can not having speakers hooked up blow an amp

[Uranium-235]

My dad said not having speakers hooked up to an amp that is on can blow the amp. I think he was thinking about tube amps.

With a modern 100w/ch amp, whats the chance of this happening.

I mean, a surround 5.1 with the two front and center hooked up, but no surround speakers eventually damage the amp?

It has three dual channel amplifier IC's (because one channel has a subwoofer, which will also be hooked up)

[jiroy]

Re: can not having speakers hooked up blow an amp

Actually , no , because most of the modern Amps detect the presence of the speakers and act according to it .

Your dad non the less is speaking good about an old era where no digital processors were used in old Amps . If there wasn't speakers , yes , Audio IC's would be blown out ..

[jazzie366]

Re: can not having speakers hooked up blow an amp

Actually , no , because most of the modern Amps detect the presence of the speakers and act according to it .

Your dad non the less is speaking good about an old era where no digital processors were used in old Amps . If there wasn't speakers , yes , Audio IC's would be blown out ..

Don't be so quick to make this statement, I learned the hard way!

You can still run amps with only one channel loaded. They will see the speakers as being there, but they can't see if ALL channels are loaded! You can still blow the amp this way! Cheap car stereos work this way, such as the Dual XDM16BT, a 17$ @ walmart bluetooth radio. It's amazingly well made, but it has the fatal flaw of turning the amp on when only one speaker is connected, and faults with an acceptable resistance will also turn it on. It did however save it's own ass when I accidentally nicked a wire and it went to chassis ground. Easy fix. HOWEVER I did blow one of these out by being a dumbass! I have a 600$ 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse. I got it because it was a last minute, "fuckit" decision. Well, it came with a radio from the 1990's, and two blown stock speakers. The rear speakers were replaced with Lightning Audio (good!), the stocks were left in the front (bad!) and they were frozen from corrosion... Needless to say, the reciever suffered some damage. The left side works fine, right side is dead due to a short. So don't be so quick to judge, shit isn't perfect.

However, on things like my 1969 Rotel RX-550, if you turn it on and play music with no speakers attached, it will blow sky high. Newer amps, maybe not, maybe so. Friend has a cheapo Pioneer unit that has had only two of the 4 channels playing, but sound going to all 4 (it's stereo). It still works fine even when you throw speakers on the rear channel. So in reality it's a hit or miss. Just be careful and don't do that.

[jiroy]

Re: can not having speakers hooked up blow an amp

Don't be so quick to make this statement, I learned the hard way!

You can still run amps with only one channel loaded. They will see the speakers as being there, but they can't see if ALL channels are loaded! You can still blow the amp this way! Cheap car stereos work this way, such as the Dual XDM16BT, a 17$ @ walmart bluetooth radio. It's amazingly well made, but it has the fatal flaw of turning the amp on when only one speaker is connected, and faults with an acceptable resistance will also turn it on. It did however save it's own ass when I accidentally nicked a wire and it went to chassis ground. Easy fix. HOWEVER I did blow one of these out by being a dumbass! I have a 600$ 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse. I got it because it was a last minute, "fuckit" decision. Well, it came with a radio from the 1990's, and two blown stock speakers. The rear speakers were replaced with Lightning Audio (good!), the stocks were left in the front (bad!) and they were frozen from corrosion... Needless to say, the reciever suffered some damage. The left side works fine, right side is dead due to a short. So don't be so quick to judge, shit isn't perfect.

However, on things like my 1969 Rotel RX-550, if you turn it on and play music with no speakers attached, it will blow sky high. Newer amps, maybe not, maybe so. Friend has a cheapo Pioneer unit that has had only two of the 4 channels playing, but sound going to all 4 (it's stereo). It still works fine even when you throw speakers on the rear channel. So in reality it's a hit or miss. Just be careful and don't do that.

That's why we say something is of high quality and something isn't .. Something is cheap and something is really worth buying ..

Notice that i always use (most ) and not (all) .. And i do agree with you

[jazzie366]

Re: can not having speakers hooked up blow an amp

That's why we say something is of high quality and something isn't .. Something is cheap and something is really worth buying ..

Notice that i always use (most ) and not (all) .. And i do agree with you

Well I mean I was comparing a 17$ unit with a pioneer unit which for one of the same feature level costs 60$ minimum . ITE just don't take the risk, especially if it's sensitive equipment or high end.

[jiroy]

Re: can not having speakers hooked up blow an amp

Well I mean I was comparing a 17$ unit with a pioneer unit which for one of the same feature level costs 60$ minimum . ITE just don't take the risk, especially if it's sensitive equipment or high end.

I know what you mean . I once bought a Pioneer headphones for 350 $ , yes , some 25 years ago . and it's still working like nothing else ..
We cannot say the same about today's quality of course .. Everything is degrading , but when i say most , i always have the Chinese crap in my mind .

When repairing Any kinds of Audios systems , Usually , the first step i do , is using headphones , and the second is to measure the internal resistance of the speaker .
The third step is reading instructions , manuals and every references .

[momaka]

Re: can not having speakers hooked up blow an amp

Actually , no , because most of the modern Amps detect the presence of the speakers and act according to it .

Even *most* not-so-modern amps will be okay. I can't speak for tube amps, as I don't have any experience with those, but just about every transistor amplifier from the 60's and up - even the most crude designs - typically won't have an issue with disconnected speakers. Shorted or lower-than-suggested impedance speakers - now that's a different story.

With a modern 100w/ch amp, whats the chance of this happening.

The way transistor amplifiers are designed - at least class A, B, and AB amps - the output transistors cannot output a higher voltage than their +/- supplies. So whether you have speakers connected or not should not matter at all. If an amp blows up because its speakers are disconnected, it was probably faulty to begin with or it's a shit amp that deserved to blow up anyways, lol.

Another thing to think about: if the amp has A/B/A+B speaker switches, those usually disconnect one set of speakers before connecting the other set. This alone can present a scenario where the amp has a "no load" condition from any speakers. So clearly not having speakers connected can't be an issue if the amp has those switches. For a modern-day 5.1 Amp, you probably have a switch to select whether you want Stereo or Surround. But it does pretty much the same thing as the A/B/A+B selector switches (except it is all controlled by logic these days, and the speaker switching is done through relays rather than an actual switch making the speaker connections).