Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions I should know this, but...

Is it dangerous to touch the speaker terminals at a given volume? My son has started trying to crawl behind the M80s

hmmmmmmm... good question.

I would guess "no", but wouldn't be willing to bet your son on it!

There is no ac going through the wires so it will not harm your son BUT is sure can do some serious damage to your equipment.

I thought it was definitely AC (although not wall current, certainly), other wise we'd have cones flying across the room.

That’s a good question, as long as all of the electric equipment is properly grounded it should be ok, ... it wont hurt to assume that it may have electricity and take precautions.

I had a bad experience during a rehearsal of a garage band I used to play on. The guitar amp was improperly grounded and the guitarist got electrocuted with the mic. He was lucky that the house breakers engaged and cut the electricity after just few seconds, he was stunned but not seriously hurt.

I have measured nearly 30v across the terminals when playing music up loud. This is AC voltage were talking about here.

Its certainly possible for a small shock at that voltage.

I sure didn't phase my post to well. It is ac but as Ken mention it is " not wall current " levels. I still can't see anyone, including a child, getting seriously hurt from shorting out the speaker wires.

Ken, I suppose my analysis would be that dry human skin has a resistance in the 10s of Kohms, while the speaker has a resistance of just a few ohms. If the current has an easier path, i.e., into the speaker coil rather than into the person, it'll follow that path. Although very small currents, e.g., 0.1 ampere, can be fatal, this doesn't develop from touching speaker terminals. If it was otherwise, I suspect that we'd have folks keeling over left and right when working with their speaker wiring.

Ah, but babies have mouths that they love to use to taste the oddest things.

Perhaps a little electrical tape over the connectors is in order?

I don't think he could get his head back there, but I'll have to double check. Thanks, guys!

How, exactly are you going to "double check"?

I just got this image in my head of you picking up your boy and wedging his head in between the wall and speaker...

Now that's funny!


I'm trying to imagine how Ken tries to explain it when his wife walks in on him.

HA!

Now that was very funny. LOL.

Tempting, today. I think he's getting into the tantrum stage.

Yeah, I can picture the scene: Jen comes in, sees what's going on, and starts yelling "You nut! I know that you were worried about whether the rear ports on your damn speakers had 'breathing room', but you're using our son instead of a tape measure?"

The easiest solution is for you to try yourself...don't forget to lick'em either as we know kids put everything in their mouths. Have your wife do a video as well incase your hair stands on end or anything

Yeah, already did that with a laptop power adapter. Not doing it again...

A liked your suggestion Hay. I then read Ken's reply and noticed his hair standing on end from his avatar (Burt). Too funny.