I should/shouldn't have done (audio mistakes you wish you didn't make)

[Nothingness]

As the title says: anything you wish you'd known before doing something that potentially damaged your system, or that could have significantly improved it, that you'd like to share so others can learn from it?

I had one: I nearly blew out my Revel Salon 2s. Will share the full story later. Would like to hear from you.

 

[concorde1]

I learned the first thing to do with new DAC or amplifier is to test polarity. I had been under the impression that my room or expensive speakers could be to blame, but no.

I learned that audio reproduction is a science, not an art. I once thought certain devices could have the magic. But I'll save that for my guitar amp, which is to me quite magical.

 

[Mr. Swordfish]

About ten years ago I rented a ski condo for the season and brought a modest stereo system along (Yamaha receiver, Infinity speakers). I was sloppy setting it up and wired one of the speakers out of polarity. We spent the entire season fiddling with the balance control since wherever we sat in the room the imaging seemed to be coming from the wrong place.

I say "we" since both my wife and I are/were audio professionals, and we shared the condo with another audio pro. All three of us heard that something was wrong, and none of us could deduce the obvious problem. At the end of the season, as I was packing it all up I noticed the polarity problem.

 

[Chrispy]

I once let a roommate use a system and he turned it up to 11 and blew the speakers....really like built-in volume limiters for that reason, altho not so many people have access any more....

 

[RexrothPigeon]

I gave away an old pair of acoustic energy bookshelf speakers to a local arts org, and a few months later joined a cooperative music space that could use them.

 

[Johnkeizer]

Played the dts track from Apollo 13 lift off just a little too enthusiastically.
Ripped the bass drivers out of their surrounds in my KEF R107 speakers.

 

[Chrispy]

Played the dts track from Apollo 13 lift off just a little too enthusiastically.
Ripped the bass drivers out of their surrounds in my KEF R107 speakers.

Seems a lot of the Kef drivers can suffer like this. Not built for high spl it seems.

 

[Johnkeizer]

The 107 were their top speaker, good for 115 db from memory, which I didn’t go near as I like my hearing.
Maybe was the sheer amount of bass energy in that track.
And in case you were wondering, it was recorded during a shuttle launch.

 

[Chrispy]

The 107 were their top speaker, good for 115 db from memory, which I didn’t go near as I like my hearing.
Maybe was the sheer amount of bass energy in that track.
And in case you were wondering, it was recorded during a shuttle launch.

Not all speakers are meant to reproduce all audio....

 

[Ruediger]

I once bought a Supra rca cable with screw/lockdown plugs.

Nice cable quality and feel, but it ripped out a jack on my turntable, on an rca switcher and on a mixer.

Never again locking rca.

 

[Mr. Swordfish]

I bought a car with a Bose system.

 

[ErVikingo]

Not hiring my engineer to confirm that the electrician built what he designed.

 

[olds1959special]

Wasting thousands of dollars on tube and vintage amps (pre 1980.) Buying anything "audiophile" instead of "studio".