Re: Sound Goes Off On T.v For Split Second Every Time The Wall Lights Ars Switched On
Radio frequency interference details
The modern thyristor (Triac or SCR) dimmer has one fairly severe drawback in its performance in that it dims by switching on the current to the load part-way through each mains cycle. Cutting the leading smooth-part off a mains cycle produces a current with a very rapid turn-on time which generates both mains distortions and EMI. Chokes are included in dimmers to slow down the rapid switch-on (rise time) of the chopped current. The longer the rise time the less EMI and mains distortion produced.
Turn on of the triac in the middle of the phase causes fast voltage and current changes. A typical thyristor/triac starts to fully conduct at around 1 microsecond time after triggering, so the current change is very fast if it not limited in any way. Those fast voltage and current changes cause high frequency interference going to mains wiring unless there are suitable radio frequency interference (RFI) filter built into the circuit. The corners in the waveform effectively consist of 50/60Hz plus varying amounts of other frequencies that are multiples of 50/60Hz. In some cases the interference goes up to 1..10Mhz frequencies and even higher. The wiring in your house acts as an antenna and essentially broadcasts it into the air. Cheap bad quality light dimmers don't have adequate filtering and they cause easily lots of radio interference.
Dimmer circuits typically use coils that limit limit the rate of rise of current to that value which would result in acceptable EMI. Typical filtering in light dimmers causes the current rise time (current rises from 10% to 90%) to be in range of 30..50 microseconds. This gives acceptable results in typical dimmer applications in home (typically this limitation is made using 40..100 uH coil).
If the dimmers are used in places where dimmer is a serious problem for sensitive sound equipments (theatres, TV-studios, rock concerts etc.) a slower current rise time would be preferred. Typically the current rise time in light dimmer packs made for stage applications have a current rise speed of around 100..350 microseconds. If noise is a big problem (TV studios etc.), even slower current rise times are sometimes asked. Those current rise times up to 1 millisecond can be achieved with special dimmers or suitable extra coil fitted in series with the dimmer.
there's that but it involves radio frequency interference, so shouldn't affect frequency of speakers. they aren't on the same circuit are they?
try asking dragon-av, might be something he's come across before.