[pulseaudio-discuss] Delayed muting of studio speakers

[Chris Mayes]

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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