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Speaker damage?

Hello, I was just setting up a new pair of speakers when I plugged the source's RCA connectors into the amp while the amp was already on. This produced some incoherent static - nothing too loud as the volume on the amp was only at moderate levels - but I'm still concerned this could have been bad for the speakers. The speakers are so new that I'm not familiar with the sound enough to know if it has changed. Could this have caused damage to them?

Thank you.
mtm1502
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
+1 shadorne

It is very hard to damage speaker, other than by clipping, as shadorne stated. Clipping creates a lot of high frequency energy that can burn out the tweeter.  
toddverrone's avatar
toddverrone
840 posts
 
One other way to damage speakers is driving the woofers so hard, the former is bent from bottoming out. There's zero chance you did that in this situation.
mtm1502 OP
2 posts
 
Thank you for your responses! The amp was just at listening volume, so there wouldn't have been any clipping right?

Looking into it a bit more apparently RCA cables won't be properly grounded as they're being plugged in, which is what caused the sound. Does that change anything?

Thank you again.
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 
Don't worry about it. You're fine.... Enjoy your new speakers.
itzhak1969
515 posts
 
Most likely nothing happened and everything is OK , but next time plug interconnects or speaker cables only when the amp is off.
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