- Do you leave your studio monitors on all the time?
- Ever wondered whether it’s ok to leave powered speakers on when not in use?
- Do speakers use electricity even when turned off? (The answer might surprise you)
Someone asked me this question the other day:
“Is it okay to leave my speakers on when not in use?”
The answer, while seemingly obvious, made me think that it would serve as a good topic to be included in our blog.
And to be honest, while researching the topic — there were a couple of things which definitely took me by surprise.
I’m sure you just want to get to the answer, so let’s deep dive into the topic.
Does Leaving Your Monitor Speakers On When Not In Use Damage Them?
Long story short — yes, leaving your speakers on will damage them when not in use.
Have you ever felt the rear of your speakers after they’ve been on for a couple of hours? They feel warm to the touch right?
Heat is the enemy of all electronics — the longer your monitor speakers are left in a state of heat, the more problems you are introducing to the circuits and components.
As much as a dream it would be to imagine that electronics have an infinite life span, this simply is not the case.
If you were to look at the product specifications of any resistor or capacitor in the market, you’ll find details on the datasheet about its MBTF (Mean Time Before Failures). As a benchmark, most of these components are set at a capacity of 2,000-2,500 hours.
With that in mind, why exhaust the lifespan of your expensive monitors for the sake of convenience? It simply isn’t worth it, if you ask me.
On top of that, degrading the very tools you use to monitor your mixes is not ideal for any self-respecting producer, musician or engineer.
Will leaving speakers on pose a fire and safety hazard?
I’m glad you asked.
I don’t mean to be ‘that guy’, but you’d be surprised at how many house fires are started by electrical equipment that has been left on or on standby.
Sure, you might have read that the chances of explosions, fire etc are indeed slim, and there are a whole load of electrical safety measures that are put in place to stop such events occuring.
But at the end of the day. why would you take the risk?
You don’t get anything out of leaving your gear powered on. There’s no sonic benefit. You waste electricity, and you shorten the lifespan of your hard-earned music equipment. Why? What do you get out of that?
Do speakers use power when not in use?
A Reddit user in r/askscience used a Kill-A-Watt meter to measure the power consumption of a set of speakers in 4 states:
- Completely off
- On but with no sound coming out (in standby)
- Normal volume music playing
- Loud volume music playing
Here’s what the user found through empirical testing of a powered speaker set (Harman/Kardon HK 695 2.1-CH PC Multimedia Speakers):
When the speakers were off, they use 0 W. When they are on with no sound coming out, they used 8 W. When they were playing normal volume music, they used 9 W. When the music was really loud, they used 10-12 W.
So what can we deduce from this little experiment? That switching your monitors consumes 0 electricity and the consumption increases with higher volume. Simple enough, right?
Do appliances draw power when they are switched off?
Yeah, so here’s where it gets confusing.
Alan Meier, a senior scientist at the Department of Energy’s Berkeley lab, state that roughly 50 devices and appliances in the typical American household are always drawing power, even when they are turned off.
In a study of Northern California conducted by the Natural Resources Defense Council, they found that about a quarter of all residential energy consumption is inadvertently being used by devices that are on standby or even switched off.
So, do speakers use power when not in use?
With a Reddit ‘scientist’ saying one thing, and the Natural Resources Defense Council saying another, I’m more inclined to believe the published studies from the NRDC.
If you want to take the safest measures to protect your gear, reduce your electricity bill and your carbon footprint, flipping the switch on your speakers is not enough. You’ll want to also switch them off at the mains/power outlets, too.
Yep, it’s probably not the convenient answer you were hoping for, unfortunately.
But then again, it’s not really that much extra effort is it?
Final thoughts
If the thought of turning every single piece of gear off in your studio injects fear into your heart, you could always group pieces of relevant gear together on a single power strip/board. That way you can switch off multiple bits of gear in one go, as opposed to having to go around the room manually turning each and every one of them off.
So, to end this article. Should you turn your speakers off when not in use?
Yes.
Excellent information.
Thanks, P Tubb! It means a lot that you found value in the article 🙂
Bro, you nailed it! Thank you.
