Can low frequency sine waves damage hardware like headphone amps?

[carat]

I was trying to isolate and troubleshoot a chirping/ringing artifact I was hearing in bass-heavy audio (turns out it was from a probably-faulty DAC), and in the process I used a tone generator to generate low frequency sine waves all the way down to 1Hz. Obviously at the lowest end the tone was inaudible, but if I turned up the headphone amp loud enough I could hear electrical chatter which varied as I changed the frequency. Every time I moved things into the audible realm I was lowering the amp volume so as not to damage the headphones or blow out my ears. In hindsight, I'm wondering if there could have been any consequences to my curiosity. So my question is:

Can very low frequency sine waves damage equipment other than speakers if played at high volumes? When I google this, all anyone is ever talking about is speakers. I already understand that speaker coils can be damaged by sustained, high volume sine waves, but I'm asking about everything upstream of the speakers, such as headphone amps.

 

[solderdude]

Can very low frequency sine waves damage equipment other than speakers if played at high volumes? When I google this, all anyone is ever talking about is speakers. I already understand that speaker coils can be damaged by sustained, high volume sine waves, but I'm asking about everything upstream of the speakers, such as headphone amps.

Damage... no.

Very low frequencies at high levels could trigger DC protection circuits in which case the output may have 'drop-outs'.
The reason for this is that the DCprotection circuit has a minimal AC detection range as well (it has to) so very low frequencies (could even be as low as 16Hz) at higher levels are 'mistaken' for a 'DC component' and this switches the output of the amp off. Not to protect the amp but to protect the transducers (woofer/headphone) as DC can silently kill woofers and headphones.

Inaudible low frequencies at power levels exceeding that of the connected transducers (certainly when using sine waves) can destroy transducers.

 

[Lambda]

damage equipment other than speakers

Well Headphones can certainly easily be damaged from this.

But electronic like amps are very unlikely to be damaged from this.
(but with bad designed equipment it’s not impossible)

 

[carat]

Well Headphones can certainly easily be damaged from this.

Yes, sorry, In my mind headphone drivers fell under the umbrella of "speakers".