to fuse or not to fuse a speaker what say you?

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do you fuse your monitors

  • yes for peak

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • yes for average

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • no

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0
  • Poll closed .

pucho812

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O.k. wondering what peoples thoughts are when it comes to fusing speakers. Obviously one can only protect against peak voltages or average but not both. I have heard arguments for both and basicly am doing a poll as I have worked in places that do have done both.
 
By average, I presume you mean with slow-blow fuses? I haven't heard of that before.

Here's an interesteing thought though; most people use nice thick, OFC speaker cable. Think about how much resistance a fuse offers and how narrow it's electron path is.

BTW, I voted no; I have ATC T16s - they're active :grin:
 
depends on what's cheaper and easier to replace - Cone kit, or a fuse? Decision seems obvious to me. I don't accept the argument of "Having to squeeze the electrons through the little fuse filament" - Sure, you use heavy guage wire to keep the resistance losses down and the damping factor high, but I don't think the 3/4 inch fuse filament is going to change the resistance enough to cause audio degredation; you might hear something if you had a couple hundred fuses in series instead of speaker wire. Many speakers voice coils are wound with wire not much thicker than the filament in a fuse. I put my money on the fuse. It's cheap insurance.
 
I have had the experience of others destroying my speakers many times.

As Kev says, in the PA biz you do what you have to do. When I used to run my own rig, I never actually put anything in line other than a limiter set to 'brick wall' at a given point. This worked fine as long as the operator agreed not to change the setting. I could well understand that some operators did not need or like this but too many just didn't care enough about my equipment.

Then, in my little home setup, a good friend of mine blew the drivers on my monitors. For many studios this is not uncommon, but I cannot afford to replace the buggers, so I now have fuses on the leads.

At first I tried to tell myself that it sounded bad, but the truth is that I cannot really tell the difference between the standard leads and the fused ones. I listen at low levels and the monitors are not the most revealing, but I am certain that for my purposes, it doesn't make any difference. I am also willing to consider that my hearing is not perfect, but all the more reason to save $. Speaker cable audiophoolery leaves me cold.

Oh, and another friend blew several of the fuses, so I reckon that even if there is a small sacrifice in quality, it could be worthwhile in my case.
 
The best sounding NS10's that I've ever used were fused. That's what convinced me. Fuse 'em!
 
[quote author="drpat"]The best sounding NS10's that I've ever used were fused. That's what convinced me. Fuse 'em![/quote]

Funny I was thinking of NS-10's as the question came up. The westlake audio(former employer) standard was no fuse because there was idea of it changes the sound quality but looking at the wire from crossover to speakers and I am going well thats thin too so whats the deal. I never really monitor loudly enough where fuses have saved me fact I've only popped a handful in my time on speakers that were passive. Now by fusing for average VS peak I ment average voltage VS peak voltage I supposed putting 2 fuses would fix that but then comes the issue of how much does it change sound. Enough to really care probably not on NS-10's. Live sound is one thing but I am mainly asking for studio purposes. I suppose if Myself and my band of scurved seadogs were the only ones using them and we collectly do not listen loudly then why fuse but it's the producers I worry about. the ones who monitor with the pot as full clockwise as you can get. :? :shock:
So being how this is non specific other then passivetime to vote and see the results.... :thumb:
 
what about resistance, and damping factor?
i think the application count's too.
 
to fuse or not to fuse?, depends if you own the speakers or not. and if you plan to leave the room with others on the dial. and by the way, i have a client that blew an active speaker(speaker itself) by playing very loud.
 
[quote author="drpat"]The best sounding NS10's that I've ever used were fused. That's what convinced me. Fuse 'em![/quote]

We use a fuse inline with our NS-10sm and any other set of monitors that aren't self-powered.
 
[quote author="Elk Latham"]So, how big of a fuse is normally used? Is there a rule of thumb or something?

Elk[/quote]

yeah some guy named OHM invented this law which dictates all the crap we do.
 
[quote author="Chae H Ham"]PTC thermistors can be very handy for this application because it can save your speakers without stopping the gig like a fuse will. You just have to turn down the level for a few seconds to reset the PTC back to it's low temp state. At normal operating current it presents a low nominal resistance that increases drastically as the heat (current) rises and can lower output by about -20dB. Similar to an auto ducker, but one that sounds awful when it trips.

When using PTCs for speakers you will have to find a modest current trip limit because it takes a second or two until they trip after the current threshold is exceeded. It is also a good idea to match the PTCs that you will be using for a pair of speakers as tolerances are generally around 20%. But that's not too difficult, just set up a wheatstone bridge test jig.[/quote]

PTC's! Oi! This has been one of my "pocket pen protector" tech moments in the studio where theory does not relate to the real world. Or at least my ex- work world. . . I have not found the proper value PTC for studio speakers. They either blow too soon, too often- and I find chewed pieces of Bud Light aluminum cans jammed in the the connections. . .
Or I get blown speakers with the PTC having done diddly!!

FUSES win in practical use. The 1.5A ACG comes to mind. . . shiny, beautiful, blown, scattered on the floor.
I use 1.5A ACG on NS-10 and on the tweeter of our precious, coveted Westlake BBSM-5's. Pucho- the tweets on those go for about $130 for a pair- why do you think that they do not want resistors in the chain?

I have a King Crimson bootleg. Some guy in the crowd keeps yelling "LOUDER!! LOUDER!!". Robert Fripp's answer is "Sir, instead of us playing louder, perhaps you could listen more attentively!"
It did'nt work for Fripp, and it has'nt worked for me either. I fuse or level limit whatever I can and let them think it goes to "11".
Mike
 
[quote author="pucho812"]I worry about. the ones who monitor with the pot as full clockwise as you can get.
[/quote]

I run my Master Control Room level at maximum. Always.
I callibrate the sensitivity of my Amps to get decent levels for the customers and safety levels for the speakers, so there's no chance to blow them.
 

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