shielding speakers?

[bloodyviking77]

Picked up some 5" speakers at about 4$US each. They sound pretty cool and so I wired them up and stuck them in my cab. Only trouble is they're not shielded, and must be just a fraction to close to the monitor, cos now I get some funky green and pink clouds all over the screen.

My temporary solution is to place another speaker (I bought four!) upside down behind the marquee, but not plugged in, between the two "plugged in" speakers. The reversed polarity appears to help "cancel out" the magnetic field from the two hot speakers, and pretty much keeps the screen clear.

Pretty much.  

Anyone got any tips for a more permanent solution to magnetically shield my speakers?

[ras2a]

Wow, that sounds pretty cool.  I bought some sony 6x9s for my cab and am worried about the same problem.  

[KevSteele]

You're close - what you need to do is install "bucking magnets" - you glue magnets of the same size as the speaker magnets onto the back, with the opposite poles facing each other (you'll need to clamp it them together and use a strong epoxy!)

This cancels out the magentic fields, but leaves the speaker operational.

Basically, your extra speaker stuck in the middle almost does the same thing.

Kevin

[Lilwolf]

I added a few layors of tinfoil between my speaker and my monitor and it helped.

But I had a board there to handle it...

I'm considering buying new speakers next time I need something from therealbobroberts though.   Shielded for a buck more then that.  

[melarky]

I had the same problem with my cab, I went and bought some nice car speakers, and totally overlooked the whole shielded issue.  I found a solution on the net, there is a site called EMF Safety Superstore (http://www.lessemf.com/) that sells special sheets of metal that you can use to shield your own speakers.  They have tutorials on how to do it, and the pros and cons of using the bucking magnets that KevSteele suggested.

They sell other things besides speaker shielding stuff, so you have to do a bit of digging on their site, but you'll probably want to start by going to http://www.lessemf.com/faq-shie.html#speakers.  There are links in that faq to their products.  I ordered 2 sheets each of their magnet shield and joint shield and then just followed the instructions found on that link and I don't have any problems with the speakers being too close to my TV now (and I also had quite a bit of material left over, you could probably get away with 1 sheet of each, but I didn't want to have to order more if I ran out).

I was a little weary to try them out at first because they have a fairly dated looking site, they sell alot of odd things (they make it sound like you need to shield everything in your house otherwise you're going to die), but I chanced it (the sheets of shielding weren't too expensive so I thought it would be worth a try), and I'm happy with the outcome.  You'll want to make sure you have some good tin snips if you do go the route I did, it makes a big different when you are trying to cut the sheets to fold over the top of the speaker, it would also be a good idea to have some puncture resistant leather gloves (I ripped up my hands doing this).  Hope this helps.

[KevSteele]

Great link - thanks!

Kevin