[PurpleAngel]

Last week, a teenager was electrocuted to death while listening to headphones from a plugged-in mobile phone. Sixteen-year-old Mohd Aidi Azzhar Zahrin was discovered by his mother at their home in the town of Rembau, Malaysia, lying motionless on the floor and cold to the touch, the New Straits Times reports. Blood was pouring from his ear.

Medical checks showed no signs of bruising or external injuries to Mohd’s body, other than some burns on his left ear, and an autopsy later confirmed that the cause of death was electrocution. It’s understood that he was listening to the headphones while charging his phone. According to Seven West Media, his brother also felt a small electric shock when touching the charging cable, indicating that it may have been faulty—although the make and model of the device are as yet unconfirmed.

https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/...ciNn1GsKgj4LeHgqKtAwDpAMkNfJsOWSgojPP-Ni2EDdg

 

[raphaelmsx]

Hello people, I was just about to post this here.

So, it seems it's dangerous to listen to headphones on portable devices while they're plugged to AC power and are being charged, but what about devices permanently plugged on AC power, like amplifiers, computers and mixing consoles?? That was my first thought after reading that article!

 

[N0sferatu]

Hello people, I was just about to post this here.

So, it seems it's dangerous to listen to headphones on portable devices while they're plugged to AC power and are being charged, but what about devices permanently plugged on AC power, like amplifiers, computers and mixing consoles?? That was my first thought after reading that article!

This applies to anything...electricity is electricity.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

So, it seems it's dangerous to listen to headphones on portable devices while they're plugged to AC power and are being charged, but what about devices permanently plugged on AC power, like amplifiers, computers and mixing consoles?? That was my first thought after reading that article!

It's about the electric device shorting (other than power surges and lightning). A portable device while charging just increases the likelihood of it shorting out. Battery heats up when being charged or drained really fast, battery heats up even faster when doing both (no, it's not just the CPU+GPU that heats up when you play a game with the phone hooked up to charge), and in some cases something on the battery itself suffers heat damage like the insulation on the wires melting (since everybody wants thinner phones those old large contacts are gone and replaced by wires sticking out of the battery) and that's where something gets shorted. It's kind of like the manufacturing flaw on the Note 7 battery, except in that case given it's a design and manufacturing flaw (IIRC the contacts on the battery itself were too close together or something, and the insulation melts closer to the heat source) on the battery itself it happened to too many units that barely even suffered any real wear and tear yet.

On AC-powered devices there's no battery that would cause this kind of shorting, and you'd have to be more deliberate to make any other cause of it to happen.

Also sweat probably helps the electricity jump from the driver coil to the listener, and you're more likely to have sweat dripping into the earbuds or IEMs (or for the plastic to melt and if you're asleep, not notice the music stopped and the earphones feel hot) than for it to drip into a Stax running off a high voltage amplifier.

 

[Whazzzup]

If ya got to go you are going to go

 

[pbui44]

When I was a kid, there was a show, called “Pete and Pete”, and a character said “You can break the law, but you can’t break the laws of physics.” I thought it was a funny, but true, joke for a while, until high school, when I tried to save a core-scrapped-and-capacitor-missing-CPU and saw a electrical bolt shoot up from the headsink before my eyes.

Yup, good old electrical conductivity proved that the CPU was truly dead by going through it and the protecting heatsink, so I turned off the tower immediately and was glad that I was not anywhere near the bolt. Reading this story, I am also glad I did not have my ear around the headsink fan, as I would also be as brain-dead as that Malaysian kid, to say the least. As a musician would check its instruments to ensure an intended sound, we need to check our electrical equipment carefully to ensure that we stay alive listening to the music and, as we learned from this poor family, not literally and electrically be a part of the music.

 

[CoryGillmore]

I can't help but wonder what song it was that went through his head...It better have been something EPIC! I'd be like yeah dude my favorite song has killed men...
Kidding aside...sucks for his family..and for him of course.

 

[KcMsterpce]

Reminds me of when you're playing on stage and the jerks that own the establishment don't think the musicians' safety is worth properly grounding amplifiers. Nothing like singing into a microphone while touching your guitar and getting your mouth (and body) zapped to high heaven.

 

[Amberlamps]

I can't help but wonder what song it was that went through his head...It better have been something EPIC! I'd be like yeah dude my favorite song has killed men...
Kidding aside...sucks for his family..and for him of course.

Die Mfkr Die Mfkr Die.

By the band Dope.

 

[Raketen]

Hello people, I was just about to post this here.

So, it seems it's dangerous to listen to headphones on portable devices while they're plugged to AC power and are being charged, but what about devices permanently plugged on AC power, like amplifiers, computers and mixing consoles?? That was my first thought after reading that article!

In this case it seems to be the charger failing allowing 120/220 volts AC through the charging cable and like Protege described, shorting 120/220 through a very compact portable battery, phone chassis and circuitboard designed for ~4v DC, which then travels right through into the headphone circuit + the person wearing them completes the circuit to ground (though the article doesn't make clear cause of death is brain/heart electrocution or perhaps just physical damage from 120/220 causing the earbud to flash out).

Desktop gears also have power supplies can still conceivably fail and allow mains voltage through, but as Protege implies even just their larger size probably helps reduce the risk. Additionally, unlike most desktop equipment and power supplies, Portables and USB power adapters do not connect to the building earth ground, while desktop gears (and eve laptop power supplies) generally do, which provides an additional layer of protection.

Still it's not impossible to happen - and building codes and electronics compliance testing are not always followed and enforced properly. Moreover there's just a lot of cheap poorly designed & built equipment out there- reports about non-spec USB-C & quick charigng cables causing device damage or fires etc... Sometimes its worth it to spend a few extra dollars for reputable brand equipment and accessories- though that's no guarantee either.