Outputs with no speakers hooked up safe?

[timmay8612]

Sorry, newbish question from a newbish guy Tried searching with no luck.

My background in guitar amplification tells me that if I turn on a tube amp with no load (speaker) hooked up I run the risk of harming the amp. Is this the case with solid state amps, as in home theater amps?

Bottom line, can I hook up a surround type amp with only the L/R speakers or just L/C/R speakers connected or will I damage the amp since there is no load on the surround outs?

Thanks everybody! You all rock

 

[Adam]

Timmay!!!! (Man, I love that screen name.)

I don't know if it's universal, so I'll just go with my experience. To the best of my knowledge, I have never damaged a solid state receiver or amp by turning it on without speakers attached to it - and I've done that plenty of times over the decades.

 

[lsiberian]

Sorry, newbish question from a newbish guy Tried searching with no luck.

My background in guitar amplification tells me that if I turn on a tube amp with no load (speaker) hooked up I run the risk of harming the amp. Is this the case with solid state amps, as in home theater amps?

Bottom line, can I hook up a surround type amp with only the L/R speakers or just L/C/R speakers connected or will I damage the amp since there is no load on the surround outs?

Thanks everybody! You all rock

You can't hurt your receiver by only hooking up 2 speakers two it.

 

[Adam]

You can't hurt your receiver by only hooking up 2 speakers two it.

Unless you hook them up wrong.

 

[timmay8612]

Unless you hook them up wrong.

I'm assuming by this comment you mean something like not observing polarity?

Is there any reason why I'd get more "hiss" or amp noise from hooking up fewer speakers? Keep in mind this is a Klipsch HTIB of sorts... Amp for the speakers is integrated in with the sub (moved to computer duty).

 

[highfigh]

I'm assuming by this comment you mean something like not observing polarity?

Is there any reason why I'd get more "hiss" or amp noise from hooking up fewer speakers? Keep in mind this is a Klipsch HTIB of sorts... Amp for the speakers is integrated in with the sub (moved to computer duty).

More like causing a short. Polarity makes it sound bad but really won't hurt anything. Your speakers won't affect the amount of hiss you hear unless you change to some that put out more treble compared with the ones before. Amps make hiss- it's a byproduct of gain.

What kind of guitar amp(s) do you have?

 

[timmay8612]

So I guess that I'm hearing more hiss now simply because the speakers are close to my face now that they're sitting on my computer desk instead of across the room.

As for guitar amps, I'm sporting a Carvin Legacy 100w head with matching 2x12" cab loaded with Celestion vintage 30s. Absolutely love that rig paired with my power attenuator so I can soak up some juice and get those tubes cranking!

Side note: got the Paradigm L/Rs going tonight for the first time with a borrowed stereo amp. Absolutely blown away - never experienced anything like them before. Yay Craigslist!

 

[highfigh]

So I guess that I'm hearing more hiss now simply because the speakers are close to my face now that they're sitting on my computer desk instead of across the room.

As for guitar amps, I'm sporting a Carvin Legacy 100w head with matching 2x12" cab loaded with Celestion vintage 30s. Absolutely love that rig paired with my power attenuator so I can soak up some juice and get those tubes cranking!

Side note: got the Paradigm L/Rs going tonight for the first time with a borrowed stereo amp. Absolutely blown away - never experienced anything like them before. Yay Craigslist!

Right in your face will definitely make any noise more noticeable. That's one reason recording studios use near-field monitors instead of only the big ones, like they did in the past and that's also a big part of why newer recordings sound better on small speakers- they were mixed on smaller speakers.

 

[timmay8612]

Actually, after playing with it a little bit, I suspect the problem isn't the amp but the digital out on my macbook. When music is going, I have hiss. When the music stops, there is a few second delay, and the hiss stops. All of my live sound experiences with hiss tell me that it should be there regardless of whether something is playing.

I have yet to try an analog signal to see if the hissing stops. Funny thing is, I never noticed it on my old set of computer speakers, but again, was using analog not digital. Crazy things... Dig OS X (hate windows), not entirely sold on the hardware.

On a side note, of course now that I have Paradigms in the living room I'm not much enjoying the Klipschs on the desk and want something better, darn this hobby!

 

[manofsteel2397]

So I guess that I'm hearing more hiss now simply because the speakers are close to my face now that they're sitting on my computer desk instead of across the room.

As for guitar amps, I'm sporting a Carvin Legacy 100w head with matching 2x12" cab loaded with Celestion vintage 30s. Absolutely love that rig paired with my power attenuator so I can soak up some juice and get those tubes cranking!

Side note: got the Paradigm L/Rs going tonight for the first time with a borrowed stereo amp. Absolutely blown away - never experienced anything like them before. Yay Craigslist!

carvin amps rock i have a 1996 valve master 100 head matched with carvin 4x12 speaker cabnet (carvins match to celestion speakers) and absolutely love it except a few years ago the relay switch went bad so the lead channel doesnt work havent had the time or money to fix it. you can get any sound you want out of this amp......