Can "Digital" damage my gear?

As for viruses being serious issue from the beginning (being treated seriously) - you must be kidding?

Nope, I'm not. The fact that virus attempts have escalated over the years does not mean they did not exist before.

The first version of Windows (1983) was released about 10 years before the internet became open to the public. It took the commercialization of the internet to give the viruses, worms, trojans and all that a chance to go big time. The fact was Microsoft valued ease-of-use for non-technical consumers more than they valued security.

However, these malicious files work by targeting the operating system and programs. The vast majority of them have targeted Microsoft products. Music files don't do that. There is also the lack of a universal target. What corrupts an iTunes player won't work on a Windows Media Player. You've got a variety of software players plus an array of hardware players out there. Hackers can't get their jollies with one malicious file screwing with 90% of the users as they do with MS computers.

So you're pretty much left with putting a loud noise in a song. Would a commercial label do that? Unlikely; they wouldn't want the lawsuits. So we're kind of back to the risk of music from questionable sources, such as a listener using their megabucks stereo as speakers for listening to a low-bit-rate U-Tube video.

We're back to risk analysis and prioritization. I've had my share of situations with my stereo equipment over the past 35 some-odd years including blown tweeters, damaged styluses, and other things that required repair or maintenance. You are certainly free to worry about this problem to your heart's content, but it is not prominent on my radar screen.

There was an asteroid (2009 DD45) that just missed the earth the other day if you want something big to worry about. ;-)

I wouldn't worry about a CD. Loose interconnects are the typical reason for loud noises. That's why tweeters should have fuses. But, for some of you guys, your fuses cost more than a tweeter !

Eldartford - I have only one 0.5m XLR (locking) IC. My speaker cables have Cardas bar type (common knob) very secure connector on amp side while on speaker side I have very tight spade connection (I tend to overtight). No loose connection here.

Fast fuse (straight wire) wouldn't affect audio but would protect my tweeters. Amp is different story.

My feeling is, and my (extensive) computer experience has been, that if you use a good anti-virus program, have a good firewall in place, keep your Windows patches up to date, and don't visit or download from questionable sites, viruses are not a significant worry.

In the last 10 years or so, during which the several computers in my house have received extensive use, most of it on the internet, I think there have only been two instances of virus infections that were not blocked at the moment of potential introduction. In both cases they were due to Windows or Internet Explorer vulnerabilities for which patches had not yet been released. They were detected within another day or two by the anti-virus program, when updated definitions were released, and no harm was done.

FWIW, I use the NOD32 anti-virus program. I use a SonicWall hardware firewall, which costs $450 but provides business-class protection for my entire LAN, with no performance impact on the computers. I also use Firefox 3 for web browsing, which is both better and safer than IE (as well as being much better than earlier versions of Firefox).

I set Windows to notify me when updates are available, rather than automatically downloading and installing them. I then use Microsoft Update to update manually. I believe that setting for automatic download and silent updating sometimes results in the process being delayed, for days or weeks. I know that was the case when XP Service Pack 3 was released.

I also regularly (perhaps once a month) use an imaging program to create an image of my entire "c" partition (in addition to doing backups of data files daily), so that if an infection were to occur I could simply reformat, restore the image, restore the data backups, and be back in business in less than an hour.

I consider all of these things to be basic to any serious use of a computer. But my observation has been that probably 95% of all computer users don't follow these or similar practices, which is why virus-writers, cybercriminals, botnets, etc., have proliferated.

Regards,
-- Al

Bad digital will probably hurt your ears first before causing any damage to your equipment. Don't worry about it, just relax and enjoy the music.