Home stereo speakers - how much can they take?

[Matthew Bryson]

How safe or unsafe is it to use a home stereo as a monitor in a home studio. The stereo / hi fi system and speakers in question are an old Sony receiver (probably from the early 90's) which I believe puts out about 100 watts, some large speakers cabinets with a 10" woofer and a few smaller speakers, and some Infinity bookshelf speakers sitting on top of the big speakers. The big speakers cabinets are voiced much lower than the smaller speakers, so I use them together and get a nice sound (they are all full range - no cross over in this system) That's all of the technical specs I can tell you, it's just a bunch of old (but quality) stereo gear that I've thrown together. In my opinion, this system is fairly robust - The sound quality is very good and it can get very loud. While playing an album, at nearly 3/4 volume the whole house is shaking and it's too loud to be in the same room with, so I haven't pushed it past that, but the point is that even at high volumes it doesn't distort or go into protect mode or anything goofy like that.

I use a little cassette 4 track (mostly as small mixer) and run the out puts on that into the stereo I described above. So I can, and have, used the stereo and speakers to monitor: drum machine, vocals, bass guitar. I got a very nice sound and didn't blow anything up, yet I still worry if this set up is really safe, or if I will eventually blow speakers or maybe even the amp in the receiver?

I'm talking mostly about the context of practicing / jamming. I'm thinking that using the stereo as a monitor for mastering a recording for example might be safer as the input signal will be a known factor - In my mind, if I'm going to blow a speaker it is more likely to happen while just jamming when I decide to start whacking or slapping at the bass and forget to watch the input gain level.

So, sorry for the lengthy post, I'm just trying to provide as many details as possible. Is it safe to play through the stereo? Out of the drum machine, the microphone, and the bass guitar are any more risky than others? I'm guessing that the BG is the hardest on equipment, but I really don't know.

This is my first attempt at setting up a home studio, and I like the way this stereo sounds - I don't want to destroy any of these components. Any advice is appreciated.

[morf]

My advice: buy a decent soundcard, use the bass plugged straight into it, then hook your stereo to the computer (soundcard).

[Matthew Bryson]

Originally Posted by morf

My advice: buy a decent soundcard, use the bass plugged straight into it, then hook your stereo to the computer (soundcard).

Thank you, but no, not an option. I don't have a PC available. I'd have to go buy a computer, and that just wouldn't fit the low budget / low fi vibe I have going here. Also, I'm not sure how that's any easier on the receiver or speakers for jamming?

This is just a hobbyist / hack studio centered around a Tascam mkII 4 track.

I have two bass amps, I can run my bass through one and the vocals through the other, but the drum machine sounds like crap through a bass amp (well, really only the cymbals - no good through a 1x15") So I've been running the drums through the home stereo, and sometimes I might like to run drums, bass, and voice through the stereo - just so that they can all by controlled by one master volume once all the levels are set. I just want to know if I'm going blow something up doing this, or if this is how it's done, that's all.

To really picture what I'm talking about here, everybody think back to the 80's and how you used to do it 20 or so years ago, because all of the gear I'm using (even if it's new) is what was being used 20+ years ago.

[morf]

Hmm, I dont know, I've only done it the way I described, and even slapping/popping at high volumes was fine. But my soundcard is made so I can plug my instrument straight into it and record.

[Matthew Bryson]

In my case, wouldn't what I'm doing be pretty much the same thing or at least very similar?

Drum machine -> 4 track / mixer -> Home stereo
Bass Guitar -> 4 track / mixer -> Home stereo

Now, assuming that I set my levels correctly on the 4 track / mixer, isn't the home stereo getting pretty much the same signal that it would from your sound card?

[morf]

Ah yes, indeed. Sorry I missed the mixer part, if you're plugging into a mixer, you can plug the stereo on the output, you wont cause any damage whatsoever.

[Matthew Bryson]

Thanks morf!

[morf]

No problem

[velvetkevorkian]

I concur, with 100 watt speakers and the levels set ok, you shouldn't have any problems.