OK, you are not really an audiophile if you haven't done this:........... (fun thread)

[restorer-john]

OK, I'll put a few out there to get you started:

• Absolutely destroyed your very best stylus while unnecessarily 'cleaning' it...
• Damaged the previously unblemished front panel of your favourite amplifier with a swinging power plug or RCA cable...
• Stood up too quickly and torn out the headphone cable from the earpiece of your cans...
• Blown a pair of tweeters 'testing' a new amplifier..
• Researched, read reviews, pestered a HiFi store salesman and finally decided to buy something, only to find it is discontinued and sold out...
• Injuring your back moving speakers, or gouging your shin on a sharp front panel...
• Getting angry while trying to feed cables behind a rack of gear, in the dark, after a few drinks...
• Spending money on a 'bargain' bit of gear you really should have spent on a new set of tires for the car...

 

[Blumlein 88]

Completely re-arranged the furniture in a room to make the speakers sound better. And then again, and then again.

Driven more than 3 hours just to hear a super stereo system.

Driven more than 4 hours to buy a very hard to find bit of gear only available for local purchase.

Engaged in gear shootouts with your and your audiophile buddy's gear.

 

[PierreV]

cut your hand while making half tennis balls to isolate your turntable (but that was 38 years ago)

 

[restorer-john]

cut your hand while making half tennis balls to isolate your turntable (but that was 38 years ago)

Ouch!

 

[DonH56]

• Lived for years in an apartment with a cardboard dresser, mattress on the floor, two sets of mismatched dishes (for company), a director's chair in the living room, and a stereo worth more than your car.
• Spent all your time at parties talking audio with geeky friends.
• Discussed at length the differences among various pieces of your audio system (and then realized later it was about 99.999% imaginary).
• Spent an evening with friends doing ABX testing of your new amplifier only to find nobody could tell any difference whatsoever.
• During tear-down of said ABX test set after everybody was gone realized you forgot to plug in the final power connection to the switch so all trials were of the exact same signal path.
• When your parents called to tell you the basement flooded including all of their priceless antiques, photos, washer/dryer, etc. plus sister's room whilst she was sleeping, your first question was "Is my stereo OK?"
• Pulled over a speaker trying to get just one more inch of cable free to reach the amp.
• Pulled the preamp off the rack trying to get one more inch of cable to the power amp.
• Pulled the turntable off the rack trying to... well, you know.
• Spent nearly twenty-four hours straight trying to determine the optimal VTA, tracking force, etc. for your new cartridge.
• Realized that all your audiophile records are 50% thicker than your normal records and that's why you could never quite get the VTA perfect for all of them.
• Forgot to discharge the HV caps in a tube amp resulting in one broken tube, several wires ripped in two, and severe lacerations to hand, wrist, and arm.
• Dropped the cart on the LP when the phone rang, taking out stylus and speakers (actually speaker fuses, fortunately).
• Rigged your stereo to use as your alarm by wiring it to your alarm clock resulting in a twofer:
  • First realizing using the buzzer caused rapid power cycling of the relay circuit and subsequently discovering electronics dislike having their power cycled on and off a few times a second; and,
  • After figuring out the right way to wire the relay forgetting to turn the volume down after a loud night's listening and waking up roughly a six-block radius at 5 am the next morning.
• Constructed a giant speaker cable with various wire gauges all neatly bundled and loomed with nice shrink-wrapped tinned ends only to realize it was way too big to fit any speaker connector made by man. By, like, half an inch. But the resistance was super-low.
• Ripped open your speaker boxes to drill holes to connect aforementioned speaker cable directly to the driver.
• In a rare moment when the tech was thrust out on the demo floor (boss should know better) spent time explaining why horns suck to some old geezer who was surprisingly robust and knowledgeable in his defense of these big gigantic corner horn things. Paul Klipsch. Oops.

Etc.

 

[restorer-john]

Engaged in gear shootouts with your and your audiophile buddy's gear.

I remember doing that as a ~18 year old (my best mate's HK PM-660 and my Sansui AU-D5). I was being too smart for myself using the speaker switches to compare amps at a high level.

Break before make is the technical term for switching like that. The Sansui broke alright. A new output and driver stage was required...(I've still got the parts receipt- reminded me to not be a smart-ass)

 

[Blumlein 88]

I remember doing that as a ~18 year old (my best mate's HK PM-660 and my Sansui AU-D5). I was being too smart for myself using the speaker switches to compare amps at a high level.

Break before make is the technical term for switching like that. The Sansui broke alright. A new output and driver stage was required...(I've still got the parts receipt- reminded me to not be a smart-ass)

I did lots of things that were stupid. I was fortunate that the first receiver I owned had a MOSFET output. Those took more abuse than bipolars. I didn't know the difference then. I once used it to see about making my own Magnepan like speakers. Took a long strip of foil run very close to a long row of strong magnets I had glued to a yard stick. Connected across it and heard very faintly nice clean music. It didn't blow. I still have that particular unit and it still works.

