Can i blow up my FM3? (Powerstage)

MrPond

MrPond

Experienced
Hey!

Yesterday was rehearsal and many cables were floating around and one time, my power amp (powerstage 170) was connected to the FM3 In - but i think the power amp was off the whole time ..

Everything works but i‘m still a bit freaked out. IF the power amp was on, the FM3 would be ‚done‘, right? Like, broken. Or - could this stupid thing damage something smaller? I‘m just wondering and yeah - freaked out. Again - everything sounds normal, i just want to be sure everything is in shape.

Thanks!
Niklas
 
Connecting a speaker to the input of your powerstage might help you to travel back in time and avoid the mentioned incidence. Just kidding...

I always wondered why similar plugs are used for speakers, effects and instruments when it comes to guitar gear. Imagine how much stuff gets damaged due to wrong connections.
 
In a perfect world, every cable has a different color and so.
And in reality, some cables are or look similar.
Now after discussing how bad my cable colors are, any ideas to my initial question?
 
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Depends on how the input stage is designed. Worst case: yes.
But en detail, you’ll have to wait for the guys from Fractal.
 
The FM3 would have probably turned on its limiter in the input first.

If the Powerstage was off then nothing happened.

If you had FM3 In connected to Powerstage input instead of FM3 in to Powerstage input then nothing happened.

If you had the Powestage speaker out connected to the FM3 input then that could have caused some issue, but since it wasn't on and seems to work fine there is again no problem.
 
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Happened once with my axe fx 2. Nothing got broken; problem discovered with all powered on but before we raised on the volume from the mixer to the power amps.
 
responding literally to the subject line - can you blow up your fm3?.. yes.. of course you can ... but why would you?..


light relief aside, did you?.. well, with the PS170 off then no you could not have., and even with it on its not likely.. as follows:

You cannot drive 170W into an input stage due to the input impedance, nor can you blow the input stage up with excessive current (again due to its impedance) so the only potential damage would be due to an over-voltage - ie so IF you had an input to the PS170 AND cranked the PS170 to max into the FM3 input you could end up with a ~40V potential being applied to the input, which could potentially damage some internal circuitry however if the unit is currently working the chances that you have done some major damage is very slight imo.
 
Thanks, guys. Yes, the power stage was off. I really think so, but again, i also cant remember when i plugged the power stage to the FM3's in. So .. really weird. Everything works and sounds normal - so, i keep calm :D Thanks for the clarifications! I ordered a different cable to avoid something like this in the future. I'm a musician for over 20 years ... well, always something new ;)
 
MrPond said:
Thanks, guys. Yes, the power stage was off. I really think so, but again, i also cant remember when i plugged the power stage to the FM3's in. So .. really weird. Everything works and sounds normal - so, i keep calm :D Thanks for the clarifications! I ordered a different cable to avoid something like this in the future. I'm a musician for over 20 years ... well, always something new ;)
Click to expand...

In my professional life, I learn basic things I should have learned a long time ago at least daily. There's no way to know everything.

I think you're safe. It seems like sending that hot of a signal into the FM3 input, if you had done it and it had caused a problem, wouldn't be a subtle thing.
 
Always worried about this - I wrap my speaker cable plugs in red tape to flag me but ya - always seems like an accident waiting to happen.
 
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