Will doing this blow my speakers?


Hi, I'm trying to chase down the source of a 60 cycle hum.

It was suggested to me to power up my monoblocs as follows: no to connecting any preamp to amp cables; and yes to connecting the amp to the speakers via speaker cables.

Will this blow up my speakers without any signal coming into the amp? I've been trained by other audiokooks to never power up the amp connected to the speakers without a signal/load connected to the amp inputs.

Thanks for your help, Jeff
jj2468
Use a gray 3 prong to 2 prong cheater plug on your power cords to lift the ground. If you have a AC ground loop you can use the cheater plug to find it.
One way an amp can damage a speaker is by supplying DC current, either by internal damage or a faulty soft-start circuit (the "thud" you hear when powering up). This, if it happens, is independent of downstream source components. If your amp is okay, I agree, you can safely power it up with no source components.

I don't think you need to be reminded to change connections only while every component is unplugged. Don't place faith in the power switch alone.
I had an AC hum problem in my stereo system and it ended up being the cable feed from my local TV cable provider. The fix was a filter where the cable hooked up to the digital cable box. Just thought I would mention this to you as I never considered this as a possible source.
Thanks all for your thoughtful responses. I should have said in my original post that the hum completely disappears when I lift the ground on my amps going to the wall socket.

But, I want to try the amps (monoblocs) with my new Equitech 1.5Q and Equitech advises against lifting the ground when using their device.

Plugged into wall - ground lifted ... no hum
Plugged into wall - not lifted ... hum
Plugged into Equitech - not lifted ...hum
Plugged into Equitech - lifted ... not tried.

I'll give removing the preamp cables a go.
Best regards, Jeff