[magloire]

I had... erm... an issue in the kitchen the other day, and I had to reach for the circut breaker to shut off my hard-wired smoke detector. Unfortunately, the room with my computer is on the same circut, and when that happens, well, you get the picture.

After starting my computer back up, I fired up iTunes and noticed that the music sounded like it had been recorded from an AM radio broadcast. I did the first thing a good Mac user knows to do in any situation: trusting in the mystic powers of a PRAM reset. No effect. This was frustrating to me... I was hoping I didn't somehow damage the digital amplifier, or maybe do something worse.

After a while, I decided to try plugging the amplifier & speakers into one of the USB ports on the side of my display. Voila! We're back to normal, but it really screws up how my desk is laid out.

Is it possible that I caused permanent damage to my USB port by flipping the breaker? Has this happened to anyone else here?

[Edited to add: The problem was present system-wide, not just in iTunes.]

[stuffedmonkey]

You can test the USB ports on the cube by plugging different devices into them directly. If those work, they are probably ok.

[magloire]

Originally posted by stuffedmonkey:
You can test the USB ports on the cube by plugging different devices into them directly. If those work, they are probably ok.

Thanks for the suggestion. Now it appears that it's an issue with the amplifier or speaker hardware. I can plug it in to any USB port with equal likelihood that the sound will either be garbled, or only come out of the left speaker.

[Nivag]

does the amp/speakers play ok when you use a different source? such as a CD player or iPod?

[magloire]

Originally posted by Nivag:
does the amp/speakers play ok when you use a different source? such as a CD player or iPod?

No, same issue.

Now that I did a little more tinkering, I've noticed that if I have the volume very low, both speakers produce sound, but as I increase the system-wide sound volume, the left speaker gets louder and the right speaker fades out!

[Link]

hardly a reason to overreact, methinks. The cube's default speakers are... well.. without an isub.. horrible. I know this because I have similar ones :sigh:

And I did get an isub.... I would suggest POSSIBLY grabbing an imic or an m-audio sonica/sonica theater box and some nice speakers Sounds like you'd deserve something really nice.

Then again.. sometimes that's not possible I think it's odd though that a flick of a breaker to turn it OFF would damage the amplifier. Have you tested it with another OS (OS9?) or something just to make sure the driver didn't mess up somehow? That's weird...

Best of luck getting it back to normal!!

[magloire]

Originally posted by Link:
hardly a reason to overreact, methinks. The cube's default speakers are... well.. without an isub.. horrible. I know this because I have similar ones :sigh:

Really, if you're sitting in the right spot, the Cube's speakers aren't too shabby.

Nice sig, by the way.

[Nivag]

i think it's nothing to do with the Mac if you're having the same problem if you are putting another sound source through the system.
try another set of speakers, if you can. if it's the same you know it's the Amp that has gone bang.
otherwise it's the speakers

[magloire]

Originally posted by Nivag:
try another set of speakers, if you can. if it's the same you know it's the Amp that has gone bang.

Odd. When I turned the iTunes equalizer on, then off again, all the sound problems (so far) have gone away. Prior to this, I was having the problems I mentioned above system-wide, even when iTunes wasn't running, and another one I noticed was that turning the volume down to zero with the keyboard didn't silence anything, but using the mute button did. But now the mysterious problem is resolved!? I'm beginning to think my apartment is haunted.

[Skip Breakfast]

My advice for the future:

Get a UPS. If you had your cube on a UPS the circuit breaker wouldn't have had much impact.