Does low volume damage speakers?

Can sustained low volume playing cause a brown out in speakers?

What is BROWN OUT - in speakers ?

With respect to electrical (mains) supply, a BLACK OUT is no suppy at all.

A BROWN OUT is when the supply is missing for a few cycles. There are 50 cycles per second, so a BROWN OUT implies no supply for a few milli seconds...

To my mind you can safely play your speakers at low volume for as long as you want.

manek.

spl is not important [within a 'reasonable' range] !

Just do not play it too loud, that way the coil [in your driver] can get damaged.

Even at low spl's the main thing is the 'square wave'
If I may try and explain;

Say you have an inefficient speaker - 80 to 83 dB.

Your power amp is a SET design - 3 watt 'power house'
& you try and drive your speakers with it, sure it will play, at a soft volume that too, but you will blow your amp and or your speaker in the process. If your amplifier distorts [it sure will] & sends square waves to your speakers, then even at very very low volumes, you will surely damage you speakers !!!

BHAGWAN69

I agree, low volume playing can do no harm.

I have an uncle who has Never played his Fisher Speaker Lound, to 'preserve their quality.'

The speaker surrounds have now crumbled and now he has ( IMHO ) never really heard the full potential of his speakers.

Reminds me of a Lord Byron Poem that I did in College. The poem was " To His Coy Mistress "

He is trying to persuade his coy lady love to go to bed with him.

A line in the poem says
'Or Worms Will Eat Your Virginity ! '

Use your speakers to a volume level you find satisfying. Live and Fully use what you have

Amp_Nut,

Pl. correct me if I am wrong, am assuming that at low volumes a lower voltage is sent to the speaker and this voltage rises as the volume is increased. Wouldn't sustained low volume-low voltage be akin to the brown-out damage to circuits?

Interesting perspective, raftuq.

I never thought of it that way ! You are correct that there are mains operated appliances that work optimally, over a specified voltage range. Too low an input voltage can also damage some devices.

Fortunately, speakers operate without damage, down to a zero or negligible input voltage, as long as ... as bhagwan69 points out.... the voltage is undistorted.

Happy Listning.

Bhagwan, Amp_Nut,

Thanks! One other question - sorry it's not related, but I don't want to start another thread just for this:

The metal outer jackets of the RCA plugs, some of these touch each other since they are so close to each other(input side of the amp) - is this harmful or would adversely affect sound?

SO Close ?

Sounds unusual, on a commercial product.

The Grounds will eventually be electrically connected inside the pre-amp / amp. But that is part of a carefull thought out grounding scheme of the amplifier.

This will not lead to any catastropheric failure, at very worst... MAY introduce a hum in rare cases.

I would not loose sleep over it, as long as the metal jackets dont touch any OTHER electrical potential.

raftuq,
good point....
you could wind a piece of insulation tape around the rca plugs where they touch.

I have seen certain amps cdp's where rca connectors are set a bit too close for comfort and rca cable plugs do touch each other.

Manek.

Thanks Amp_Nut.

Yes, very close, and they touch each other. It's a Rotel RA-02 amp. Am using the MX interconnects (the one's that supposedly have gold plating contact and aluminium jackets).

Was just thinking, since the amp only plays 1 source at a time, probably they may not do any harm to the amp - but the sources themselves - could this cause any harm to them?

Manek, thanks! Yes, I'll go ahead and wrap some insulator just to be on the safe side.

Yes,

The insulation, as suggested by Maneck will be a good idea.
If any of the sources has a 'Live Chasis' you could have blown electronics....

Hi Raftuq,
You mentioned that you use MX interconnects. how do you rate them? I'm searching for digital coax interconnects for my AVR and haven't come across any good ones at a decent price.
Bibs

MX cables - To me they appear to be poor men's high end cables, at least the RCA's. Have not used digital coax so can't comment on that.

Rating them - ummm, am no expert and have very limited exposure to this sort of thing I can only say that their high end one's are VFM, especially since one doesn't have much choice at that price point in India.

