[Bill A]

Here's my take.

Without current flow there is no inductive kick.  I'm guessing that as soon as you pull the leads away from the battery, an arc develops between the leads and battery terminal(s) due to induction.

With the AA battery the speakers pop, but the system does not mute because the woofer cones are not driven as far from their rest positon as with the 9v battery, and so don't generate as much kick when the cones return to rest.  I'll bet that if you tune a radio between stations, you will hear the kick picked up by the radio.

If you have a diode, place it across the speaker leads then touch the leads to the battery (with the diode back biased) and release them.  The diode should kill the kick and keep the system from muting or the radio from crackling.

Anyway, it should be fun to investigate further.

Bill

[Bob in St. Louis]

Ken - Wise words (I'd expect nothing less from you  )
My drivers are actually wired to have an overall resistance of 2 ohms. But your math isn't lost on me, I see what you're saying. It's good to know I'm not damaging the drivers by playing with a 9v battery. Admittedly, I've performed this action many times in shear amazement at the phenomenon.
How many components in the chain have a remote control you ask? That would be "two". The H/K receiver, and the SqueezeBox (SB3). During the "phenomenon" the VU meters on the SB3 continue to oscillate, like it's continuing to play music and doesn't dignify a "mute" condition. The front panel display on the H/K also has the ability to confirm when a signal from the remote is received, yet didn't show any signs of having "heard" anything.

Chad - Have you been drinking? 
Very funny though. 

Bill - I agree that it's the spike created by the breaking of the contact between the battery and the speaker cables, and that the 9v has a larger spike than the 1.5v "AA" battery. If I had a portable AM radio, that would be an interesting test to see if it can be heard through it.

Interestingly enough, just for the heck of it, I tried to recreate the phenomenon today, I can't make it happen. I tried standing directly in front of the IB, the SB3, and each piece of equipment and it won't happen. Maybe it has to do with the alignment of the planets? 

Oh well. I would have loved to have an answer.

Bob

[BobM]

I played a Chad-like trick on a buddy who was trying to show off his new TV to me one afternoon. I had a remote hidden in the crack of the couch and every time he turned it on (with another remote) I pressed a button to turn it off or change the channel. It took him a couple of minutes to figure out it was me all along. Classic.

[Bob in St. Louis]

  I can relate Bob.
Several years ago I had my five year old (at the time) son convinced that I had the ability to change the tv channel by pointing at the tv with my right hand and snapping my fingers.
He never saw the remote in my left hand stuck between the couch cushions. 

Bob

[jqp]

Interestingly enough, just for the heck of it, I tried to recreate the phenomenon today, I can't make it happen. I tried standing directly in front of the IB, the SB3, and each piece of equipment and it won't happen. Maybe it has to do with the alignment of the planets? 

Oh well. I would have loved to have an answer.

Bob

There can be only one conclusion - the aliens must have done it - I think you will find that there is a crop circle near your house. Keep looking in wider searches until you find it.

[thunderbrick]

I can relate Bob.
Several years ago I had my five year old (at the time) son convinced that I had the ability to change the tv channel by pointing at the tv with my right hand and snapping my fingers.
He never saw the remote in my left hand stuck between the couch cushions. 

Bob

'Taint nuttin'.  My father's 59 Plymouth Station wagon (or was it the '68?) had two foot switches on the floor at  the driver's side.  One to control the high beams, the other to switch the motorized tuning dial on the radio to the next preset station.

No girl I ever dated figured out how the hell I could point to the radio and make it change stations. This was WAY before remote controls (if you don't count the one that hit a metal bar and made the TV change channels change).

Kinda like the scene in Grumpy Old Men when Matthau would override Jack Lemon's TV from outside the house.  I guess we all think alike.  Ain't maturity great?

[KenSeger]

Bob,

Actually the math was based on 2 ohm nominal and less than that for DCR (DC - 0 Hz - pure resistance, no inductance). P=E*E/R P=9*9/2

Just because a remote indicator indicates that the is no activity in the remote system, doesn't necessarily mean there is no remote circuit activity.  If the circuit is set up like this - remote sensor, remote indicator, remote function - if the magnetic pulse is hitting the remote function part of the circuit and there is abuffer stage between the remote indicator and the remote function, the pulse could be isolated in the remote function.  Now if the circuit were laid out - remote sensor, remote function, remote indicator - such that the activity in the remote function circuit triggered the indicator, then you've got confirmation that the units remote either did on did not function.  An analogue example would be the switch controls of a purely mechanical railway switch yard.  The fellow in the little shelter has 10 levers to control 10 track switches.  If the switch indicators are connected to the lever, if the linkage between the lever and the switch breaks, the indicator will still read the switch as being changed.  If the switch indicators are connected to the switch, if the linkage between the lever and the switch breaks, the indicator will not read the switch as being changed.

Of course if you've been using the same 9 V battery for all of this, that poor little sucker is probably not very happy about delivering near dead shorts and maybe it's voltage and amperage is not quite what it used to be, and can no longer deliver as big a pulse adequate to recreate the phenomena?

Ken

[Bob in St. Louis]

Ahhh, good point about how the circuit is wired and the remote indicator. I didn't think about that. So yea, it is quite possible that it's muting the system. But....(just to play devils advocate), what's causing the system to 'unmute'? I could see the pulse replicating a function of the remote, but what's undoing it?

As far as the level of charge in the battery, I performed the very painstaking, scientific measurement method of using my tongue as a test instrument. 
The resulting wince made my right eye half close. Seems like it's still got quite a bit of life remaining in it. 

Bob

[KenSeger]

As far as the level of charge in the battery, I performed the very painstaking, scientific measurement method of using my tongue as a test instrument. 
The resulting wince made my right eye half close. Seems like it's still got quite a bit of life remaining in it. 

Bob

Well now, has your tongue been properly calibrated?  By say, oh, with some single malt Scotch? aa

Ken

[Bob in St. Louis]

Bud Select to be exact. 

[srb]

You could get some kind of ballpark calibration by first measuring the voltage with a voltmeter, then, with your webcam looking at your face, measure just how far that right eye closes.   
 
Steve

[Bob in St. Louis]

  Glad I wasn't taking a drink when I read that Steve.
I would be cleaning off my monitor right now. 

I suppose I should not worry about the "phenomenon"?
I mean (obviously) it's not like I'll be doing any critical listening to the system when four infinite baffle woofers accidentally make contact with a 9v battery.
I was thinking that whatever is susceptible to this airborne issue could be still be susceptible to some other form of EMI/RF and may affect my sound quality.
Or should I? 

Bob

[srb]

Bob,
 
Well, if you can no longer reproduce the phenomenon (did you try a fresh battery?), I wouldn't worry about it.
 
But if you hear that interruption in sound again, outside of your battery "tests", I would start thinking about shielding something somewhere.
 
As far as your sound being degraded on a continuous basis by some kind of EMI/RFI, I doubt it, but what do I know?  Any new crop circles in the backyard?
 
Steve