OT: Do speakers just blow out on their own?

The title says it all... do speakers sometimes just blow out on their own?

Yesterday, I took a dinner break after working most of the day. Quit FCP, left nothing playing. I came back, and my left speaker - an M-Audio BX5a - is buzzing.

The power surge protector wasn't tripped. It's not the cable. It's not coming from the board or my system. Nothing new has been introduced electronically in the area, so it can't be electronic/magnetic interference. The only change to my system in the last week is installing the upgrade to FCP 6.0.6, and I can't see how that could be involved at all.

Which leads me to the theory that the speaker just blew out all by itself. When I power the speaker on or off, it gives out a nasty popping sound. So I'm relatively sure it's blown, but I've never encounted spontaneous speaker breakdown before.

Before I run out to buy (or see about warranty repair), there isn't some step of idiot-checking that I've missed, right? Power every thing down, restart the system, try new cables, is there anything else obvious that I'm overlooking?

And has this happened to anyone else before? It just seems like a bafflingly peculiar thing to fail.

Test the speaker / monitor with a different source other than your computer & see if it buzzes. That's my personal "idiot check".

Please put "OT:" on the front of your posts if it is not FCP troubleshooting-related.

Thanks.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Is the left speaker the one with the power supply and amps in it? If the buzzing is 60Hz it is probably a component of one of those that failed.

@Joe - Sorry about missing the OT, I'm a little groggy in the mornings. I shut everything off last night and hoped that magical elves would fix everything overnight. Alas...

Good thought on checking it with another source. The only other thing I have in house that outputs to 1/4" is my Line 6 Pod & electric guitar. I can now say that my skills on "Suzie Q" have not diminished, but that the speaker is definitely buzzing.

@VP - The speakers are independently powered. Is 60Hz buzzing a low, constant type of hum? That's what this sounds like.

Yes that is what 60 Hz hum sounds like. Sometimes a bad audio cable ground causes this, but you mentioned changing that out. Perhaps a bad filter cap in the power supply or amp. Sounds like it might be a trip to the shop.

...first thing I would have done is contact the M-Audio Community and see if this is common and how they deal with it:

[forums.m-audio.com]

...then I would contact M-Audio Support who would know better than a bunch of FCP Editors:

[www.m-audio.com]

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

A ground loop issue?



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