Here's the MX site showing all their stuff - what a range of products! : http://www.konicaelectronics.com

You may also want to consider the low end DAC's (the high end would be verry expensive): http://www.designer-audio.com/products/dac/dac.htm DAC too are good, am using one of their cheaper RCA's.

Hey raftuq,

whats the price for MX / DAC.

Amp_Nut schrieb:

Yes, The insulation, as suggested by Maneck will be a good idea.

like you wrote earlier, the chassis would be grounded & so the outer metal jacket of the RCA connector is ground. If the 2 touch, it's OK (like you wrote)!
The insulating tape is OK but superflous (if he had a hum, he'd have reported it by now! )

Amp_Nut schrieb:

If any of the sources has a 'Live Chasis' you could have blown electronics.... :.

Or, electrocuted himself by now!

Some amps (Pulz for example) have just 2 pin plugs. Which means that the chassis is not grounded. In such a case, is there a risk of a shock from the amp? Would connecting such an amp to another piece of equipment potentially transfer charge to it?

Does the voltage level of the chassis vary depending upon whether the amp is on or off?

Yes, Neutral.

I WAS infact referring to equipment with 2 pin mains plugs, that could be connected via RCAs to an amp. ( in future, too, if not now )

Normally, one of the 2 pin Mains plug pins is NEVER connected directly to the chasis.

Only the Earth Pin of a 3 pin plug is connected to the chasis.

A steroe should ideally be groiunded at a SINGLE point, and the grounds of all other equipment should ground thru that SINGLE point. If not - you get an 'Earth Loop" resulting in a Hummmmm

That is why most pieces of Hi Fi have 2 pins plugs Only.

However, SMPS power supplies ( widely used in VCRs, TVs, and even some audio amps) can leak some current to the chasis, making it 'uncomfortable' to touch.

Electrical grounds sometimes go live due to a faulty component in the path, and can cause a potential hazzard. That is why I endorsed the use of electrical tape.

Just because the user has not already been electricuted, does not mean he Never will !

Some amps (Pulz for example) have just 2 pin plugs. Which means that the chassis is not grounded. In such a case, is there a risk of a shock from the amp?

YES. But NOT if the entire stereo system is grounded at a Single point, as I have explained above.

Would connecting such n amp to another piece of equipment potentially transfer charge to it?

YES. But NOT if the entire stereo system is grounded at a Single point, as I have explained above.

Does the voltage level of the chassis vary depending upon whether the amp is on or off?

YES. But NOT if the entire stereo system is grounded at a Single point, as I have explained above.

Neutral schrieb:

Some amps (Pulz for example) have just 2 pin plugs. Which means that the chassis is not grounded. In such a case, is there a risk of a shock from the amp? Would connecting such an amp to another piece of equipment potentially transfer charge to it? Does the voltage level of the chassis vary depending upon whether the amp is on or off?

Usually this is not an issue. I have atleast 2 mass-fi integrated amps (Harmon-Kardon & Technics) that have 2-pin plugs & there have never been an issue w/ their chassis going even mildly live.
Here in the USA, the neutral & ground wires are shorted together at the main electrincal panel coming into the house (for industrial wiring, there is a separate ground bus in the main panel). Hence on the 2-pin plug of, which 1 pin is neutral, ground is present. This ensures that the amp chassis is grounded at all times.

As Amp_Nut writes, some faulty component in the amp could compromise this ground connection & could make the chassis live.
The outer metal jacket of all RCA plugs is always the return path & by connecting one's stereo from CDP thru power amp using these RCAs one ensures that the ground is passed up & down the electronics chain. So, there is quite a bit of redundancy in the grounding. This, of course, doesn't mean that one shouldn't ensure that the amp is correctly grounded.

Even in India, the Neutral is connected to the "Earth" at the Electrical substation.

If you measure the voltage between the neutral and ground, on a 3 pin plug, you will often measure a voltage of approx 4 Volts....

Amp-nut slight correction...... Here in india the the star point of of the secondary of the distribution transformer is grounded, ie the pole mounted or plinth mounted 11kv/400v transformer not at the substation

Interesting info.

Thanks !