If you grew up in a time before flat screen TV’s, you probably remember worrying about speakers damaging the screen on TV’s. Back then, with the older CRT technology, speaker magnets could permanently damage a TV. But what about LED TV technology? Can speakers damage LED TV’s? In this article we are going to answer the question, and then explain why it was ever a concern to begin with. Let’s jump right in.
Will speakers damage my LED TV?
No, speakers will not damage an LED TV unless you physically throw the speakers directly at the screen! But if you’re wondering if components of a speaker will disrupt or affect the components of an LED TV, the clear answer is a resounding “NO”. Lets look at the components of a speaker:
- Cone and Dust Cap
- Suspension
- Magnet and voice coil
- Basket
- Pole and Top plate
- Mount
As you can see, most of these parts are made of aluminum, paper, metal or rubber which are materials that don’t affect or damage TV’s at all. In fact, some parts of the LED TV are also made up of the very same materials.
What about the speaker magnet?
Perhaps the only component which may affect a TV is the magnet found in the speaker. The magnet is important because it is the part of the speaker which converts electrical energy to mechanical energy through the interaction between the magnet itself and the electromagnetic field produced when electricity flows through the voice coil made up of copper wire. It’s what causes a vibration which can be used to create pressure waves that we perceive as sound. However, magnets only affect old CRT (Cathode-ray Tube) TV. This is because CRT TV uses magnetic field to manipulate the manipulate the electrons that produce the images for these kinds of TV.
LED TV’s are not affected by magnets. An LED TV is simply an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen which is illuminated by an LED light as a backlight. Neither the LED backlight or LCD screen are affected by magnets. The LCD screen itself works when voltages realign the liquid crystal in such a way that light is allowed to be transmitted from the screen. The amount of light that can be transmitted is affected by the electric voltage and not by a magnetic field so these two forces do not affect or interact with each other in the TV.
In the same way the LED backlight that illuminates each pixel of the LCD screen is also only affected by electrical voltage and will not be affected even if a magnet is placed right beside it.
Will speakers damage computer monitors?
But what about LED computer monitors? Are they affected by speakers? Again, the answer to this is no.
An LED monitor is really only distinguished from an LED TV by the features and technology contained within. Computer monitors don’t have TV tuners, and usually don’t have a lot of the image processing software that TV’s have. As far as speaker magnet damage is concerned, there is really no difference between monitors and TV’s.
Conclusion
Whether you are using an LED TV for your living room or an LED computer monitor at your desk, speakers will not cause any damage.