I have a Marantz SR5300 receiver and I have a Xitel Digital Pro Hi Fi
Link connected between it (via a digital coaxial input) and my PC's
USB port. I've had it set up for about a month and it's great (sound
quality and all) and I usually use it to play MP3 files via WinAMP.
But this afternoon, I had set up a MP3 playlist for the computer to
play as I was doing household chores. I went down to do some laundry
and I came back and I heard some awful distorted sound coming out of
the speakers. It turns out that the software program (WinAMP) had
been trying to play a corrupt MP3 file and all sorts of distorted
sounds were coming out of the speakers (connected to the Marantz
system) . Fortunately the volume level wasn't high (it was at about
-25 dB or so) so I don't think that the speakers would have gotten
damaged. But my question is that, as this sound file may have been
playing for ~10 minutes (ie. constantly playing distorted clicks and
beeps for this time period), is it possible for this playback to have
damaged either the receiver (either the amplifier or the internal
24-bit/96 kHz DAC) or my USB Xitel Sound adapter (although I think
it's unlikely for it to have damaged the sound adapter since all it
does is relay the digital input signal to the Marantz receiver)???
The reason I'm asking is because now, if I put my ear next to the
speaker, I can hear a little hum (even in digital audio mode), even
when ther'es no sound playing, and I'm not sure if I had this
phenomenon before with this sytem.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Michael Williams wrote:

I have a Marantz SR5300 receiver and I have a Xitel Digital Pro Hi Fi
Link connected between it (via a digital coaxial input) and my PC's
USB port. I've had it set up for about a month and it's great (sound
quality and all) and I usually use it to play MP3 files via WinAMP.
But this afternoon, I had set up a MP3 playlist for the computer to
play as I was doing household chores. I went down to do some laundry
and I came back and I heard some awful distorted sound coming out of
the speakers. It turns out that the software program (WinAMP) had
been trying to play a corrupt MP3 file and all sorts of distorted
sounds were coming out of the speakers (connected to the Marantz
system) . Fortunately the volume level wasn't high (it was at about
-25 dB or so) so I don't think that the speakers would have gotten
damaged. But my question is that, as this sound file may have been
playing for ~10 minutes (ie. constantly playing distorted clicks and
beeps for this time period), is it possible for this playback to have
damaged either the receiver (either the amplifier or the internal
24-bit/96 kHz DAC) or my USB Xitel Sound adapter (although I think
it's unlikely for it to have damaged the sound adapter since all it
does is relay the digital input signal to the Marantz receiver)???
The reason I'm asking is because now, if I put my ear next to the
speaker, I can hear a little hum (even in digital audio mode), even
when ther'es no sound playing, and I'm not sure if I had this
phenomenon before with this sytem.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
The hum probably was there before and now, understandibly, you are a
little paranoid. The weakest link in your system would be the tweeters
in your speakers. They'd be the first to go. Actually, I blew a tweeter
in my system doing something like what you did. I had winamp playing wav
files and one of the files was still in 88.2/32. Since Winamp 2 only
plays 44.1/16 files, a whole bunch of garbage spewed out of the speakers
for several minutes. Soon after, one tweeter died. Interestingly, inside
all that garbage noise, you could actually hear the music in that file.
It was faint and totally overblown by all the distortion, but it was there.
On a slightly different note, but still related, a friend of mine, who
also uses Winamp, uses his EQ extensively, and EQs in software have much
more capability that the traditional EQs. He did his usual V pattern he
likes, but since it was software, the boost levels at the extremes were
very high. Instead of 6 to 10 db boost at 60 Hz, he was subjecting his
amp to 20 db of boosted bass and treble. I told him he was going to kill
his amp. He argued that it's 100 watts. I countered and told him it was
the input side of that amp that would blow. A week later, it did. SO
these 2 experiences, and a few others tell me that internal components
are more robust and able to handle overloads better than the high power
components on the ouside, such as the power stage of the amplifier and
the speakers. Most amps have a self protection mechanism that keeps
shuts them down to keep them from burning themsleves out, so the
speakers would be the next weakest link.

CD

On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 03:44:42 GMT
Codifus wrote:

I told him he was going to kill his amp.

If he had his amp connected to his line out or via spdif theres no way
he could have done that.

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with
ketchup.

