Does it hurt active speaker with popping sound while switching upstream power on and off?

[antony.h]

I have viewed diversified answers on whether it hurts. But it seems to depend on whether it is an active or passive speaker.

The story:
I have my Adam Studio active speakers connected to Topping A90 amplifier using XLR. And I have connection from my DAC to Topping A90 by XLR. Also with a 3.5mm -> RCA connection from display monitor to Topping A90.
The problem is, when I play game, I use the display monitor to output audio. Sometimes I forgot to turn the volume down on the Topping amplifier, and forgot to switch off the pre-amp output from Topping. While the display monitor turns itself off from idling, the power switch pops my speakers. And while sometimes I come back from forgetting about my speakers are outputting my display monitor, the display monitor powering on pops the speakers.

Even though the pop sound is very low, I have read that it is a transient spike and actually harming the active speaker.


Should I worry about it? Definitely I should always remind myself to switch the Topping A90 amp to off circuit when I am leaving my desk. But it's not that easy in real life. A lot of urgent matter could cause this careless handling.

 

[dualazmak]

Well, I believe, the more complex our audio (and visual) system would be, the higher the possibilities of unexpected (sometimes harmful) pop noises and/or intrusion of high gain sound/noises, even would happen accidentally.

And "the extent" would be dependent on each of our systems/setups; there is no universal solution, and we should be always careful enough in minimizing such pop and noise (unexpected sound) intrusion depending on our own audio/visual setup.

The ignition/start-up sequences and shutdown sequences should be also carefully planned reviewed and implemented in this regard; you may find an example case here on my project thread (even though I have protection capacitors for my gem midrange, tweeter, super-tweeter).

 

[dasdoing]

I can't answer,
but I always have a hard time understanding why these pops would be harmful. they never seam to audibly push systems anywhere near their capability

 

[RayDunzl]

Even though the pop sound is very low, I have read that it is a transient spike and actually harming the active speaker.

It doesn't take much voltage to make a little "pop" sound.

Disconnect a speaker from the amp.

Take an alkaline battery - 1.5V or 9V - and touch it across the speaker leads,

See how that pop compares to your power on/off pop.

 

[antony.h]

I think the reason from most people talking about damage on speaker is that, the sudden high voltage causes a high displacement which is more than the device could. And also some of them mentioned the pop is really high frequency. I don't know how high could that be a problem. Perhaps only tweeter could vibrate in really high frequency.
I'm trying to find out the "myth" scientifically here from so many experts from the industry here.

 

[dualazmak]

Other than amp pop noises, I am much more concerned about possible "unexpected/accidental high-gain sound intrusions" in case we use computer (PC-Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.) to feed digital/analog sound signal into our audio system.

And this is why I stick to "all in ASIO" signal path/routing within PC feeding digital sound signal into DAC, as I shared here, even though some parts of my policy discussion and implementations are/were a little bit outdated.

 

[solid12345]

I’ve heard some screechy Electronica songs that sound almost as bad as when I’ve had a loose or faulty circuit in my source equipment blast my ears with a dose of screeching white noise. The only thing it seems to ruin is my ears.

 

[LTig]

Even though the pop sound is very low, I have read that it is a transient spike and actually harming the active speaker.

That is wrong. If the pop sound is so low it can't hurt anything. If such would be the case playing music louder than the pop would destroy the speaker.

 

[dasdoing]

That is wrong. If the pop sound is so low it can't hurt anything. If such would be the case playing music louder than the pop would destroy the speaker.

So why is everybody afraid of the pops? only paranoia?

 

[Doodski]

So why is everybody afraid of the pops? only paranoia?

Blows tweeters sometimes if it is enough energy.

 

[tmtomh]

I would hypothesize that a pop sounds startling to us because it's unexpected and not musical, but that to a speaker driver it's no different than a musical transient at the same volume and frequency.

 

[dasdoing]

Blows tweeters sometimes if it is enough energy.

does it? or is it a myth?

to a speaker driver it's no different than a musical transient at the same volume and frequency

exaaaaaactly

I don't get where the diference would be

 

[Doodski]

does it? or is it a myth?

O' Yeah, it does pop tweeters and they usually give off a sigh/sizzle sound at the end....LoL. Seriously I have seen it first hand. Like the kind of static electricity charge that makes a loud snaP sound and touching the RCA cables apparently can fry 2 tweeters in a heartbeat. I did it. It must have been a freak charge and it zapped my tweeters in a tri-amp'd active home setup.

