I accidentally turned the volume to max :(

Streaming Audio
1

Hi,

today I played music from Roon player and accidentally turned the volume all the way to MAX (100 percent). It was like nightmare to me. Extremely clipped and loud sound. I managed to lower the volume in about 3-5 seconds.

My system is Uniti Atom + Focal Aria 926. Atom MAX volume setting was set to 100% (in app). So 100 percent in Roon player means maximum output power for Uniti Atom with maximum clipped signal.

After about an hour when my ears finished ringing, I began to check my system for potential damages.

I did several sine sweeps on left and right speakers. Seems no distortion. Also I did frequency response and compared it to previous measurements (before accident). Also seems everything is ok. Also I listened to several track and seems they sounded ok too. External inspection of speaker drivers didn’t reveal any visible problems also.

Are there any other methods to check my system for being sure that nothing was damaged? I’ve read somewhere on the internet, that such accident can partially damage cones and it could be hard to find potential problems. They could appear only on certain volume and on certain frequencies.

By the way, it was Roon “bug”. I wanted to raise the volume a little bit and at the same time blue update window appeared (asking for Roon update). At the moment this update window appeared, volume cursor gone on 100% instantly. So be careful, friends, if you are using Roon.

2

I would just listen to it normally, it should be pretty evident if there is an issue.

You can set a maximum volume in Roon for each device, might be worth doing?

1 Like
3

Yes, I know it. It was a good lesson to me. Now I’ve limited the volume in Roon volume settings.

4

Never had that with on any of my systems including the Atom but not been near the volume when the update comes up.

The Atom itself had a bug before the last firmware update last summer in that it would switch to full volume when switching from the analogue input with AV fixed volume on to anything else, so I understand your pain.

5

They sound normally. So it seems that Focals are really good quality speakers if they endured such incredible huge clipping.

6

I never liked these digital volume sliders. Especially on Android apps. It is very easy to make mistake and accidentally turn the volume all the way up. Software developers should do them more wisely.

I think If my system were 200watts (and not 40w like Atoms), then the consequences would be much more serious.

7

If anything is damaged tpyou would hear it, so don’t worry about it.

8

That rather assumes it is not his hearing that is damaged :crazy_face:

2 Likes
9

I suggest you also post this on the Roon forum. They tend to monitor it, and if something like this is possible, they really should be addressing the problem. I once had a similar problem with a Superuniti after a firmware upgrade. Again, no harm done to the speakers, but my ears certainly didn’t like it, and the cat was pretty freaked out.

10

I think it’s the other way around. The more power the amp has, the less damage. Clipping is an amp running out of juice.

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11

Correct… though in the limit power several times greater than the speaker is designed for will damage the speaker… I remember seeing a Statement NAP S1 destroy the drivers of a pair of Focal Utopia III, playing Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture… the drivers couldn’t take the cannons…:grinning:

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12

Yes, I find the Telarc recording needs the average level on the low side for the cannons to not drive my bass amp into clipping (500W that is), such is the dynamic range…

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Thanks, Chris. I’ll post on Roon forums this issue.

14

Not exactly true. If talking about the same volume levels (below clipping range) - then yes, more power - better.

But if the volume is set to MAX (100 percent) it will be clipping anyway. So if amplifier is more powerful the clipping would be much severe and damaging.

For example if 40w amp begins clipping at about 55-60 percent of volume, then for the same song 200w amplifier begins clipping also at about 55-60. The differences will be that more powerful amplifier will release much more power if clipping limit is crossed and of course - it will be more damaging.

So imagine what clipping occurs at 100 percent volume from 40w amp (like Atom) and from 200w amp. The clipping from 200w amp will be much more destructive mechanically and thermally.

15

This assumes that the Amp clips at all.

16

Playing around with my Raspberry Pi streamers and Moode software, I had one setup with IQAudio DAC & Headphone Amp HATs. Plugged my Sennheiser 650s in and set it playing. Unfortunately I had disabled the software volume control in Moode, so it was outputting at full volume into the cans…

B**** me, that was loud!

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17

In app-sound seting- I limited volume on 80%.

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18

Limiting MAX volume in Naim app Audio settings reduces sound quality. Naim claims that it should not reduce SQ, but in my case it reduces. If setting is below 100, sound becomes boomy, with a lot of slow bass, and with dark sounding mids and highs. I checked it a lot of times (thought maybe this problem is “burn-in” related), but SQ is always worse if Max setting is less than 100. People talked about this in old archived forums also.

So I always use 100 percent. Maybe it is somehow related to Ethernet cables, I don’t know. Mine are low quality (not audiophile) Cat5e, and I use long run (about 12m) from Asus router directly to Atom.

19

I dont belive that limiting max volume is related witn SQ. So mine is 80%.

20

I started believe when set the max volume to 100 :). Try it yourself. Maybe in your situation SQ remains the same.

Atom has a lot of mystical things, like random SQ changes, long burn-in, SQ changes after updates, etc. This could be one of these many mystics…