When a system is not on, should you avoid making any noise near the speakers? I am thinking about back EMF caused by the speaker cones moving and then sending voltage backwards into the crossover and the rest of the system - could this cause damage or even minor degradation to the sound quality after a while? Do you unhook the speakers when not in use just to be on the safe side?
I'm gonna take a wild guess here and say your post followed a lengthy evening of disinformation gathering and transcendental mediation.
I'd invite you to acquire as did I, this precept:
it ain't what you know that gives you the most consternation, it's what you know that just ain't so that confounds and confuses.... speakers are no different. They say quite often, "Right here is fine bud." however we later find out, they were only partially right, and need further relocationing... sometimes the relocating is in someone else' home.
It's only thereafter that we rediscover via the next few pairs of replacements that we'd as soon have back those we relocated initially when the upgrade flu overtook us..
How odd... I am sure I had posted already this delightful hermetic poem by one of the most unsung bards of our days. Mayhaps it fell victim to the vagueries of the benign 'probi viri' who so lovingly oversee all our Agonic deeds, and protect us from 1st amendment self-harm?
Yet, I thought the verses resonated profoundly with the escatological angst that permanes so many of us suffering audiophiles... Are any of our actions, words, or even occasional unkindly thoughts... harming our audio systems?
So, here are again, the immortal words of the transcendental genius of Donald Rumsfeld:
"As we know, There are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know There are known unknowns. That is to say We know there are some things We do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, The ones we don't know We don't know." Donald Rumsfeld "
Gawdbless is this where absolutely nothing happens... as in Any good music on around here?
Nope... I ain't heard nun yet.
I'm wondering if perhaps if the winery turned 'nunery', turned convent, were to subscribed to a vow of silence and banned iPods, you would indeed enjoy ONLY "The Sounds Of Silence"... Well that and bells of course.
Somewhere, somehow, someone in there is wearing ear budsÂ…. IÂ’m sure of it. No one can listen to Simon and Garfunkle forever.
We talk allot about tweaking gear to sound better like spending mega bucks on power cables (which may be the same thing with another name on it) lets spend more on a cable than the actual amp! And things like Beaks? What the heck is a beak? If that's not the craziest thing yet! If it really works, then why doesn't the manufacture add this?
We don't talk much about protecting and preventing damage to our equipment or even things that may cause minor sound degradation overtime. Maybe because prevention doesn't involve selling a voodoo logic product. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and I guess there are allot of dealers that can't really bring in the good products aymore, so now they just focus on selling the cure.
Attach a volt meter to the speaker terminals and gently push the woofer cone in and out and see if you register any current. Or, place another speaker a few feet from the speaker with the volt meter attached and play a recording of conversation or crowd noise, at normal levels, and see if you register a current.
Well done, everybody! Lately, this site has been the best it's been in the five years I've been coming. Maybe it's the economy, giving us all a little more perspective . . . .
Yea okay. Some of you guys think an audio rack can make things better. How on earth does a $13,000 wood rack work? You set up your gear on a certain rack and it automatically gets better? I knew a manufacture that was making racks with custom made laminated glass. Only one place in the USA could make the glass. Cost like 20 grand per rack! Is that insane of what?
Or how about cable elevators? Did you guys read through that topic? What a bunch of waccos. How do things get better by placing cables on neat little ramp things? Does it make the electrons feel like the "red carpet treatment"? lol
(I DO have a real question aboout tubes in the AMP section, but noone is answering)
This is reminiscent of a long time research project of mine" Do speakers talk to themselves when there is no one there to hear them?". Have had trouble designing a research model to test this; all suggestions welcome. Dr Stanley Wallen BA, MA, BD, PhD, OF
Gentlemen&Lady, you may not be aware of the seminal paper co-authored by Italian computational neurologist Stefano cappa and by Dr. Aloysius Schmaltzenstein Gavronsky: Physical mapping of electronic reverse transcriptase in cognitive neuro-acoustic networks (Journal of Pseudo- Causality, No. 37, February 29th 2009, PP. 345-398). In this rather long paper, the authors demonstrate how the progressive accretion of electron clouds nodal loci caused by the prolongued effect of external acousto-mechanical stimulation of dynamic drivers yieldss a hereto undetected reverse-transcriptase-driven rise in size of prion proteins in pre-spongiform encephalitis cases. The prion protein particles gain in mass by up to 250% in a matter of weeks when exposed to clumped EMF created by acoustic stimulation of said speaker systems. In turn, the exponentially virulent hypertrophic prion particles have provoked dangerously uncontrolled audiophrenic seizures in otherwise outwardly normal individuals, who have immediately 'invested' in uber-expensive hyper-sensitive and extremely high-strung speakers, with disastrous consequences to their credit limit, and to their marriages.
Folks, please don't talk to your speakers... Sheer hell will follow!
The best thing about this thread is that it prompted Al to give a totally untechnical response. And no, Al, I am not busting on you -- your very informative replies are always much appreicated.
Hifihvn, In 'The Italian Job', one of the characters was going to use his share of the loot to buy a stereo system which could "play so loud it would blow women's clothes off." Is that what you are thinking of?
Cables don't really burn like fire, they learn. See, the free electrons in the metalic structure, which exist in a cloud, and are not really attached to any specific proton, stabalise and begin to work together. When they all start pulling in the same direction then the cables are ready.
I think the audio store i used to shop at unhooked all unused speakers so morons that couldn't keep hands in pockets could not crank-it-up and damage or annoy the store workers.
11-07-10: Almarg Gee, I had been wondering if there was a way to break in new speakers without putting a lot of hours on the tubes in my amplifier. I just have to hold a lot of cocktail parties!
Gee, I had been wondering if there was a way to break in new speakers without putting a lot of hours on the tubes in my amplifier. I just have to hold a lot of cocktail parties!
Its ok so long as you speak in tongues. Most speakers understand english and don't care for non singing voices,. I would unplug them at night so they get a goodnight's rest. Messaging their backs put them in a good mood but some candlelight really enhances the effect. Mostly, after a day and night of playing tunes they like being left alone to ponder all the notes they've played. Since they're mostly twins they have a telepathic relationship with their other half and i think they dream in song. Pretend your in a library and you should be o.k.
hehehe! i did not really mean remember each note for note like a CD Recorder. I just wonder if there is something that can happen. For example, maybe the type of music played on new speakers sets up a general vibe forever. Like maybe it sets up a magnetic field in crossover or even aligns electrons in the cables and wires a certain way and they tend to stay that way for a while.
Okay, if you are still with me. When I had college physics, we put dust in a clear plastic horizontal tube and then played a pure sound wave in the tube. The dust, after a while, ends up in little piles spaced at the wave length of the sound (I think it is one wave). This prooves that sound caused high and low pressure areas. It travels in a compression type wave. You don't want speakers in a high pressure area IF you played the same bass Hz for a long enough time. or is it the low pressure area?
Yes, speakers do remember the music they play very well. Whenever I play a song I have played before the speakers sound the same. It's as if they remember every note.
It might sound dumber, but do speakers remember the music they play? There is a school of thought on this. For example, never play Rap or metal on a system that is used for jazz- it will be damaged forever. It will still play, but not as well. It won't really ever sound good again.
On dealer also told me to never place speakers in a spot that is a "bass node" - IT will cause damage?
Quite the opposite....I have a smaller system in my dedicated room that plays "Baby Mozart" on mini monitors to keep them company and in a sublime mood. I understood that these speakers have a very delicate sensitivity and can't endure neglect for long periods. Also fresh flowers daily,at least it keeps the maid busy.
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