Studio monitors cutting out

[CommonCourtesy]

I acquired some Mackie CR4 studio monitors last Tuesday, they set up easily and I used them with no problems for guitar lessons the same day (had 4 students) then did the same on Wednesday (another 4). All working fine and sounding great. 2 lessons on Saturday and again sounding great, however by the afternoon session they suddenly cut out without any audio playing or anything plugged in. I initially thought I'd blown a fuse or something, however after 10 minutes it switched back on and normal service resumed.

I did a lesson on Sunday with no issues, and then one this morning. Then in the first of two evening lessons it cut out again, mid-playback. So I changed the connector source, previously I'd been using a cable reel extension into another extension (really bad I know) so I plugged in via a separate wall socket before the lesson started. I then switched to a power strip and ran with that for the second lesson, but it cut out in the first 10 minutes. I then plugged straight into the wall socket and again it cut out, so my initial reaction was it could be a faulty monitor.

After the lessons I tested out some tracks in another room and it played ok though, so I'm not 100% sure where the cut out is coming from as I initially thought it was through overheating, the cable reel has a thermal cut out thing on there so if any overheating occurs it'll stop. But my combo amp ran fine so it can't possibly be the electrics in my house?

I've barely had these monitors a week and its cut out 3-4 times, so I'd welcome any suggestions!

[AndyR]

I did a little search online when I saw this yesterday. Couldn't find anything about the CR4s doing it, but there did seem to be quite a few hits with people asking about other Mackies cutting out.

There was one guy (a dj, using bigger mackies) who said he found he was sending too hot a signal to the monitors and their safety circuitry caused them to cut-out instead of overheating. After he lowered the master fader on his desk (sounds like he was pushing the fader past unity gain) he never had the problem again.

Not sure whether you might be experiencing something similar?

[CommonCourtesy]

It could be very possible, this morning when using it I turned the volume down on the output of a drum machine pedal. It still cut out after a few minutes, so I called the shop and they seem to think its a manufacturing error. They've arranged for a courier to get it tomorrow to send for repair, to investigate. If they can't find any faults then it might be your suggestion is right. However it could be multiple factors, the electrics in the house for example, I run my Marshall MG15R practice amp through the same power strip, surely the extension can't be overloaded? I know the monitors require more power but I don't think it'd cause the power strip to overheat.

I usually played the iPod volume on full as well into the monitors. I would have thought these kind of speakers would be designed to take such signals.

As I said in the original post no audio was playing on Saturday when it cut out, and also this morning when it did it again, so it could well be a dodgy circuitry somewhere.

[AndyR]

From your original post, my gut feeling was that it's the monitors cutting out, not your electrics or power strip - but... electrickery is a funny thing! (eg could be some little spike that your other kit is fine with and the monitors are going "oh no! the end of the world is nigh, switch off for a bit" - like it's protection circuitry is too sensitive or something).

And, yeah, I had forgotten you were saying when of the cutouts was when no audio was going - so it does sound less likely to be what that dj was experiencing.

Hope you get it sorted quickly.

[CommonCourtesy]

Yes it's very confusing! 2 out the 4 cutouts have been when no audio has been playing, and the monitors haven't been on for very long either (less than an hour) so I, not sure what it is. I was only running the monitor plug into the extension so overloading can't have been an issue.

I would expect studio monitors to be designed to be run for several hours at least, some users do 8-12 hours a day!

The shop said 10 days turnaround time the courier will be picking it up today so I am really hoping it's a manufacturing fault!