protecting speakers from drunkards ...

I've got a "second system" which lives in the kitchen of our house.

Recently, I'd noticed it was sounding rather muffled and a bit of investigation revealed that the tweeters had blown. These have now been replaced.

I suspect that the reason for this happening was other members of my household pumpng up the volume, and turning the tone controls right up ... the kind of thing that tends to happen when drunkards return from the pub on a friday night.

So anyway, I want to try to avoid having to get new tweeters again in thhe future, and started wondering if there's any cheap and easy way to introduce some kind of protection into the system.

What would be best is some kind of circuit breaker that would simply switch out the whole speaker if someone tried to do anything stupid ... but I don't know if this is really an option.

Actually the speakers have already got 800ma fuses supposedly protecting the tweeters, but these failed to blow during whatever event blew the speakers a couple of weeks ago. Maybe I should try some lower-value fuses?

Anyone got any suggestions? Or do I just have to try and educate my housemates on responsible use of amplifier controls?

 

hmm

could replace volume pot - use a stepped attenuator that at max setting only gives 50% of amps output

dont ask me how, a bit hard for me ..i get other people to do this kind of thing.

could probably get similar effects with resistors elsewhere.

 

I don't really want to get involved with messing about with the amplifier ... a bit of looking around on the internet seems to imply that it's possible to simply put a fuse or circuit breaker in the line from amp to speakers, but there doesn't seem to be much consensus about how effective this is ....

 

Maybe better lock your doors?

 

Hi,
I always liked the idea (for practicality at least) of a small light bulb in series with the tweeter. The lamp's resistance increases with higher power (temperature) and helps to limit power to a degree but will inevitably act like a fuse when overloaded.

 

And you will have a free disco!

 

also, maybe zanash would stuff a fat resistor in your interconnects for you.

maybe that would work.

don't know.. not a problem I have..

 

Set a grub screw into the fascia by the volume control. Set a similar screw into the volume pot so that they hit each other at the max volume you decide is reasonable. Alternatively, basically the same idea is realised in software in some preamps where volume is implemented digitally.

 

Hmmmm .... I'd personally think about adding very underrated fuses in the amplifier. It's not too much trouble but would be quite interesting to see their reaction to 'breaking' your stereo.

Imagine giggling, drunkards egging each other on to turn the volume up a little bit more and ......... "oh poo! .... no music!
owl34700 is going to kill us!!!"

In the morning you state how much it will cost to repair and how fragile your stereo actually is when used without due care. Maybe they will learn after a couple of times and you can replace the original fuses. Maybe not.
Interesting sociological/psychological experiment though.
Perhaps I'm just a little twisted.

Martin.

 

That will only encourage speaker abuse !!

 

Yes. Maybe this is the best idea. Maybe some fuses that would emit large quantities of fake smoke would be kind of fun, too.

 

Yeah. I'd thought of doing this too. And disabling the tone controls. Seems a bit dictatorial though. And I'd like to be able to make full use of the controls myself on occasion.

 

Put an L-pad in the interconnects so that full volume is not THAT loud.

A fuse in the amp will most likely blow on power-up, not when the amp is being driven hard so it wouldn't really work.

A light bulb in the speaker line will give power compression when hot and resistive thus encouraging use of the volume to compensate and oh dear!

 

An L-pad is different to a simple variable resistance volume control, right? Is there some reason why it is better?

 

perhaps a little radical, but how about getting a pair of crappy speakers from local free ads then u dont care if they get shafted?

 

Because I like to have some half-decent sound quality while I'm cooking my dinner...

 

What about inline attenuators.

Advertised in the back of most magazines

 

I'd get your flat mates to cough up the dosh...that should make them treat them with a bit of respect - simple as...

 

just set the volume and tone at reasonable levels and then take all the knobs off before you go to bed.