tell me how easy it is to ruin a pair of monitors

[staen]

Hi- based on actual experience, how easy is it to ruin a pair of monitors? what are some best practices that one can adopt to prevent this? I remember reading something about underpowering and how it will ruin them. looking for any advice so I can protect my investment. thanks in advance.

 

[mshilarious]

Hi- based on actual experience, how easy is it to ruin a pair of monitors? what are some best practices that one can adopt to prevent this? I remember reading something about underpowering and how it will ruin them. looking for any advice so I can protect my investment. thanks in advance.

Well, you have to do something interesting to ruin them. I would say that if you buy active monitors, it would be extremely difficult to ruin them, since presumably the amp and speakers are matched, and certain protections are put in place.

With passives, you have to be concerned with driving them too hard--which for a nearfield monitor, would also have very negative implications for your hearing. Also, if you had a grossly underpowered amp, and drove that amp to clipping, the resulting squarewave, while not that loud, could potentially ruin speakers.

So, moral of the story: use a decently powered amp, and don't try to use them as stage monitors for your hardcore punk band

 

[xstatic]

The best way to ruin them is by using your speakers to monitor a live mic in the same room. One nasty feedback spike can be detrimental to monitors whether they are powered or not.

 

[mattamatta]

"The best way to ruin them is by using your speakers to monitor a live mic in the same room. One nasty feedback spike can be detrimental to monitors whether they are powered or not."

Actually, that's not quite correct. I'd think a sledge hammer or handgun would be quite a lot easier. =D

In terms of an actual "for reals" answer, that sounds about right to me!

 

[Reggaesoldier]

The best way to ruin them is by using your speakers to monitor a live mic in the same room. One nasty feedback spike can be detrimental to monitors whether they are powered or not.

DAMN!
That's happened to me. I record in the same room that the monitors are in and I even have a sign on the wall that says...

"TURN DOWN MONITORS BEFORE ARMING TRACKS"

And It still happened!!!

I've only done it like twice and they still seem to be fine.

 

[staen]

thanks for the replys! so, I have a pair of actives, and I have turned up their amps all the way to avoid the clipping underpowering thing from happening. is this wise? I didnt know if actives vs. passives were different in this regard. thanks once again, and keep the advice coming!

 

[corban]

I definitely did that little feedback spike a couple times when I first got my actives. Pisses me off to this day, although I haven't noticed an adverse reaction. If your monitors are active I wouldn't worry about amp levels, I can't even alter my amp levels. Are you talking about the amp level are just the trim?

 

[staen]

I definitely did that little feedback spike a couple times when I first got my actives. Pisses me off to this day, although I haven't noticed an adverse reaction. If your monitors are active I wouldn't worry about amp levels, I can't even alter my amp levels. Are you talking about the amp level are just the trim?

I'm talking about the amp level which is controlled on the back of my monitors. I had them about 3/4's the way up, but after reading about the underpowering issue, turned them all the way up. thanks!

 

[bleyrad]

No, that won't help. The volume control on your monitors is a line volume attenuator only. It doesn't magically increase the maximum wattage of the amplifier when you turn it up.
The danger of an underpowered amp is when you have a low-powered (low-watt) amplifier and have it cranked too far. And by "cranked" I just mean that the overall power it's putting out is more than it could handle: the volume control may only be 70% but if you're feeding it a hot signal in the first place, damage could be done. This danger is far greater on speakers rated high-wattage because you won't notice any speaker breakup before the amp starts to clip.

Active monitors are (or at least should be) designed so that this shouldn't happen. The amplifiers are usually of sufficient power that you don't have to worry about it. Many have over-excursion protection built-in, too.

 

[xstatic]

The real danger of undepowered stuff is in the usage of them. People tend to feed them too hot of a signal in order to get more volume output. The reult is a clipped input signal that likes to square up and then the amp magnifies that resulting in blown speakers. Powered studio monitors are certainly a little less prone to this than live PA speakers as they are used in a more contained and controlled environment. Speaker hiss seems to be a lot worse on powered monitors though (assuming you compare them to passives that are running on a decent amp and circuit).

 

[boingoman]

Square waves and clipping don't blow speakers in and of themselves. Speaker damage from an underpowered amp results from the following:

A clipping amp compresses the signal. As the wave squares off due to clipping, it loses dynamics. It starts to have a more constant level. This raises the amp's average power output.

It is very easy to raise the average above the speaker's RMS rating by clipping. Do this for long enough, and...meltdown.

Tweeters often go first as they can handle only a tiny fraction of the power woofers can. The compression from clipping raises the level of the highs past the point the tweeter can survive, while the woofers can usually hold out longer.

Thus the myth that clipping, square waves, and harmonic distortion causes speaker damage, and fries tweeters*

If it were true, synth makers and guitar amp makers would be bumming. Synths have lots o' square wave sounds, and people clip guitar amps all the time.

You will never blow a 900W subwoofer with a 1W amp, no matter how hard you clip it.

Xstatic is right, don't clip and you will be fine. It's all about how you use the gear you have.



*I used to think the myth was true, but have recently been informed of the real reasons behind speaker failure due to underpowered amps. I have even posted the myth myself, here on this forum. Up through the mid-90s it was the prevailing wisdom. I have since been corrected by someone who knows the real deal.

 

[Phyl]

The best way to ruin them is by using your speakers to monitor a live mic in the same room. One nasty feedback spike can be detrimental to monitors whether they are powered or not.

I lost a tweeter that way.

 

[staen]

thanks for all the advice everyone. especially boingoman for the real deal clarification. I love this forum and when I finally gain experience and wisdom from my experiences in the audio world, I can't wait to contribute!

one more clarifying question: should I keep my actives' amps turned all the way up? or at a more conservative level, since its not affecting the power output?

 

[Reggaesoldier]

one more clarifying question: should I keep my actives' amps turned all the way up? or at a more conservative level, since its not affecting the power output?

I usually have them both turned all the way up and control the output to them with the 'out fader' on my mixer. It just keeps them even in level that way.