Re: SoundMeister warning

[valthoff@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Victoria M Althoff)]

May I suggest a further safety precaution for those of you who use 
SoundMeister, to avoid Mr. Empson's unfortunate experience?

Consider building yourself a special custom patch cord.  Simply connect a 
fairly large capacitor to the signal lead of each channel, in-line in the cord.
 This will pass the audio signal (AC), but will block DC, thus protecting the 
card from any voltage from an external device.  In fact, the card manufacturer 
should have thought to do that in the design stage...but as a broadcast audio 
technician, I have noticed that few devices actually employ such protection.  
Be particularly wary of amplifiers.  They generally employ a large capacitor in
the output stage to protect your speakers, but one of the most common failures 
in amplifiers (apart from power-supply regulator or bridge failures) is for 
those capacitors to short out and send DC to the speakers.  Yes, that will 
destroy your speakers.

Just a suggestion.  Remember, I don't own that card or even a GS, for that 
matter, but this should work, in theory.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
(b'cast audio tech--WCBE-FM 90.5, Columbus, Ohio, NPR/APR affiliate)