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[Bobby Dobson]

Our church just recently replaced our sound system speakers with all power front of house and monitors. We also have a separate breaker that all speakers are powered from. Is there anyway to turn off the speakers without that annoying pop or is the only way to turn off each powered speaker individually?....10 total powered speakers

[Rob Spence]

Our church just recently replaced our sound system speakers with all power front of house and monitors. We also have a separate breaker that all speakers are powered from. Is there anyway to turn off the speakers without that annoying pop or is the only way to turn off each powered speaker individually?....10 total powered speakers

Welcome to the forum.

You will get much better answers if you always supply things like make and model of devices when asking questions.

In your case, without knowing the specific speakers, there is no way to know if there is another way.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Jean-Pierre Coetzee]

Our church just recently replaced our sound system speakers with all power front of house and monitors. We also have a separate breaker that all speakers are powered from. Is there anyway to turn off the speakers without that annoying pop or is the only way to turn off each powered speaker individually?....10 total powered speakers

As above and also make sure that you always power off in the reverse of the signal chain, that means your speakers should be powered off before any system processor and that should be powered off before the mixer and the mixer at the very least should be muted before you turn anything off/unplug anything on stage.

I would personally call back the integrator/whoever that installed the system and would have them perform proper training or install a sequencer.

BTW this makes me wonder about the questions I asked regarding whether the cat5 cable is shielded in your other thread.

[lindsay Dean]

In other words the powered speakers or amplifiers  "ON" last
                                                                           "OFF" first
                                                                          sorry to yell

[Don T. Williams]

All of the above advice is good.  I have found that a lot of gear with internal DSP really does not like having the power "interupted" - that is having power turned on and off feeding the equipment and NOT using that equipment's power switch.  The power switch often opens relays (or mutes audio) so the system can go through a "start up" and "shut down" routine that prevents thumps from going to the speaker drivers until the circuitry is stable.  Interrupting the power by remotely switching the power on or off doesn't give the gear a chance to protect itself.  This applies to digital processors, mixers, amplifiers, and powered loudspeakers, and is not brand specific from what I can tell.  Analog gear may also have this problem, but usually not as often or as severely.

[Stephen Swaffer]

Don,

This doesn't happen with the QSC K10's and K12's we have.  Given the liklihood (presumably desirable from a manufacturer's veiwpoint) that powered speakers would be installed, this seems like a rather poor place to cut costs?

[Ivan Beaver]

First of all, breaker are NOT designed to be used as switches.

They can wear out early.

When you say "breaker" EXACTLY what is on that breaker?

Just the speakers?  Or are other audio devices on the same breaker?

If other devices are on the breaker, that is probably where the problem is coming from.

For example, when you trip the breaker, the speaker will stay on for a small period of time (due to the stored charge in the power supply).

The devices up stream will turn off much faster.  When they turn off, some devices will produce a pop on the output, which the speakers see as in input signal and it gets "passed through" and that is the pop you hear.

We need a good bit more information-makes model numbers-wiring etc to help figure out the problem.

I would tell whoever installed the system that turning off a breaker is NOT the way to turn off a sound system.

Yes there are some breakers that are designed for this (lyntec for example), but the standard breakers are not intended to be used in that manner.

[Don T. Williams]

Don,

This doesn't happen with the QSC K10's and K12's we have.  Given the liklihood (presumably desirable from a manufacturer's veiwpoint) that powered speakers would be installed, this seems like a rather poor place to cut costs?

Stephen, I agree with you.  I also have and sell QSC K series and they don't have the problem.  You are right that the engineers should anticipate this possibility.  It may or may not be just a "cost savings" issue.  It would be nice if all gear had a "remote power on/off" input with a universal standard.  Something low voltage like 12 to 24 volts to remotely power up and sequencing time options like the remote power systems from many manufacturers.

Any added feature adds cost.  If 75% of you customers would never use that feature, should it be added?  Just something to think about.
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[Stephen Swaffer]

Agreed-but one would hope that if a manufacturer installs fly points on a speaker, they would not expect speakers utilizing those to be routinely powered on with the power switch on the speaker?

[Don T. Williams]

Agreed-but one would hope that if a manufacturer installs fly points on a speaker, they would not expect speaker utilizing those to be routinely powered on with the power switch on the speaker?

That's a good point Stephen. Should be mandatory!

[ProSoundWeb Community]