Believe it or not, the only reason I sometimes do not turn off my studio (I have one single switch on the voltage power regulator, which is extremely convenient): is when windows 10 wants to “update” my system – something always seems to change my pc in unsettling ways LOL. So I postpone those updates as much as I can.
Great article, answered all my questions! Thank you.
Yeah I just left them on for more then 24 hours because i forgot about them but they are just 6 weeks old so I hope nothing hurt my babys. 😂
My speakers been on for years.. I never turn them off maybe I should start…. event 20/20P 8’ best speakers ever.
My set of KRK monitors just died in a horrific way today. There was a LOUD and audible popping coming from the speaker (which woke me up) followed quickly by the smell of burnt electronics and smoke. Good thing I was hope when it happened because it might have burned my place down and killed my dog 🙁
Hey Daniel, thanks for sharing your story. That’s extremely concerning. I would definitely encourage you to report this directly to KRK. In any case, I’m glad you are alright man!
I loved it when you said heat is the enemy of all electronics — the longer your monitor speakers are left in a state of heat, the more problems you are introducing to the circuits and components. I plan to have a family Home Cinema, and I will give you a knock as soon as the time comes. Thank your article. I will indeed look for an A/V Company services to install my desired design.
Having worked in the electrical and electronics fields for over four decades, I can agree with authority on this topic. One way that I conveniently control the power to my studio monitors and other equipment is with an old-school set of push buttons on a base made to set an old-style CRT monitor. My mixer rests on top of it, so it doesn’t take up any additional space, and offers some line transient and noise filtering to the receptacles on the back. I also employ one of these on my network equipment in the house. These can be found at thrift stores and yard sales, usually for little cost. Sometimes, a little stretch of the imagination can offer new life to old products, resurrecting them for an alternative use, as well as protecting our environment by keeping them out of the landfills. Additionally, one should power on the monitors as the last device to prevent the thump of other equipment in the chain from damaging the speakers cones, and should be the first device powered off before the rest of the studio equipment.
Hi. Just read this article and really valuable one I must say. Just wished to ask, I had accidentally kept my moniter speakers on for 2 days without playing. Is it going to be damaged soon?
Oh dear. I’m afraid they’re almost certainly destroyed.
Although some of your comments are correct, this is not always the case with some modern active monitors. Some high end manufacturers have a built in stand by function, so if the monitor doesn’t sense any signal it goes into standby mode.
Also if there is no signal and the amplifier is not running (active monitor) then there is very little heat buildup. A high quality studio or AV monitor will have a switch mode power supply, which generates lower heat then a conventional power supply with a transformer.
In 30 years I have never heard of an active loudspeaker failing because it’s been left on, I mean most of the time we are only talking about a couple of days. Of course if you are intending to go away, then switch all of your kit off.
In Costa Rica where there’s high ambient humidity, leaving electronics off for long periods allows humidity to damage the electronic components. Turning them on regularly allows the heat to evaporate that humidity away.
What about KRK monitors that have a standby state? Does standby still “use up” the 2000-2500 hour life of components? The slight heat generated can be advantageous.
I left my HK Onyx studio 5 on for days because I paired it with my Amazon Echo Dot Gen 5. All of a sudden yesternight‚ Alexa disconnected and my HK went off automatically. Till now‚ my HK is still dead. I want to open it and see if I can fix it. I’m sad!!! I wish I saw this post earlier.
First of all the information in this article is wrong on several levels. All the experts including myself have always left powered speakers on all the time because they last longer that way, it’s been proven. Turning on and off powered speakers does much more harm to electronics than just leaving them on and when idling they only produce a tiny fraction of heat that’s actually good for them which keeps them internally dry and operating at their best. I have subwoofers that are over twenty years old that I left on constantly, except when I take vacations, and they are still working today. I never even notice any peaks on my power bills, maybe a few cents a year, but there are ways to compensate by shutting other unnecessary lights off or other components like computers, less outdoor lights, etc. Leave them on and forget about it and enjoy your electronics. Have a good one.