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Pop through speakers when furnace starts/shuts down

Y

yellowwagon

New Member
Hi all, I’m having an issue with my current audio setup in my living room. I have a Marantz 2270 with JBL 4312 speakers. The furnace is in the basement on its own breaker. The living room is on a breaker with all outlets joined. House was built on 2011. Had an older Onkyo receiver with Polk Audio speakers in this spot prior to the Marantz and no pop.

When playing music through the Marantz and the furnace starts or shuts down, I’m getting a horrible crack/pop through the speakers.

I refuse to accept this as OK and am scared this is going to do serious damage to my mint 4312s.

What can be done to correct this? Isolation Transformer? If so, which one are you guys using? I bought a Furman power conditioner that I was hopeful would solve this but no dice...still pops.

I’ve read a ton of posts etc online but no real solutions are posted in most threads. Hoping someone with a similar issue can share what they did to resolve this.

thanks!
 
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The pop is from a turn on spike in the line voltage. Your whole house wiring will carry it to all of your appliances and your stereo system. I suggest a power conditioner as one fix, but perhaps your HVAC guy can put a capacitor on the furnace ignition system to take the noise out at the source.

A friend of mine lost the tweeters to his very nice EPI towers during a party when the furnace kicked in.
 
Yeah I would say fixing the furnace makes more sense and would protect everything else in the house. It's probably just the motor and those are easy enough to replace.
 
The pop could be due to a spike in the mains voltage or it could be due to a burst of RFI caused by the furnace switch arcing. If it is RFI you could could try suppressing the noise at source (a snubber on the switch) or try an RF filter on the amp's input.
 
Use an extension cord from your neighbors (ask, and not permanently)

if it still happens it’s RFI, and a snubber on the furnace will fix it.
 
I have an HVAC guy coming out to look at the furnace and check voltages, the capacitor, blower motor etc. We are going to see if we can get it to replicate the issue while he is here.
 
Possibly a .01mfd. 1 Kv. ceramic disc capacitor/s snubber connected across the furnace`s "power contactor"(relay) would be an effective and easy fix.
Something to consider.
Might also take the receiver into another room & plug in head phones to see if furnace switching noise is still present when the receiver is plugged into another power circuit ?
 
Bill Ferris said:
Possibly a .01mfd. 1 Kv. ceramic disc capacitor/s snubber connected across the furnace`s "power contactor"(relay) would be an effective and easy fix.
Something to consider.
Might also take the receiver into another room & plug in head phones to see if furnace switching noise is still present when the receiver is plugged into another power circuit ?
Click to expand...


I'm going to leave everything set up as is to see if we can replicate the issue first but then I will for sure try moving the receiver into other rooms to test with headphones. My HVAC guy is aware of the issue and plans to check everything out. He hasn't had to install any snubbers in past installs/service but in talking with him, he did say its a possibility the blower motor when it clicks on/off could be sending a spike out. We'll see.
 
I ordered a Tripp Lite Isobar Ultra 4...talked to them yesterday and their techs claim it has very good EMI/RFI filtering in it. My plan is to plug in the Marantz to this, furnace off and play it and see what happens. If no pops, then I will power the furnace on and see what happens. Either way, having my panel and the furnace inspected later this week by a tech. I still suspect there is a capacitor issue or arcing happening at the furnace like some have mentioned here. I'll report back. Just want to be able to enjoy my audio gear without worry!
 
yellowwagon said:
I ordered a Tripp Lite Isobar Ultra 4...talked to them yesterday and their techs claim it has very good EMI/RFI filtering in it. My plan is to plug in the Marantz to this, furnace off and play it and see what happens. If no pops, then I will power the furnace on and see what happens. Either way, having my panel and the furnace inspected later this week by a tech. I still suspect there is a capacitor issue or arcing happening at the furnace like some have mentioned here. I'll report back. Just want to be able to enjoy my audio gear without worry!
Click to expand...

Very good, yellowwagon, Sir.
I`m a big fan of Tripp Lite power products, especially their metal box Isobar, & 120v voltage regulators, and have been purchasing and using them since 1992, with no failures.
And they all do the job that they were designed to do, and do it very well IMHO/E

Hope you have success .
 
grillebilly said:
Ditto on my end.
Click to expand...

While you`re at in the panel(load center) check the neutral buss bar screws tightness too.

And if you have the guts check all the circuit breaker ones as well, keeping your other hand in your pocket.
You might be surprised how many become slightly untightened over time from the copper/aluminum wire mildly expanding and contracting from the current passing through them.
 
The tech is going to check everything over in the panel. Could very well be several issues going on here. Hope it gets resolved. This has been an on-going battle for a few months now
 
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