Overcoming the infuriating auto-off feature in Audyssey's Speakers

[xtekian]

For those people who have heard of or own the Audyssey Lower East Side speakers (aka Audyssey Media Speakers), they offer great sound and impressive bass in a small package. I got these speakers for a good deal and know that it would cost hundreds of dollars to upgrade to a better sounding system.
 
However, the Audyssey speakers have this infuriating feature where they auto-turn off if it receives no input for about 30minutes. It does not have an auto-turn on feature. This problem is well described in a lot of reviews on the web.
 
Question is, is there a way to overcome it at this point? Is there a way to feed it a tiny bit of quiet noise so that the speakers never turn off?
 
I'm not looking for a software solution to this, because currently, I have a macbook, and have the speakers hooked up via optical to an Apple TV. I play music over it via Airplay. Is there a hardware solution that would potentially solve the problem?
 
Thanks!

 

[theklamkid]

I don't have these but maybe this will help? From Amazon review at http://www.amazon.com/review/RFZDJACJKWOFO/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B005FLG3OQ&nodeID=172282&store=electronics#wasThisHelpful
 
Posted on Jan 2, 2013 6:55:41 AM PST
Fuzzy Wuzzy says:  

Hi Everyone, I found a remedy online from user "miniskunk" at woot.com. All credit goes to him and the following is his suggestion for the sound issue word for word. MiniSkunk, I hope you do not mind me sharing your comments on amazon, thank you for the suggestion.

"In regards to the auto shut off after 30 mins, there is a free program called SPDIFKeepAlive that sends a continuous inaudible signal over the TOSlink or wire connection. This should keep it from auto turning off when you don't want it to. It has several different ways to keep the device on in case the inaudible tone doesn't work such as running an audible one at the lowest volume setting possible that is hard to hear unless you turn the speakers way up.

I use this on my home PC because my sound card will turn off the TOSlink when there is extended audio inactivity resulting in a nasty loud pop sound coming from my surround system. With the program running, it stays active all the time."

*I do not own these speakers, simply wanted to provide helpful information so other buyers would not shy away from them considering the sound quality is awesome as per the glowing reviews.

 

[xtekian]

theklamkid,
 
Thanks for your input. I've seen this app around but I think it's for Windows only. In addition, I use a mac, and I have the speakers hooked up to my Apple TV (via optical) and use Airplay to play music.
 
For now, the temporary solution I've come to is to play a 2 second long "silent" file on iTunes and have it on continuous repeat. I'll be around to test this in a couple days and see whether it works. Thanks!