When I turn my stereo off, I get pops in the speakers.
My stuff is connected like this...
Computer > RME (interface) > Sub (with crossover) > Power Amp > Speakers
 
I turn on in this order...
Computer
RME
Sub
Power Amp
 
I turn off in the reverse order
Power Amp (small pop)
Sub (pop in the sub and the speakers (even though I turned off the amp as much as 30 seconds earlier)
RME (no pops)
Computer
 
I have also noticed that when my wife is busy flipping light switches in the house (she sometimes uses Clorox wipes on the phones, remotes and light switches), I can hear slight pops in my speakers.
 
Should I care about these slight pops? The have never been recorded to my knowledge. I've never been listening back to a tape and been able to isolate a pop that might have been from a light switch, so I'm guessing the RME is magically immune.
 
I just attempted to record the pop and failed. I started a recording and flipped the light switch and there was 0 identifyable pop in the wave form even though the sound came through the speakers. I tried with and without my external DBX compressor and in neither case was I able to record the pop.
 
My questions:
1. Do I worry about these regular pops hurting my speakers?
 a. I'm not prepared to leave the power on to avoid the pops, and as demonstrated, there would be pops through the speakers from normal household activity anyway.
2. Do I worry about my power supply to my equipment?
 
 
 Sorry if this post should have been in hardware. I don't know how to move it now that I've submitted it.
 

The pops are coming in from the pre-amplifier circuit of the amplifier, most likely. There's not a lot you can do about it short of disconnecting the speaker from the amp before turning off the amp. Some stereos, at least in the past, had speaker on/off switches, especially if they supported multiple speaker sets.

I turn off in the reverse order
Power Amp (small pop)
Sub (pop in the sub and the speakers (even though I turned off the amp as much as 30 seconds earlier)
RME (no pops)
Computer

 
Turn your sub off before killing the power to the amp

The sub is powered and has a crossover. Killing the sub first sends a pretty large jolt through the two speakers.

What happens if you turn down your amp's volume control before turning it off?  That's what I always do on my hi-fi amp and never get any pops.

If any of the components are grounded, try a ground lift.  That may help.  However, my monitor speakers will do a few pops, so I always switch over to my Speakerlab 4's when turning off the system.  No pops between the 4's and my Carver M-1.5 T amp.  And as Ston said, always turn down the volume before turning off the power.

gswitz
The sub is powered and has a crossover. Killing the sub first sends a pretty large jolt through the two speakers.

The point is you should strive to kill the power to ALL of your speakers before you kill anything else.
Turning the amp down is a perfectly reasonable suggestion by ston.

Great! Thanks!
 
I used to have a pre-amp before the amp itself, but at one point I was making a recording and playing the mix through the speakers as they performed. One of the tracks clipped badly when the singer was singing and that was the end of the pre-amp. I guess it melted I don't know. I tried fixing it with some help from my electronics savvy brother and a great friend, but ...
 
So I no longer have a volume nob for the speakers. There is a volume nob on the RME and a volume nob on the Sub (which I rarely twist). Turning down the volume on the RME had no impact that I could hear (I just tried it).
 
The best help is to leave the power amp for the speakers off for a long while before turning off the sub, but that's too long to wait after hearing the dinner bell.
 
I think I'll just keep living with the pops. It would be nice to stop them, but I'm guessing it'll cost me $100 at least. For that matter, turning off the sub pops the sub no matter what. I've been living with it a long time. I just thought I'd ask.
 

 
It's a good question.
 
I've never worried about those power down pops hurting the speakers.
 
If you are going to worry about pops you should probably worry about what the snare drum is doing to them too.
 
The most compelling reason to worry about pops is that it may appear unprofessional to cause them. I try to work with people that trust me and so I don't worry much about that either.
 
I wish I knew why some gears does it. I imagine the designers know exactly why... and if they thought it was a big problem (like something that would cause breakage and returns) they probably wouldn't make the compromise.
 
 
best regards,
mike
 

Thanks, Mike. I appreciate someone at your level giving the nod to the question itself. :-)