# studio monitors power off



## guitarman2 (Aug 25, 2006)

I'm getting tired of reaching behind my studio monitors to turn them on and off. If I connect them to a power bar and put the power bar at my feet to turn them off is this anything that could damage the monitors powering them off this way?


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## bzrkrage (Mar 20, 2011)

Following.
I have mine all on a power bar (monitors,sub,interface) one switch.
Volumes controlled at interface.
interested in opinions.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Leave them on with the volume off?


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## Hammerhands (Dec 19, 2016)

What model of studio monitors?

Most power switches do little more than disconnect the power, but you may want to have a look at the schematic.


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## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

power bar should be fine, it's just an on/off switch like the switch on the back of the monitors.


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

Yep - power bar is fine.


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## Guitar101 (Jan 19, 2011)

I use my DAW as my speaker output device. Everything goes through my Denon Stereo Receiver that is hooked up to a very good set of speakers. It is always on and has been for many years.


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## Guitar101 (Jan 19, 2011)

What happened? Did I blow your mind.


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

@Guitar101 No just a bit late to the party, but you do raise some related points.

First of all, if I were you I would turn that Denon off at least occasionally.

Secondly, in your sort of setup (similar to mine) you have to remember to switch the Denon's input select to something other then the one for your interface (or turn volume all the way down) whenever you turn the comp/interface on or off. The usual pop probably won't hurt anything, but every now and then you get a bigger one (e.g. had to vol cranked and forgot, or a power surge) and then you lose a tweeter in that very nice set of speakers.

Basically the rule is powered/active monitors should be the last thing turned on and the first thing turned off. If like us you use an amp and passive speakers then sub that for turning the amp on/off or at least switching the input select/mitigating with the volume knob. Powering off is best because it's so easy to forget the input/volume thing.


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

I never turn off my rokits. The only time it gets turned off is when there is a power failure. Been doing that for over 10 years now .


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## guitarman2 (Aug 25, 2006)

Chito said:


> I never turn off my rokits. The only time it gets turned off is when there is a power failure. Been doing that for over 10 years now .



This would be more ideal. If I could just leave my powered monitors on. I always turn the interface volume down when I'm done. Right now I have a power bar at my feet to kill the power to the monitors but sometimes I even forget to do that.


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## Hammerhands (Dec 19, 2016)

You can get your computer to turn off a smart power bar, or a USB hub.


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## Guncho (Jun 16, 2015)

I don't ever turn off my Mackies. If you are going to turn them off via power bar you should turn the volume to 0 first.


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## Guitar101 (Jan 19, 2011)

Granny Gremlin said:


> @Guitar101 No just a bit late to the party, but you do raise some related points.
> 
> First of all, if I were you I would turn that Denon off at least occasionally.
> 
> ...


You've raised some good points. As for turning the Denon off, it's a little late for that. I bought the Denon from my son for $50 probably more than 25 years ago when he upgraded to a new unit and it has always been left on since I started using it for my computer speakers. I do try to remember to change the input to video if I have to reboot my computer but occasionally I forget and I do get the pop you mentioned. Active monitors would be a pain in my case, the passive monitors work great and are not a problem. Since it's hard to teach a old dog new tricks, I'll probably just keep doing what I've been doing. However, if the Denon ever fails to work, I may have to revisit this post. Thanks for taking the time to reply.


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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

I use a power bar to turn my monitors on and off. 

I have a Mackie Big Knob Passive to have a readily accessible volume control.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

In most cases the power switch is just on the AC so using the switch on a power bar does exactly the same thing.
There are very rare exceptions though, where you have 'soft' turn on circuits and the unit itself stays partly powered on all the time (like modern TV's that are on standby when turned off).
Even so, if it has a standby circuit, using the power bar switch shouldn't hurt it, but you could get pops or possibly other glitches.


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