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Jeff Romard

Jeff Romard

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Sep 4, 2006
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Getting crackling through your speakers caused by a chocolate fountian?

I was running a friends system tonight and in early checks everything was fine. I came in before the event and turned on and I had a crackling/buzzing through one channel. I swapped out everything associated with that channel and it was still there. I didn't have a voltage meter but being in that room many times I have never had trouble with power before. The Videographer who is a friend of mine told me the same thing happened a couple of times to different people he has worked with and suggested it was the chocolate fountian.

I thought he was crazy due to the fact it was in the lobby and on a different circut but after talking to catering and asking them to unplug it for a minute the noise went away. They even let me check the panel to make sure we were on different circuts and we were. Once plugged back in the problem came back

I was running 4 Bose 802s, A Carver PM2 Amp, Furman PC, and Numark dual deck CD/Mixer unit
 
Was the Chocolate fountain using a grounded power cord? Sounds like a motor going bad to me, and if it was grounded, the outlet or power was probably bad. I played a venue once where every time the A/C turned on I got a noise like this, nothing I tried would stop it. Different outlets
HUM-x
ground lifts.
XLR ground lifts

I even unplugged the entire system, and brought in a boombox, started it and the same noise was coming out of it, but not as bad.

Just had to live with it, I mentioned to the venue owner he might want to get his A/C unit's blower motor checked, he just shrugged and walked away.
 
Even floresent lighting can cause noise in a system... it's usually worse when a balast is going bad or when the wireing is less than optimal.... I see it in the hotel I work at all the time... those balasts get sooooo hot they actually can dry out the insulation around the wires causeing possible shorts and other fun stuff along with loud huming that can interfear with sound equipment.
 
Indeed, the likely culprit is the drive motor in the fountain.

I've never taken a chocolate fountain apart to see what's inside one but I'd be willing to wager that the motor is generating crap (noise) in the AC line or acting like a spark gap and transmitting the noise to your preamplification stages... much the way your father's electric razor would foul up the TV signal.

To fix the problem you'll have to get rid of the source. Unfortunately, there's not a lot to be done for it except to disconnect the offending appliance or run it through a snubber.
 
I had something similar happen, but this was with the fan motor of an inflatable used at my nephews Halloween party. We switched my power distro to the second service line to the house and it solved the problem.
 
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