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Will doing this blow my speakers?

Hi, I'm trying to chase down the source of a 60 cycle hum.

It was suggested to me to power up my monoblocs as follows: no to connecting any preamp to amp cables; and yes to connecting the amp to the speakers via speaker cables.

Will this blow up my speakers without any signal coming into the amp? I've been trained by other audiokooks to never power up the amp connected to the speakers without a signal/load connected to the amp inputs.

Thanks for your help, Jeff
jj2468
joenies's avatar
joenies
258 posts
 
You will not hurt your speakers doing this.
Post removed 
rodman99999
6,159 posts
 
You're right- They were just kooks. You won't hurt anything turning on the amps w/o a signal source. If you touch the interconnect RCA plug's post, you'll get quite a buzz from the speakers though.
steuspeed's avatar
steuspeed
501 posts
 
Use a gray 3 prong to 2 prong cheater plug on your power cords to lift the ground. If you have a AC ground loop you can use the cheater plug to find it.
gs5556
1,235 posts
 
One way an amp can damage a speaker is by supplying DC current, either by internal damage or a faulty soft-start circuit (the "thud" you hear when powering up). This, if it happens, is independent of downstream source components. If your amp is okay, I agree, you can safely power it up with no source components.

I don't think you need to be reminded to change connections only while every component is unplugged. Don't place faith in the power switch alone.
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