[pulseaudio-discuss] Delayed muting of studio speakers

Chris Mayes cmayes at cmayes.com
Sun Dec 27 20:20:44 UTC 2020


Oh, say, that does sound plausible!  It definitely seems like it's
intentional behavior.  Mine are the "classic" style of monitors, so they
don't have the cool LED screens on the back.  I didn't think I needed them,
but being able to switch off that behavior would be handy.

There is a volume knob on the back of each speaker, so it'd be a minor
hassle to keep them balanced, but it would certainly beat cranking the
volume over the threshold every time they go into standby.  I think I'll
start by decreasing the speakers' volume while putting the master PC volume
into its upper ranges.  That honestly ought to suffice, but I'll see
whether I can switch that behavior off entirely.

Thanks for the clue, Sean!

-Chris

On Sun, Dec 27, 2020 at 12:56 PM Sean Greenslade <sean at seangreenslade.com>
wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 22, 2020 at 08:04:36PM -0700, Chris Mayes wrote:
> > Yeah, I've had fewer issues since I've adjusted the output level.  The
> > thread you cited seemed to indicate that it's a build quality issue,
> which
> > may be, but I don't think that the signal breaks up due to faulty
> internal
> > wiring.  I've had plenty of bad solders with audio equipment in my time,
> so
> > I'd definitely recognize that sort of noise.
> >
> > In this case, the speakers more-or-less cleanly stop responding for both
> > drivers.  Once the signal reaches a certain threshold, the sound comes
> > back, again fairly cleanly.
> >
> > I'm reminded of my Nashville recording studio tour with Ohio University's
> > chapter of the Audio Engineering Society ~1996: one of the engineers had
> a
> > pair of KRKs (they have distinctively yellow woofer cones) that he
> > demonstrated by blasting his latest studio session.  Maybe the
> manufacturer
> > assumes that the average user will crank the volume, so they don't
> normally
> > test the speakers at low signal levels?  I've managed to preserve my
> > hearing thus far, so I prefer to keep things quiet.
> >
> > It's a weird problem, but no more than a minor annoyance.  They still
> > produce fantastically detailed sound, so it's hard to complain.
>
> If you check the manual for these monitors, I think this would explain
> the phenomenon you're experiencing:
>
> > Standby
> >
> > Your monitors have the ability to power down when you are not using them
> > for 30 minutes. If you don’t want them doing that, you simply switch the
> > standby feature off in the SETUP menu. But if you use standby to save
> > energy or because the power switches are hard to reach in your studio,
> > leave the standby on. You will know that they are in standby because the
> > KRK logo will pulse (even if you normally have the KRK logo light off).
> >
> > To wake up your monitors after they go into standby. Just like when you
> > first turn them on, there is a three second delay until the light on the
> > front comes on and a second later you get signal to the speaker. If your
> > speakers go into standby, ease your source volume up slowly. You only
> > have to break -50 dBu for them to come out of standby. This will keep
> > you from excessive volume spikes if you ease it up slowly. Also, as you
> > raise the volume, you can use the light going solid as an indication to
> > turn your source back down to avoid any loud spikes. Or if your setting
> > is KRK logo light out, you can use the pulsing light going off to
> > indicate you are about a second from the speaker coming on.
>
> Generally speaking, if you're hooking up devices that expect line-level
> audio signals to a consumer PC audio card, you'll want to set the volume
> level of the output to between 75 and 100%, then adjust the volume
> controls on the speakers themselves to achieve a comfortable listening
> volume. This will help reduce interference / cable noise as well.
>
> --Sean
>
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