“I recently picked up a pair of Mackie HR-824 studio monitors. When I’m using them sometimes the power light on the front goes out. Is this a problem?”
The red LED on the front of Mackie studio monitors has a dual purpose. Obviously it shows when they are powered on. But when you reach the maximum level they can reproduce – where a power amp would normally clip – they have an automatic compression type circuit that activates to protect the components from being overdriven. When this circuit is active the LED on the front goes out as a way of warning you. This should normally only happen for very brief moments even at relatively loud volumes. If it’s happening a lot you need to turn down the source. My experience with the HR-824’s is that they are capable of getting quite loud in a normal sized room without overloading. If you are monitoring in the near field with these and experiencing a lot of the LED flashing you are either monitoring at much too loud of a volume (protect those ears – they are the only ones you get…for life), or your material may have an overabundance of low end. Many people add too much low end to their mixes in home studios because the acoustics of their listening space are highly inaccurate at very low frequencies. Speakers with good bottom end like the HR-824’s make it very tempting to turn up the low end in your mix because they handle it so well. Be sure you check your mixes on other systems before going too far.
