Bose Companion Speakers Power Supply Noise

Moose

After reading different opinions for speakers on the forum I purchased Bose Companion 2 Series III speakers. They do sound good, but I get awful noise off of the power supply. The spike in the picture shows how bad it is. You can see a darker band where I turned the speakers off for a moment.

 Anybody else experience this?

73 Chris AK4SK

 

WX7Y

If these speakers are like mine then they are 12Volt, just junk the speaker power supply and connect to your station Power supply.
73's
WX7Y

W7NGA

Moose Chris, there have been several threads regarding this issue. I think the speakers sound very good but like you, I have experienced the spurious signals and determined that they were from the processing in the speaker and not emanating from the power supply. For this reason, I will be looking for something different as the errant signals inevitably (they walk) land right where I need to be listening. Too bad really, because the speakers sound excellent.

W7NGA  dan
Seaside, Oregon

Moose

Thanks. I noticed that the signal walks around, I see it on different frequencies simultaneously also.

Tim says that FlexRadio uses Bose Companion II speakers at hamfests. I wonder if that version doesn't have the same issue?

73 Chris AK4SK

K2CB Eric Dobrowansky

Run them off the same supply as the Flex radio. No more issues .

W7NGA

Just for the record, I disconnected the walwart power supply and used a separate research-grade power supply to power the speakers. The spurious signals remained, indicating that the signals were coming from the processing in the speaker unit. Of course, others may have a different experience. The signals are unacceptable and that is why I cannot recommend the speakers as I once did. They are being relegated to use on another computer and I will search for an alternative noise-free solution.

Moose

Yeah your comment is what worries me. I'll try to find a connector that will work with them and then run them off my shack 12v supply first.

73 Chris AK4SK

Bob G W1GLV

I had a pair of those speakers. Admittedly they sound great but are noisy. I went to Bluetooth which cured my problems.

Kevin

I'm using the Mackie CR4 (Pair) Creative Reference Multimedia Monitor. They sound wonderful both on the Flex 6500 and playing a wide variety of music. I've not noticed any noise issues so far (since June 2016). They are the first things I eliminate when a new noise pops up.

I'll run any tests someone can come up with to try and "certify" these for use with Flex but my experience says they should not contribute to noise.

By the way, I know a lot of people on this list use the Bose Companion speakers. Maybe they are using a different model? My point is, I haven't seen any other complaints about these speakers from the community. In fact, I've seen nothing but strong recommendations.

Tim - W4TME

Moose - we use the Companion II Series II, not the Series III.

Moose

Thanks Tim. I wondered if what you were using was different. I'm surprised there is that much of a difference.

73 Chris AK4SK

Tim - W4TME

We have had several reports of the series IIIs having digital noise not power supply noise as was previously indicated by Dan, W7NGA.  I have a pair of the Series IIs and they are very quiet.

Simon Lewis

ditto - Series 2's here no noise

Rob Fissel

I have the II's and this is what I did. I can't say I had any wall wart issues that I noticed, but anything that's 12v in the shack has been connected to the big RigRunner attached to the PS. 

Moose

I'm going to send mine back and get something different. I sent Bose an email to let them know about the RFI issue.

Thanks and 73,
Chris AK4SK

K5CG

I too purchased the Companion 2 Series III (two sets) and found them to be noisy, and it isn't just the wall wart. With two sets of the them I found RFI was coming from the speakers themselves. Swapping wall warts didn't change a thing, even with DC input.

I even created an enclosed metal box with a sniffer coil to measure this RFI (non-scientific method) and I have found two sets of powered speakers that work well.

Creative Inspire T10 - about $50
Logitech Z130 - about $15

The Creative T10s are clearly nicer sounding and they also run on 12V DC so I have those on my local DC supply and they are "the bomb". The Logitech DC input says 10V DC and I didn't try connecting it to my battery supply.

73
Danny