Computer sensitivity to speaker magnets & vibration?

July 2, 2004 9:32 AM

I compute and play music in the same room, and recently I've been getting nagging notions that maybe all the excess vibrations caused my amplifiers and drums and all such as that may not be the best thing to have my computer around? what do you reckon? and I also have my actual tower on my desk next to a pretty sizable audio monitor...should I be worrying about the magnet inside of the speakers?
posted by mcsweetie to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Most computers are insufficiently shielded to be comfortably placed next to a large driver magnet. You might want to rearrange a bit. But I can't imagine the vibration from amplified music through air will have a long term deleterious effect on your hardware if it's of even average construction.
posted by majick at 9:40 AM on July 2, 2004

I don't know the technical aspects of this, but I do this as well (for years) and have never had any problems.

I use the CPU for recording.
posted by Quartermass at 12:45 PM on July 2, 2004

if you have a sturdy alum/steel case it should be rf shielded ehough. for vibrations, i'd put the speakers on something to diffuse the low end, such as some auralex cut to size, foam pads, or even styrofoam blocks. if you want to, do the same to your tower, but it's a little overkill.
posted by plexiwatt at 5:00 PM on July 2, 2004

damn my eyes! I didn't see that you had the tower so close to the speakers. what majick said, have them at least a few feet away from each other.
posted by plexiwatt at 5:02 PM on July 2, 2004

A steel case ought to provide some magnetic shielding. Aluminum, not so much.

Most computer hardware isn't particularly sensitive to external magnetic fields. Monitors, yes, are pretty sensitive. Disk drives, a little --- but not hugely; higher data density goes hand in hand with lower coercivity. The rest of the machine is pretty much immune to anything you're likely to have lying around next to it.
posted by hattifattener at 2:46 AM on July 3, 2004