Protecting speakers in home theatre application?


I have an Adcom preamp and amp (GFP-565, GFA-535 II) driving a set of B&W Nautilus 804s. I am considering using this with a new TV via a (yet to be purchased) DAC, but I am wondering whether driving the speakers with TV / movie audio with non-music, non-voice special effects audio audio risks damage to the speakers. This includes signal drop-outs / and static-bursts since the HDTV tuner will be over the air broadcast rather than cable.

I looked for prior discussions but did not find them. Any thoughts or pointers to other discussions?

One final comment- I care most about music, not TV and movies, which I just need to hear. I’m not trying to build a theatre. So, I’m hoping to get a rather cheap DAC and maybe a cheap line-level pre-amp with a remote volume control. These components could also be a worry. To be clear, the setup would be to take the digital TV signal via toslink to a DAC; take the line level from the DAC by RCA to the in-line volume control and from there to an AUX in of the Adcom preamp. For music, my CD player goes into another input of the Adcom pre-amp and is free of all this new nonsense...just CD, Adcom pre-amp, amp, and speakers.
efrank

Showing 3 responses by efrank

Thanks for your comments. I must fit everything into one room. In any case, I'm still left with the question of whether there is a risk to the speakers.

Excellent- I'm quite reassured! Probably the biggest risk, then, is the cheap DAC I was going to use (Orei DA34). If I could be absolutely certain the TV put only 2-channels over the optical, I'd switch to the Schiit Modi Uber.

Willand- What DAC were you using?  (The 804s were about 3k rather than 7k back when I got them.)

Wolf- I have to take exception with your list of dangers. You forgot cats. 


My pre-amp has inputs / outputs for an external signal processor. Any reason why I could not put a filter there if I decide to do so? The advantage to this is that, on this preamp, there's a button to remove the external signal processor from the signal path, which could be done for non-TV listening.