 

[tmtomh]

O' Yeah, it does pop tweeters and they usually give off a sigh/sizzle sound at the end....LoL. Seriously I have seen it first hand. Like the kind of static electricity charge that makes a loud snaP sound and touching the RCA cables apparently can fry 2 tweeters in a heartbeat. I did it. It must have been a freak charge and it zapped my tweeters in a tri-amp'd active home setup.

I think your experience and @dasdoing 's point can be reconciled as follows: a pop is not a musical sound. So if the pop is loud enough, and it contains high-frequency harmonics that are unnaturally loud (compared to typical musical harmonics), then enough high-frequency energy could get into a tweeter I order to blow it.

But I would presume that on-off pops are rarely loud enough, with enough high-energy higher-frequency content, to do that. I would guess a lot more drivers have been blown over the decades by folks doing things like plugging or unplugging an interconnect to a power amp without turning the amp off. Not that any of us here at ASR have ever done something like that.

 

[Doodski]

I think your experience and @dasdoing 's point can be reconciled as follows: a pop is not a musical sound. So if the pop is loud enough, and it contains high-frequency harmonics that are unnaturally loud (compared to typical musical harmonics), then enough high-frequency energy could certain get into a tweeter to blow it.

By averaging the rise time slope or using a instantaneous value the frequency can be calculated and the charge voltage is in the thousands+ for sure.

 

[dasdoing]

I think your experience and @dasdoing 's point can be reconciled as follows: a pop is not a musical sound. So if the pop is loud enough, and it contains high-frequency harmonics that are unnaturally loud (compared to typical musical harmonics), then enough high-frequency energy could get into a tweeter I order to blow it.

But I would presume that on-off pops are rarely loud enough, with enough high-energy higher-frequency content, to do that. I would guess a lot more drivers have been blown over the decades by folks doing things like plugging or unplugging an interconnect to a power amp without turning the amp off. Not that any of us here at ASR have ever done something like that.

I would say that a device able to produce a destructive pop should be considered broken. at least in an active setup. in a passive system a amp that is stronger than the speakers can obviously easily create all types of damaging sounds

 

[Philbo King]

Turn on transients can be avoided by design. Either soft-start power supply or time delay relays that connect speakers after a delay. Not having either is more of a design flaw rather than a broken unit.

 

[egellings]

I have viewed diversified answers on whether it hurts. But it seems to depend on whether it is an active or passive speaker.

The story:
I have my Adam Studio active speakers connected to Topping A90 amplifier using XLR. And I have connection from my DAC to Topping A90 by XLR. Also with a 3.5mm -> RCA connection from display monitor to Topping A90.
The problem is, when I play game, I use the display monitor to output audio. Sometimes I forgot to turn the volume down on the Topping amplifier, and forgot to switch off the pre-amp output from Topping. While the display monitor turns itself off from idling, the power switch pops my speakers. And while sometimes I come back from forgetting about my speakers are outputting my display monitor, the display monitor powering on pops the speakers.

Even though the pop sound is very low, I have read that it is a transient spike and actually harming the active speaker.


Should I worry about it? Definitely I should always remind myself to switch the Topping A90 amp to off circuit when I am leaving my desk. But it's not that easy in real life. A lot of urgent matter could cause this careless handling.

If the popping has a lot of energy in it (i.e. it's loud) speaker damage is a possibility, especially if voice coils bottom out and get peened over. Observe proper etiquette about your power up/down sequencing. On power up, power amp comes on last. On power down power amp goes off first.

 

[KSTR]

If the popping has a lot of energy in it (i.e. it's loud) speaker damage is a possibility, especially if voice coils bottom out and get peened over.

An active monitor should never bottom out a driver as that would happen in normal playback, too.
Today most of the drivers are mechanically protected against bottoming-out.

Turn on transients can be avoided by design. Either soft-start power supply or time delay relays that connect speakers after a delay. Not having either is more of a design flaw rather than a broken unit.

But cannot do anything against upstream pop noise as in the OP's scenario. The speakers are not at fault.

 

[egellings]

My home-brewed preamp has a relay that, when the preamp in off, shorts both outputs to ground. After turn-on, a delay occurs and then the relay energizes, opening the contacts to allow an output signal after the turn-on thump has passed. Upon power down, the relay immediately de-energizes and shorts the outputs to ground before the turn-off thump occurs. Problem with that is that I no longer care about power sequencing, and if I ever decided to try some other preamp without that protection, I could get dinged. Complacency, I guess., Oh, and the preamp uses a cool dozen vacuum tubes. I even named it; Earl Gellings: His Reference. :His for short, and you pronounce the name of the punctuation mark when you say it. Pompous thing!