2. amps-preamps
  3. 178372-171868

Amplifier Damage

Had a question, can an amplifier's input stages be hurt, driving an audio signal through it while it is in Stand By/Powered down. The reason I am asking is I have two integrated amps hooked up to the DAC, one to the unbalanced out and the other balanced out. The one hooked up to the Unbalanced out was powered down while I was listening to the one hooked up to the balanced out for several hours. 

Once I realized that, I disconnected the Amp powered off, Everything seems to work fine, but I had the nagging question. Does the input audio signal get shunted to ground through a diode in the input amp stages when its powered off or something to protect the circuitry? 

Any inputs will be great

rman9

Showing 1 response by kingdeezie

kingdeezie
92 posts
 

Can anyone further clarify on this issue? 

This sounds like something I have done in the past. If I am breaking in a new component, say a preamp for example, I wouldn't turn the amplifier on when not listening. I would just let the preamplifier continue to play.  

Similarly my Pass preamp is on all the time while my Pass amplifier is on standby. Is this a potential scenario where the amplifier can become damaged? 

How would one run something out of the tape output? Say for example a headphone amp. You couldn't listen to one over the other without disconnecting? 

 

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