"Michael Williams" wrote in message
om
I have a Marantz SR5300 receiver and I have a Xitel Digital Pro Hi Fi
Link connected between it (via a digital coaxial input) and my PC's
USB port. I've had it set up for about a month and it's great (sound
quality and all) and I usually use it to play MP3 files via WinAMP.
But this afternoon, I had set up a MP3 playlist for the computer to
play as I was doing household chores. I went down to do some laundry
and I came back and I heard some awful distorted sound coming out of
the speakers. It turns out that the software program (WinAMP) had
been trying to play a corrupt MP3 file and all sorts of distorted
sounds were coming out of the speakers (connected to the Marantz
system) . Fortunately the volume level wasn't high (it was at about
-25 dB or so) so I don't think that the speakers would have gotten
damaged. But my question is that, as this sound file may have been
playing for ~10 minutes (ie. constantly playing distorted clicks and
beeps for this time period), is it possible for this playback to have
damaged either the receiver (either the amplifier or the internal
24-bit/96 kHz DAC) or my USB Xitel Sound adapter (although I think
it's unlikely for it to have damaged the sound adapter since all it
does is relay the digital input signal to the Marantz receiver)???
The reason I'm asking is because now, if I put my ear next to the
speaker, I can hear a little hum (even in digital audio mode), even
when there's no sound playing, and I'm not sure if I had this
phenomenon before with this system.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

There's no way that playing some nasty-sounding stuff at a relatively low
level could damage *anything*. I agree with the suggestion that the
low-level hum you hear was there all along. Just about *every* piece of
audio gear that is somehow connected to the power line will put out a tiny
humming sound if you turn it up and put your ear next to the speaker. If
there was damage due to overload, it would most likely take some other form,
such as clearly audible distortion or big changes in the tone quality of the
music.

Ian Molton wrote:

On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 03:44:42 GMT
Codifus wrote:


I told him he was going to kill his amp.


If he had his amp connected to his line out or via spdif theres no way
he could have done that.

He was using his line out from the soundcard to the amp. SPDIF was not
an option. It's quite easily possible. If you look at a Winamp EQ, the
boost settings are quite large, and if you un-check the auto checkbox,
which he did, the signals get boosted without any max output level
correction by software, then the input stages of an amplifier will be
hurting.

CD

On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 02:07:13 GMT
Codifus wrote:

He was using his line out from the soundcard to the amp. SPDIF was not
an option. It's quite easily possible. If you look at a Winamp EQ, the
boost settings are quite large, and if you un-check the auto checkbox,
which he did, the signals get boosted without any max output level
correction by software, then the input stages of an amplifier will be
hurting.

No, they wont.

no matter HOW much 'eq' he put on the winamp soft eq, the line output will not have (if it really was a line out) put out more than about 1V p-t-p.

some old equiment used 0.5V p-t-p but modern stuff is generally 1V p-t-p.

if he got winamp to produce some really high ouput LF square wave output its a possibility that if his amp was turn up a bit much he could have damaged his tweeters. but its not very likely, as you said - it wasnt loud.

--
Spyros lair: http://www.mnementh.co.uk/ |||| Maintainer: arm26 linux

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are tasty and good with ketchup.

. or as smoke ;-)

Jodster

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...
"Michael Williams" wrote in message
om
I have a Marantz SR5300 receiver and I have a Xitel Digital Pro Hi Fi
Link connected between it (via a digital coaxial input) and my PC's
USB port. I've had it set up for about a month and it's great (sound
quality and all) and I usually use it to play MP3 files via WinAMP.
But this afternoon, I had set up a MP3 playlist for the computer to
play as I was doing household chores. I went down to do some laundry
and I came back and I heard some awful distorted sound coming out of
the speakers. It turns out that the software program (WinAMP) had
been trying to play a corrupt MP3 file and all sorts of distorted
sounds were coming out of the speakers (connected to the Marantz
system) . Fortunately the volume level wasn't high (it was at about
-25 dB or so) so I don't think that the speakers would have gotten
damaged. But my question is that, as this sound file may have been
playing for ~10 minutes (ie. constantly playing distorted clicks and
beeps for this time period), is it possible for this playback to have
damaged either the receiver (either the amplifier or the internal
24-bit/96 kHz DAC) or my USB Xitel Sound adapter (although I think
it's unlikely for it to have damaged the sound adapter since all it
does is relay the digital input signal to the Marantz receiver)???
The reason I'm asking is because now, if I put my ear next to the
speaker, I can hear a little hum (even in digital audio mode), even
when there's no sound playing, and I'm not sure if I had this
phenomenon before with this system.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

There's no way that playing some nasty-sounding stuff at a relatively low
level could damage *anything*. I agree with the suggestion that the
low-level hum you hear was there all along. Just about *every* piece of
audio gear that is somehow connected to the power line will put out a tiny
humming sound if you turn it up and put your ear next to the speaker. If
there was damage due to overload, it would most likely take some other
form,
such as clearly audible distortion or big changes in the tone quality of
the
music.