is back but separated the speaker cables from the mains cables.

So far so good.

Ordered some plastic plates to go between the wall mounted speakers and the wall and some plastic screws/

So far so good

Hay all

I only found it after weeks of playing.

Firstly i have bought some dirty electricity filters after buying a microsurge monitor but this might be a red herring.

Turns out the cable that i connect my front Lab5 to the TV if moved stops it making cracking sounds.

I swapped the speakers around which lead to the new speaker on the same cable making a noise.

So a wiggle of the cable stops it until the TV moves.

So its either the RJ45 plug or the RJ45 connector its going into.

Tomorrow I will change the port its plugged into, these cable as such good quality and thick then don’t bend well I suppose its putting pressure on the connection.

I think I have found it.

In the same time I sent one lab6000 bass cone off for reforming as its not great.

Labour of love this is :)

Below you see what I did step by step.

Wall and screws are now 100% isolated from the speaker and brackets.

 

Original:

 

Drilled bigger holes:

 

Made a 3D printed bushing

 

Fits in the bigger hole in the bracket:

 

Non-conductive tape. Two layers.

 

 

Mounted on wall:

 

Isolating the screws as well: