LED Backlight Strips on TV Causing External Speaker Interference

interferenceledspeakerstelevision

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post a question like this, but here we go.

I recently purchased some LED strips for some backlight on my TV. Admittedly, these backlights are of the "cheap Amazon purchase" variety (although not the absolute cheapest out there). The LED lights are powered by USB, which I have plugged in to the back of the television.

I also had some old-ish Klipsch speakers (two satellites and a subwoofer) that I decided to try to hook up to the TV as well. The speakers connect to the TV through an 3.5 mm AUX cord. However when the speakers are powered on and connected to the TV, I noticed that there is a high pitched buzzing coming from both satellite speakers. I can make the buzzing stop if I disconnect the LED lights from their USB power. Also, If I connect the LED strips to some USB power source other than the TV, I can have the lights on with no speaker interference. The problem with that however is that then the LED lights are always on – as opposed to when they are powered by the TV USB outlet, in which case the lights only turn on when the TV is powered on. Obviously the latter is much preferable.

And I'm not sure if this is relevant, but the TV and speakers are currently powered by different wall outlets.

Here is the spec sheet for the speakers

Any suggestions?

Best Answer

Chances are that the the USB power and the AUX output of your TV share the same 5V power rail. When you connect the LEDs, you either overwork the power supply or some power modulation from the LEDs makes it's way through the power rails into your audio output.

One thing you could try to decouple the audio output by using a isolation transformer. Something like this perhaps https://www.amazon.com/C2G-40000-Extension-Isolation-Transformer/dp/B0047AKVYO (no endorsement intended, illustration only) .

You should check that LEDs don't draw more power than what your TV USB output is rated for. That would be 2.5W for "old" USB and 4.5W for USB 3.0 and up. If your handy with electronic stuff, there are few things with capacitors and resistors you can try, but that would probably be a better fit for https://electronics.stackexchange.com/