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Participating Frequently
January 16, 2019
Question

Plugged in stereo jack, LOUD NOISE! Speakers damaged.

  • January 16, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 490 views

I recorded some tracks in Audition using my Scarlet 2i2 audio interface. The next day I wanted to play some of those tracks back and opened audition. I connected my computer to some external speakers via my stereo jack port in my macbook pro. When I plugged it in, my computer made the LOUDEST maxed out sound it could probably make and it didn't stop till I quit Audition. It scared the hell out of me and seems to have damaged my speakers--high frequencies are crackling now. I just got this laptop so I'm really bummed out.

My question is:

1. Why the hell did that happen?

2. I'm hoping to "fix" my speakers if I can, but I'm not sure whether I'm liable. Has anyone else every experienced this? I wondered if it was a default clock setting in the audio hardware that went to a weird setting since the Scarlett 2i2 was no longer connected. Ugh..

I'm going to talk to Apple too, but I assume they're going to tell me it's my fault. This sucks. Any advice appreciated.

-Tom

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Participating Frequently
January 16, 2019

I found a speaker testing frequency generator and my left speaker is clearly damaged. I also found a thread on Apple's support pages about a similar issue and it sounds like it is covered under the first year warranty, so that's a relief. Might have just been an issue with my stereo jack itself. I saw some people reporting issues with it.

SteveG_AudioMasters_
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 16, 2019

Recently there have been a lot more problems reported with Apple and their OS's than there have with Windows. You might like to reconsider what you get in the way of a laptop - I've never heard of anybody having that sort of issue with a PC...

ryclark
Participating Frequently
January 16, 2019

Sorry to hear that. Sounds like it was some sort of feedback loop within the Mac's audio drivers or the Focusrite routing unfortunately.