"Michael Williams" wrote in message
om
I have a Marantz SR5300 receiver and I have a Xitel Digital Pro Hi Fi
Link connected between it (via a digital coaxial input) and my PC's
USB port. I've had it set up for about a month and it's great (sound
quality and all) and I usually use it to play MP3 files via WinAMP.
But this afternoon, I had set up a MP3 playlist for the computer to
play as I was doing household chores. I went down to do some laundry
and I came back and I heard some awful distorted sound coming out of
the speakers. It turns out that the software program (WinAMP) had
been trying to play a corrupt MP3 file and all sorts of distorted
sounds were coming out of the speakers (connected to the Marantz
system) . Fortunately the volume level wasn't high (it was at about
-25 dB or so) so I don't think that the speakers would have gotten
damaged. But my question is that, as this sound file may have been
playing for ~10 minutes (ie. constantly playing distorted clicks and
beeps for this time period), is it possible for this playback to have
damaged either the receiver (either the amplifier or the internal
24-bit/96 kHz DAC) or my USB Xitel Sound adapter (although I think
it's unlikely for it to have damaged the sound adapter since all it
does is relay the digital input signal to the Marantz receiver)???
The reason I'm asking is because now, if I put my ear next to the
speaker, I can hear a little hum (even in digital audio mode), even
when there's no sound playing, and I'm not sure if I had this
phenomenon before with this system.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

There's no way that playing some nasty-sounding stuff at a relatively low
level could damage *anything*. I agree with the suggestion that the
low-level hum you hear was there all along. Just about *every* piece of
audio gear that is somehow connected to the power line will put out a tiny
humming sound if you turn it up and put your ear next to the speaker. If
there was damage due to overload, it would most likely take some other form,
such as clearly audible distortion or big changes in the tone quality of the
music.