How bad is it to generate a 2hz tone?

that would depend on how much amplification your using while doing it.also would depend on what kind of speaker ya have.how long were the speakers exposed to a 2hz tone?alot of variables to your question.
 
120 watt per channel amp on my little insignias at 70% ish volume, 20 seconds a few times. I was just impressed that it worked.
 
What program did you use to generate a 2hz tone?

Also...I'm wondering if this would be a good way to burn in equipment.
 
yeah i wouldnt do that to much on insignias.also id say thats a better way to burn up equipment,than burn in equipment.
 
foobar2k has this built in. Click File - Add Location... and type:

tone://<Hz>,<seconds> (click OK, then click Play)

For example, to get a 10 second 1000 Hz tone you'd type:

tone://1000,10 (click OK, click Play)

and there ya go... very cool feature, comes in handy at times. You can even create audio files from that method by using the Convert feature - give yourself a library of test tones in WAV format. :)

But here's a 60 second 2 Hz WAV file just in case:

http://members.cox.net/br0adband/Tone_2_Hz.rar (52KB compressed, 5.5MB native)

Just tested my Sony V6 (originals) that are rated down to 5 Hz with a 5 Hz test tone. While I can't actually hear that low, they most certainly were recreating the vibration as I felt the "hum" and the air on my eardrum... too bad I can't get the 30 kHz max. :p
 
Not good for your amp. Nor your speakers.

Speakers are basically a dead short on DC - 2hz AC is very close to that. Speakers are a coil of wire inside a magnet. When given audio - 20hz - 20khz - it acts as a resistor. Look up "inductive reactance". When the signal goes that low it basically stops being a resistor and starts being a dead short. Your amp doesn't like having its load a dead short. It will serve to heat up the voice coil and your lucky the final amp section of your source is still alive.

I wouldn't do that too much.
 
If it is so bad for the receiver then why isn't there some kind of limiter on the receiver so that it won't play anything below 20hz?
 
ive been into audio equipment since the 1970's.i have been repairing audio equipment since the mid 80's.i can honestly say its not good on the equipment to do this.at low power levels it could take it for a long period of time without harm.the op said he was running this at 70% volume level.which we all know you can easily push an amp,or receiver to full output way before ya get the actual volume control that high.depending on other setting,and input source level.clipping an amp is very bad to start with.but doing it at 2hz would be really bad.in fact you cant even hear that low.if he heard anything at all it was the overtones produced by the speaker itself,and not the true primary frequency.


to sum up i wouldnt reccommend doing this especially with the volume turned up that high.
 
There are onlya few subwoofers even capable of properly recreating a 2 hztone without damage. The electronics won't be hurt- they don't care what frequency (for the most part). I wouldn't run any test tones through a ported speaker more than 1/2 octave below tuning EVER. The suspension will be unloaded and absolutely max itself. Something made like a Digital Designs driver will live, but who would want to actually listen to one of those (blech)?

With a sealed driver, you won't kill the suspension, but the voice coil will burn as the speaker is moving so slowly it can't cool itself. In short, bad idea unless you've made something specifically to reproduce frequencies like that. Maybe an old PG Cyclone, or that rotary fan-looking thing.
 
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