How to stop monitors from popping during power-up?

jsl2h

jsl2h

Inspired
Whenever I power up my axe fx, (and then monitors) I experience a single momentary "pop" sound through them. I'm running windows 10, and this has been an issue since 5 years ago when I first bought the axe. How I usually handle this is to just turn output 1 knob all the way down, and then at least I don't hear the "pop" sound, but my Out 1 Clip light momentarily goes off anyways. And there is always a time, once or twice a week when I forget to turn output 1 all the way down and "pop" goes my monitors. It's very frustrating because I don't see why this should even be an issue. I'm running two RCF NX series monitors and I really want to take care of them, in fact one of the 12's is having a tweeter issue and I'm wondering if there was some decay over the years from this popping sound. How bad is this for monitors? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Kylan
 
jsl2h said:
Whenever I power up my axe fx, (and then monitors) I experience a single momentary "pop" sound through them. I'm running windows 10, and this has been an issue since 5 years ago when I first bought the axe. How I usually handle this is to just turn output 1 knob all the way down, and then at least I don't hear the "pop" sound, but my Out 1 Clip light momentarily goes off anyways. And there is always a time, once or twice a week when I forget to turn output 1 all the way down and "pop" goes my monitors. It's very frustrating because I don't see why this should even be an issue. I'm running two RCF NX series monitors and I really want to take care of them, in fact one of the 12's is having a tweeter issue and I'm wondering if there was some decay over the years from this popping sound. How bad is this for monitors? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Kylan
Click to expand...

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/pop-power-cycle-ax-fx.100294/
 
there is a lot of audio gear that "pops" on power up and down. the method is to mute your mixer channel or power off your speakers when turning off or on so it doesn't pop. over time this can damage the speakers. again this is not limited to Fractal gear, a lot of gear does this.
 
Monitors should be last on, first off. Solves the issue every time

Granted you can have things like a power supply that can have programmed power up delays, your monitors can have a "soft" power-up so they don't pop assuming you powered everything on together since they have an auto delay, you can have a channel volume fader totally down etc, but all which requires extra or specific gear features.

Last on, first off, works on any monitor, every time
 
I have those exact monitors and had the same problem a while back. Mine would intermittently pop on power on or power off, even with no signal going to them. I spoke to a guy in tech support at their America location (New Jersey I believe) and he had me remove the amp module and ship it to him. He repaired both and didn't charge me anything but the cost of shipping it to them, nothing on return shipping. RCF is really a great company as far as my experience. On par with Fractal.
 
I used to have the same issue with my Event Bas 20 studio monitors whenever I'd power them on using their on/off switches. Then I connected them to a dedicated power conditioner (Cheapo Musicians Gear brand I think) and switched them on simultaneously using the conditioners power switch and... dead silence every time. It's not clear why this works so well but it does.
 
lqdsnddist said:
Monitors should be last on, first off. Solves the issue every time

Granted you can have things like a power supply that can have programmed power up delays, your monitors can have a "soft" power-up so they don't pop assuming you powered everything on together since they have an auto delay, you can have a channel volume fader totally down etc, but all which requires extra or specific gear features.

Last on, first off, works on any monitor, every time
Click to expand...

Apparently not, since that is what the OP is saying is being done ;)
 
jsl2h said:
Whenever I power up my axe fx, (and then monitors) I experience a single momentary "pop" sound through them.
Click to expand...
Wait until the Axe has finished its power-up cycle before you turn on your monitors.
 
Thanks for the help guys. To clarify, I'm aware of the proper power cycle. Axe first, speakers last and vice versa on power off. I ALWAYS run it that way.

The problem is upon initial pass-thru of audio from my computer via USB, the axe always clips momentarily whether I wait for the power cycle to end or not. I'll give a scenario. Power on the axe (no speaker power) and open itunes. Press play, "Out 1 Clip" lights up for a split second. After that, no more clipping until I power down and power back up. This is the part that I feel shouldn't be happening. Seems like a disconnect with windows and the fractal driver or something.

So the problem compounds if I power up the axe, power up the monitors, and any sound passes unexpectedly from windows either from the OS or some website/music player I'm using and I've not remembered to turn the Output 1 knob all the way down. Happens every now and again and then I get the dreaded "POP" in my monitors.

What I'm saying is, my axe WILL clip 100% of the time I turn it on whether I have the volume up or down, speakers on or off, if I am passing audio over USB. It will not clip if I'm just jamming with axe/monitors only. Is this the same for you guys? There has to be a way to prevent this from happening.
 
Ah, now I understand what you mean. I've experienced the same thing running Windows 7. I don't know a way around it other than mute the signal path during transition to audio-over-USB.
 
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