I have a Pioneer vsx-406 that I purchased as a poor college kid a while back. It's been fine for... loud music and that's about it. Regardless it's what I use today in my apartment. I have a 20ft headphone cable running around the outside of my living room from the audio out from my computer to an input on my receiver. This has worked fine for playing mp3s in various places I've lived until I moved in here. Now whenever I turn on the ld/dvd channel (which I'm using as the line in form the comp) I get a crystal clear broadcast of a local AM country station (based about 2 miles south...). Needless to say this overlapping noise is making it impossible to play music from my computer over my stereo. I tried using the cd in to see if it was just some wierdness with the ld/dvd jack, but it seems to follow wherever I plug the cord in.
The only thing I can think of is that the 20ft headphone cord around the baseboard of my living room is acting as a big antenna. I have no idea if that's even possible. But when I unplug it from the jack on the receiver the AM noise stops. Same happens when I unplug it from my computer- AM stops. Wierd.
Any tips on what I can do to get rid of this noise?
It sounds like the wire isn't sheilded. It's basically acting as an antenna, as you pointed out. What I believe you have for inputs and outputs is (correct me if I'm wrong) a headphone jack output from your computer, and 2 RCA's on your receiver. You can get a sheilded cable like this. I have one from Monster Cable that I used to connect a minidisc player to my home stereo. It was about $30. You can probably find a cheaper one that will do. I don't think they make in 20ft lengths though. Check on-line. With cables, price doesn't always equal quality. Just make sure it's durable, has solid connections, and doesn't bring any unwanted noise into the system (radio, buzzing, humming, etc.).
If you can't find one that is long enough (or within your price range), try getting a shorter one, getting RCA female to female adapters, and the appropriate interconnects. This may actually be cheaper. Again, just make sure they don't introduce noise into the system. Make sure you can bring them back if they do.
If they are RCA's on both ends, they make ones long enough for the application. I got a pair of 20ft interconnects to run from my TV to stereo from Best Buy for $20 (Acoustic Research brand). Haven't had any problems wih it at all.
Of the brands I've heard, Acoustic research and Monster generally work pretty well. I haven't used Belkin Pure A/V before, but I hear they are fine too. Belkin tends to be the cheapest, followed by AR, and Monster.
I have a Pioneer VSX-406 that worked perfectly until recently. I went to bed one night after watching TV (TV sounds is ran through receiver), and got up the next morning and no sound would come through the speakers. The tuner button on the remote works, and I can switch from tuner, CD, LD/DVD, etc, but the volume controls on the remote will not operate the volume control, and even when I turn the volumne up manually, I get no sound out of my speakers. I have ruled out speaker and wiring problems, so did my remote "fry" on me?