Almost Blew Up My Speakers Last Night

[MoreBeer]

Still somewhat in the experimental phase with the new HT system. Last week was trying the wireless network hard drive connections and also streaming music from my Phone and iPod just to see if that all works. And surprisingly, it works very well and super easy. In fact, streaming from the network hard drive sounded very good. So the DAC in the receiver must be better than what's in those two iPods.

Anyhow, last night I grabbed my basement laptop to test the Bluetooth connection from that and stream with iTunes. I got started and switched the output in iTunes to use the wireless connection of the receiver. Then BOOM! The friggin output levels from iTunes almost destroyed $2,000 of new Klipsch speakers. It just buried the output volume to just about max. What's up with that?

I was sure a few of the drivers were toast. But no....guess I killed it quickly enough. I have no idea why the output from iTunes was so hot using the wireless? The streaming from the phone was quiet and I needed to turn that up. And the iPods were just a little hotter than playing a CD. For some reason, iTunes from the laptop needed to be set at half volume which I found unusual.

After that experience, I went into the settings on the receiver and set a max volume level at -30 db in the event this ever happens again.

 

[eiraved]

Were you using the iPod's 3.5mm audio plug or the iPod dock connector?

 

[markshan]

Always turn down before any new connection. (That said, we've all done it.)

 

[whoaru99]

Yup... there are a few Cardinal rules

Turn it down before source changes.
Turn it off before connection changes.
If it ain't broke, probably best not to poke around inside trying to "fix" it.

 

[MoreBeer]

Were you using the iPod's 3.5mm audio plug or the iPod dock connector?

Using the 3.5mm into RCA's on the old iPod 5th. gen. and tried both 3.5 mm and bluetooth on my newer iPod. The quality of the phone streaming from Google Play really sucked. Very poor quality.

Always turn down before any new connection. (That said, we've all done it.)

You can say that again. Never expected the iTunes output to max out the receiver volume.

 

[Stefus_Prime]

I always make sure to keep all volume knobs down to 20% or less when messing around with any speakers. I had a similar incident at 3am with my bookshelf speakers, the other members of the household were not happy

 

[needforspeed]

Always turn down volume before any changing of sources, And even on shut down. I do it on needle drops. You never know.

 

[damacman]

Reminds me of the time that I checked to see if I correctly tightened the headshell on my tt with the volume set to 77 on the preamp and 1.2kW per channel of amplification ...

 

[markshan]

The only thing I don't like about my 2230 is that it has both a tape monitor button and tape on the source selector. If you accidentally engage both at once you create an endless feedback loop. Nobody in the house is happy when I do that.

 

[KevinJS]

Always be wary of Apple gear, particularly iOS devices. They have several independent volumes, automatically switching between them depending on usage, but all controlled by one pair of buttons. If you turn your headphones down, you have not affected your BlueTooth volume.

 

[MoreBeer]

Always be wary of Apple gear, particularly iOS devices. They have several independent volumes, automatically switching between them depending on usage, but all controlled by one pair of buttons. If you turn your headphones down, you have not affected your BlueTooth volume.

Amen on that. The volume on the receiver was set at -50 db when I started iTunes as I was watching a basketball game prior to that. Once iTunes started playing, the volume on the receiver displayed at -0 db which was full volume....that would have wrecked the speakers if not caught instantly.

So, the output from iTunes was crazy high and needed to be at 50% for somewhat normal output with most songs tested. I'll be avoiding iTunes streaming from the laptop. Likely never to use it regardless. Was just curious on seeing if the wireless connection from a laptop worked properly. It almost cost me big time.

 

[KevinJS]

Amen on that. The volume on the receiver was set at -50 db when I started iTunes as I was watching a basketball game prior to that. Once iTunes started playing, the volume on the receiver displayed at -0 db which was full volume....that would have wrecked the speakers if not caught instantly.

So, the output from iTunes was crazy high and needed to be at 50% for somewhat normal output with most songs tested. I'll be avoiding iTunes streaming from the laptop. Likely never to use it regardless. Was just curious on seeing if the wireless connection from a laptop worked properly. It almost cost me big time.

Slightly off topic for your thread, but you may find it useful:

Some receivers allow the volume to be capped via the built-in software. My Yamaha tops out at +16dB. I cut it back to a non-speaker destroying max volume shortly after I bought it.

 

[MoreBeer]

Slightly off topic for your thread, but you may find it useful:

Some receivers allow the volume to be capped via the built-in software. My Yamaha tops out at +16dB. I cut it back to a non-speaker destroying max volume shortly after I bought it.

I did up that afterwards. If you see my initial post, I set max volume at -30 db after this which is louder than I'll ever play this. In fact, I might increase that to -35 db.

I had it set to max 0 db and figured I'd never have a problem. Guess not!

 

[KevinJS]

I did up that afterwards. If you see my initial post, I set max volume at -30 db after this which is louder than I'll ever play this. In fact, I might increase that to -35 db.

I had it set to max 0 db and figured I'd never have a problem. Guess not!

Gotcha! I missed that line.

 

[whoaru99]

Bear in mind the max volume setting is not a limiter in the sense of the word. Output will still increase if input level increases.