Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site olivej.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!zehntel!tektronix!hplabs!oliveb!olivej!greg From: greg@olivej.UUCP (Greg Paley) Newsgroups: net.audio Subject: Speaker Fusing (particularly w/CD's) Message-ID: <271@olivej.UUCP> Date: Wed, 9-Jan-85 18:01:34 EST Article-I.D.: olivej.271 Posted: Wed Jan 9 18:01:34 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 12-Jan-85 01:23:31 EST Organization: Olivetti ATC, Cupertino, Ca Lines: 51 A friend of mine, using an NAD CD player and Threshold amp managed to blow all of the fuses on his Magneplanar MG-IIIB's. Since he had a pair of rear speakers running with a separate amp and was doing other things while the player was on, he wasn't aware of exactly when it happened or even which CD was being played. In his case, this is no big deal since for $2.50 he can replace all of the fuses. I'm concerned, because the instructions for my Vandersteen IIC's specifically recommend against fusing, with the argument that it shouldn't be necessary and will inevitably cause a deterioration in the sound. I'm not about to blame the CD player outright. I suspect that, although my friend doesn't own any of the "notorious" speaker-killer disks, such as the Telarc 1812 Overture or Wellington's Victory, he probably turned it up loud enough to hear something like the soft beginning of the Mahler 1st Symphony in another room, only to be blasted by the forte sections. The situation brings up several diverse points that I think merit some discussion: (1) How much dynamic range is really desirable for a home situation? In other words, do you really want to spend your time jumping up and down, turning up the soft passages to make them audible and turning down the loud passages so as to avoid being blasted out of the room? It seems a practical limit of sorts has already been reached and, in fact, may have already been reached with analogue recordings. (2) Is there an alternative, short of "on the spot" monitoring and speaker fusing to protect equipment in this situation? (3) Perhaps the first one that should really be asked: is this a relatively exceptional occurence, indicating a defect in either the player, preamp, or amp, or is it something likely to occur fairly frequently when CD players are linked to high-end, high-powered (150+ Watts/Channel) systems in the hands of people who like their music fairly loud? My personal concern is still somewhat theoretical since I don't yet own a CD player. However, another friend gave me the surprise of my life by demonstrating his recent-model Sanyo player which, though poorly isolated from shock and requiring a real struggle to insert and remove disks from its drawer, produced sound better than I've ever heard from a CD player in its price class. I'm still not about to rush out and buy one but, to say the least, it's given me second thoughts. - Greg Paley