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I recently purchased a pair of Swan T-200c speakers. They sound amazing, but after roughly an hour of use they emit a clicking noise that increasing in volume. This persists after I unplug the audio connection from my laptop, so at this point I've assumed the problem is with the speakers themselves.

The company that sold them to me offered to replace but also suggested a few things to try first. I have so far:

  • Purchased a much nicer power strip, one with power filtration (my old strips were 10+ years old and from before my undergrad days, read: not great).
  • Moved my setup away from my normal desktop area where I was nearby the tv and washer and dryer into a room where it's the only set of electronics other than the lamp above me.
  • Monkeyed with the positioning.
  • Made sure all the cords are fully in.
  • Fiddled with the switches on the back of the master speaker.

The only thing I havent tried was putting a ferrite core around my power leads. The power cords themselves seem reasonably shielded so I'm not sure how much this would help.

I did just get a copy of the owners manual (new product, distributor just received it from manufacturer), but I havent taken a deep dive into it.

I am at the limit of my knowledge. Is there anything else someone can suggest or do you think it's time I spent the money to send it back. I'd hate to give up an otherwise excellent set of speakers if I can adjust something at home.

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  • Powered monitors should be powered-down before you make or remove any connections; you may have voided the warranty.
    – Mazura
    Commented Mar 28, 2015 at 21:33
  • I didn't mention it explicitly, but I did power everything down before unplugging things.
    – JR Smith
    Commented Apr 7, 2015 at 14:36

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The speaker's transformer should clean any dirty power you might have. A gross under/over voltage in your home (more than +/- ~10% of nominal) would probably be evident in that you'd have equipment failing left and right; send 'em back to China.

It could be some Bluetooth funny business going on, or a bad DAC, I'm not sure. But if you cut the power and it still crackles, you definitely got a lemon.

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  • Just to clarify, they don't cackle when the power is cut, just when I disconnect the audio from the headphone jack. It still sounds like I should send it back to the distributor. Do high end speakers like this fail often? All the reviews I read put these models as highly recommended (and if it matters, they compared them to american/european manufacturers).
    – JR Smith
    Commented Mar 28, 2015 at 20:44
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    @JRSmith Powered monitors are always more subject to failure than passive speakers. Expensive ones, worthy of a name beyond 'computer speakers', should come with free return shipping and a money back guarantee, IMO.
    – Mazura
    Commented Mar 28, 2015 at 21:08
  • thanks. I suspected that was the case, but it's nice to hear it from somewhere who knows more about this stuff than I do.
    – JR Smith
    Commented Mar 28, 2015 at 23:54

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