LED dimmable lights in audio room?

....I Knew that lava lamp had a Bigger Purpose.....😏

Not all LED lights are created equal. My kitchen LED lights creates a lot of interference with FM reception. Putting a ferrite bead on the antenna lead 100% cured that issue. I once had a multicolor LED light strip which I fooled around with- that also caused noise on all inputs. 

I use philips hue lights in music room no issues at all 

I’ve got a large room I use for 2 channel listening and my office.  Aside from listening to music I’m also into photography.  I have 24x36” prints mounted as well as concert posters I have framed etc.  To light all these I installed LED track lights that are controlled by a dimmer.  
I have ZERO issues with noise on any of my circuits and can dim the lights with zero buzzing or flickering.  The key is you need to buy a good quality dimmer designed for LED.  Specifically you want an electronic low voltage dimmer.  I bought a Lutron Maestro MAEMLV-600-WH.  This is a very expensive dimmer but is the ONLY one I found that didn’t cause an audible hum with the LED track lights I installed. There also doesn’t appear to be any sort of noise on my AC feed to my equipment, whole system sounds great.

Sometimes I listen in total darkness, have black out shades on windows. Other times I use various LED light shows (consumer editions of professional light show equipment) in concert with blacked out room, I also have turntable led light, none have created any noise through system. Place your transformers in proper place, shouldn't have any problem.

@mijostyn.  I like that. I have a little LED spotlight next to my turntable for when I am listening to vinyl… with a switch accessible before I get to it. 

@ghdprentice, I do all my serious listening with the lights out. Visual distractions interfere with the image. However, It is hard to change records with the lights out. With LEDs you can put the light where you need it and avoid lighting up the whole room. The switch for the lights in my cabinet is right next to the turntable. The power supply for the lights is mounted behind the cabinet and does not cause any problems.

It might be an issue, but, it is pretty hard to predict where that might be the case.  I think your try and see, with an expectation that you might have to change something, is the right approach.

OK.

Thanks. 
Sounds like it won't be an issue, and if it is, I'll figure something out, or just put them on a regular lightswitch.

I have this situation. The old style dimmers were awful, however the new LED bulbs and compatible dimmers are much better.

Pay careful attention to the limits on the dimmer. The W for LED vs. incandescent is different.

HOWEVER!! :) I have found and others have reported that LED lighting can be quite noisy due to the wall wart. I would avoid having that wall wart anywhere near your audio AC.  I put a scope on the AC of one such LED lantern and the junk it put down on the AC line was really awful, and well within the audio band. 

YMMV, of course.  Just saying, I'm a lot more comfortable with modern LED bulbs/dimmers than with LED lamps with wall warts. 

Carolkong, no problem at all. I use dimmable LED strip lighting in my hi fi cabinet. You can see it on my system page. 

I always listen to music with the lights out… just because it allows better divorcing of the soundstage from the speakers and closer emotional connection to the music. I never thought of LED and dimmers… diodes… they sound like they would be noisy.

The problem with dimmer switches is that they control the level using pulse wave modulation (PWM). The circuit is rapidly switched on and off to modulate the amount of power passing through. This generates a lot of radio frequency noise.

Lutron (a manufacturer of dimmer switches) has this note about using a filter to reduce RFI noise: https://www.lutron.com/TechnicalDocumentLibrary/360484.pdf

I've used leds with both dimmers and sound activation. None of the buzzing, humming I get with dimmers and incandescent bulbs. There will be rfi emanating from transformer/power supply, move it away from sensitive audio equipment. I often take measurements with my Trifield meter, certainly many pockets of rfi, some comes from audio components. I see quite a bit from linear power supplies. As Carbonmiller stated, you'll never be rid of rfi.

I use Philips Hue lights through Wifi in my room and haven't had any problems---they were super easy to install and give off very cool effects. 

The best lighting is of course the lava lamp.

Every dimmer switch and every led bulb is different. If you find the quietest set you can help them by adding ferrite chokes to the wiring at the lights.
I have them in my basement. No noticable degradation to the surround sound system there. If you can’t find a quiet dimmer just replace with a SPST.
A Trifield EM100 will help finding the noise.

Good stuff, guys....thanks!

The room had its own dedicated power subpanel, and the lighting was supposedly on a completely isolated line.

The operative word being, "supposedly"!   

For the "I've lost count of how many times" time, there is no such thing as a completely isolated line. The closest you can get is batteries. Even then the batteries must be disconnected from the line. Even then the isolation is only partial, because RFI is everywhere. You want a completely isolated line, build your house inside a Faraday cage, with its own nuclear power plant. With just the stereo. No lights. No nothing. And with the power plant somehow isolated......    

Short of that: there is no such thing as completely isolated!   

Just as a side note ... When I turn off the display lights in my ARC gear ... REF-3 and PH-8 I get a slight reduction in noise resulting in better sound. It is slight but audible. 

Frank

Yes, there is always a potential for problems, with both dimmers and LED lighting.  A local dealer had to troubleshoot excessive noise in a customer's system.  This noise was reduced, but not eliminated, by using an expensive power line conditioner.  The dealer finally traced the problem to strings of LED lights in the room of the daughter of the customer.  These lights were on a different circuit, but, they caused problems nonetheless.  i don't know if this was by contaminating the power line, or at least in part, causing over-the-air RFI-type interference.

I was surprised when I heard noise caused by a dimmer in an extreme example of a dedicated listening room.  The room had its own dedicated power subpanel, and the lighting was supposedly on a completely isolated line.  Still, when the lights were dimmed, noise intruded into the system.  

Mine too, @oregonpapa .

Didn't know if the new LED dimmable lights (and dimmers) still had that problem or not. :(

They'd be on a separate circuit. I don't know any audiophile electricians, unfortunately.

Hopefully someone has done this and has some advice on how to proceed.

In my experience, dimmer switches add noise.