[Lenni]

there's a note that comes with the Onkyo amp, it read: after powering on this unit, be sure to turn the volume control down to the minimum for ten seconds until the unit become stable. Not doing so may damage your speakers by noise and other unwanted signals.

jeez, unwanted signal?! I use a laptop as a source, and with the speakers playing sometimes when I scroll up/down on a window I can hear quite audible noise/interferences that the pc makes. I'm wondering - is it possible for these "unwanted" interferences/noises to damage speakers?

 

[grawk]

The interference noises won't damage your speakers. DC offset at power on could potentially. The most damaging would be clipping from overloading the amp.

 

[krmathis]

Yeah, I say there is a possibility. Or else I doubt Onkyo would have provided that note with the amplifier.

 

[Anonanimal]

My wager is that the manual is referring to a possible power-on DC offset, as mentioned by Grawk. Just do what the manual says and make sure the vol is low when you power it on and you shouldn't ever have to worry about your speakers.

The audible noise you're getting from the computer is not harmful- it's just your internal sound card picking up the various electrical noises from the laptop itself. Annoying, but not harmful.

 

[Rdr. Seraphim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grawk /img/forum/go_quote.gif The interference noises won't damage your speakers. DC offset at power on could potentially. The most damaging would be clipping from overloading the amp.

X2. My own experience is that clipping from under powered amps is more harmful.

 

[rjoseph]

Do you have a general formula on what the comparable amp output to speaker RMS should be? Curious about it since my receive is 75 watts/channel and speakers are 175/channel.

 

[Lenni]

Thanks, glad to hear that. I got to get rid of the laptop and find a better source of some sort. I can’t even scroll a page without hearing crackling noises. I thought they could’ve be unwanted noises because they’re not Windows’ system sound, but internal noises of some sort.


@rjoseph - not sure. I think these two articles may give some views [1] [2]

 

[Anonanimal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lenni /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks, glad to hear that. I got to get rid of the laptop and find a better source of some sort. I can’t even scroll a page without hearing crackling noises.

Usually that is video card noise- my workstation PC at work does it. As a workaround (since I can't mess w/ anything internal in that computer) I've found I can strike a balance between the Windows output volume and the volume of my Mini^3 to a point where I can't hear the PC's internal noises. Mess around a bit with the separate volumes and you may be able to reduce the effect to a point where it will be easier to enjoy your music!

I know it's not an ideal solution but it gets the job done for me, as I don't feel like building/buying a DAC just for the work PC.