Subwoofers and hard drives.

Rev

I read somewhere ages ago that you shouldn't put a sub woofer by a hard drive I remembered this and was just wondering if this is true, how far is a safe distance?

Got a HTPC to connect up today, and because of limited space my sub woofer is actually on it's side at the bottom of my TV stand. Only place to put the HTPC is on the shelf above.

Question being, will that be okay? Am I just worrying over zip?

Thanks.

aliEnRIK

I killed a hardrive by keeping it on the floor a foot from my floorstanding speaker (My hifi speakers kick out more bass than basic subs do)
ANY vibration can damage hardrives if left long enough

Rev

Is it the vibration or the magnets that cause damage?

If it's the vibration I'm okay since I can't actually remember the last time the surround sound was used.

The speakers are an okay distance away I think, I might have just just try and fins somewhere else for the sub woofer.

aliEnRIK

Vibration specifically for subs. Though if your hardrives right NEXT to it, im pretty sure the magnet will come into play if its not shielded

Rev

The HTPC will be on the shelf above the sub woofer.

Hammyman

Basically imagine the hard drive as being like the record player of old. It has an arm with a coil on that sits above a disk (called a platter) with an air gap of less than the width of a human hair. If it touches the platter, all kinds of nasty data loss nonsense occurs.

googler

You need to find out if the sub has any shielding, but it's unlikely to - it's generally centre speakers that are shielded so that they don't interfere with the TV when placed directly above or below the screen.

Hard drives should, generally speaking, be kept away from magnetic sources. I wouldn't put an HDD anywhere near a sub with a large driver in it......

Rev

googler wrote: »

You need to find out if the sub has any shielding, but it's unlikely to - it's generally centre speakers that are shielded so that they don't interfere with the TV when placed directly above or below the screen.

Hard drives should, generally speaking, be kept away from magnetic sources. I wouldn't put an HDD anywhere near a sub with a large driver in it......

Okay, thanks. Time for some re-arranging.