If a volume pot fails, how does it fail? IEM safety with power amplifiers

[digitalfrost]

Just wondering because I have sensitive IEMs connected to a rather powerful amplifier.

Apple's AirPods ruptured the eardrums of a 12-year-old boy in 2020 when a loud Amber Alert was issued, according to a lawsuit filed against Apple in California

Apple Facing Lawsuit After AirPods Allegedly Ruptured Child's Eardrums With Amber Alert

Apple's AirPods ruptured the eardrums of a 12-year-old boy in 2020 when a loud Amber Alert was issued, according to a lawsuit filed against Apple...

www.macrumors.com

As long as I have a classic analog volume pot in between I should be safe right? Or not?

What happens if these start to go bad. Will they naturally "fail closed" i.e. no let anything pass through or will they "fail open" i.e. send full power to the headphones?

 

[JeffS7444]

What happens if these start to go bad. Will they naturally "fail closed" i.e. no let anything pass through or will they "fail open" i.e. send full power to the headphones?

Neither. IME it's very rare for potentiometers to fail outright: They may become noisy, but only once have I see the wipers actually break off. When that happens, you wind up with an open circuit and will likely hear little or no music, maybe some hum.

 

[sergeauckland]

That covers the huge majority of amplifiers. Very occasionally, an amplifier (Musical Fidelity A1?) will have a volume control in the feedback loop, and if that fails, the gain goes right up. However, that's pretty rare, so unless you have reason to believe your amplifier is one of those, then you have nothing to worry about.
Those few peculiar amplifiers with the volume control in the feedback loop tend to be characterised by noisy operation, i.e. there's a swishing noise as you change the volume.

S.

 

[Killingbeans]

What happens if these start to go bad. Will they naturally "fail closed" i.e. no let anything pass through or will they "fail open" i.e. send full power to the headphones?

The ones I've seen wear out or get dirty fail open, or rather increase grately in resistance. If you think about how they are constructed, there's really no way for them to fail closed.

If the volume is digitally controlled with a rotary encoder, then you are at the mercy of bugs in the firmware if it's badly written.

 

[kthulhutu]

One of the many reasons I prefer speakers and even dynamic driver headphones to IEMS, much less likely to destroy your hearing with a single mishap.

 

[egellings]

The noise in the pot used in the feedback loop is due to a little DC across the resistive element to wiper connection.

 

[Prana Ferox]

How does one use a volume pot with an AirPod?

 

[egellings]

Attenuate the signal feeding it with the pot, if the signal is accessible for that.