 

[Blumlein 88]

• Lived for years in an apartment with a cardboard dresser, mattress on the floor, two sets of mismatched dishes (for company), a director's chair in the living room, and a stereo worth more than your car.
• Spent all your time at parties talking audio with geeky friends.
• Discussed at length the differences among various pieces of your audio system (and then realized later it was about 99.999% imaginary).
• Spent an evening with friends doing ABX testing of your new amplifier only to find nobody could tell any difference whatsoever.
• During tear-down of said ABX test set after everybody was gone realized you forgot to plug in the final power connection to the switch so all trials were of the exact same signal path.
• When your parents called to tell you the basement flooded including all of their priceless antiques, photos, washer/dryer, etc. plus sister's room whilst she was sleeping, your first question was "Is my stereo OK?"
• Pulled over a speaker trying to get just one more inch free to reach the amp.
• Pulled the preamp off the rack trying to get one more inch of cable to the power amp.
• Pulled the turntable off the rack trying to... well, you know.
• Spent nearly twenty-four hours straight trying to determine the optimal VTA, tracking force, etc. for your new cartridge.
• Realized that all your audiophile records are 50% thicker than your normal records and that's why you could never quite get it perfect for all of them.
• Forgot to discharge the HV caps in a tube amp resulting in one broken tube, several wires ripped in two, and severe lacerations to hand, wrist, and arm.
• Dropped the cart on the LP when the phone rang, taking out stylus and speakers (actually speaker fuses, fortunately).
• Rigged your stereo to use as your alarm by wiring it to your alarm clock resulting in a twofer:
  • First realizing using the buzzer caused rapid power cycling of the relay circuit and subsequently discovering electronics dislike having their power cycled on and off a few times a second; and,
  • After figuring out the right way to wire the relay forgetting to turn the volume down after a loud night's listening and waking up roughly a six-block radius at 5 am the next morning.
• Constructed a giant speaker cable with various wire gauges all neatly bundled and loomed with nice shrink-wrapped tinned ends only to realize it was way too big to fit any speaker connector made by man. By, like, half an inch. But the resistance was super-low.
• Ripped open your speaker boxes to drill holes to connect aforementioned speaker cable directly to the driver.
• In a rare moment when the tech was thrust out on the demo floor (boss should know better) spent time explaining why horns suck to some old geezer who was surprisingly robust and knowledgeable in his defense of these big gigantic corner horn things. Paul Klipsch. Oops.

Etc.

Ooooooh! I've done I think everyone of those. Half more than once.

I once wired in the phone to a college mates receiver to feed it to big old Pioneer speakers. He couldn't wake up. So this way I could call and the ringing was over his big speakers. It was the only thing loud enough to wake him. Woke up people on each side of him in that hall too! I did know enough to drop the voltage, but I'm surprised that didn't take out his speakers over time.

 

[SIY]

Stubbed your toe on the cinderblocks pressed into service as speaker stands.

 

[restorer-john]

• Had two large amplifiers and two pairs of speakers in my college dorm room (3Mx3M). The tutor turned off the power to the whole floor to shut down the 'stereo wars' we were having. I dropped an extension power lead down to the girl's window on the floor below and kept on rockin'. Nearly got me kicked out of college. That was '86... I think it was Bryan Adams' Reckless album that did it.

 

[MattHooper]

OK, I'll put a few out there to get you started:

• Absolutely destroyed your very best stylus while unnecessarily 'cleaning' it...

While dusting recently knocked the knob at the end of my turntable's tonearm out of whack, had to re-do the VTF. And I thought I was being so careful! It's like my pal said, working with turntables can be like working an a nuclear lab. Look at every bit of clothing that could be hanging off you somewhere, when working on the things.

My worst experience was this:

I'd saved up for a big splurge in buying the turntable I own now. It was so heavy, and I wanted to isolate it, I spent months re-doing my stand, building an isolation block etc, with my turntable sitting tantelizingly in it's box. Just before we were leaving on vacation I FINALLY got the stand and isolation platform finished, gingerly set up my turntable and basically spun a song to make sure I'd put things together right. Then it was off on vacation. I couldn't wait to listen when I got home.

Couple weeks later, arrive home. Excitedly pick my first record for a listen to the new turntable. Put record on platter. Reach for tonearm.
"Wha?" That's weird! Is the cartridge supposed to be on that angle? No. I don't think so. *inspects further* Definitely not!

The cartridge was completely pushed around sideways, hanging off by a wire. What the HELL????

I thought...and then remembered...

*Cue horror music*

The CLEANING LADY!

She'd visited the house for a clean while we were away.

I phoned her and asked if show noticed anything happening to my turntable.

"Oh, I don't know what you mean" she said.

"Anything around my stereo equipment?"

"Well...only that big new shiny thing."

"My new turntable."

"Yes, whatever it is. I was dusting around it and I heard a loud BANG. Then I saw the straight silver part had moved and was sitting sort of off on an angle, so I put it back."

Basically, she'd been holding a swifter and a cloth, and the clothe caught the cartridge, whipping the arm around with a bang, and almost decapitating the cartridge. My new turntable...and damned expensive cartridge!...before I even had a chance to listen! What a heartbreaker.

Got it mostly fixed up, but the arm has never been the same.

 

[typericey]

• Blown a woofer playing the Telarc 1812 CD recording of REAL cannons.
• Used a vaccum cleaner to clean the ribbon tweeter of a Celestion 7000. (I wasn't stupid enough to do this, but I was stupid enough to "get a good deal" on a pair to which this was done. Tweeter still worked in it's wrinkled state, though I could hear the damage with certain music)
• Used Shakti Hallographs (not me, but I know someone who did)
• Used Monster Cable CD Rings and didn't care if it jammed your CD players

 

[ripvw]

- lowered a Vandersteen 2CE with stand onto your finger allowing the insanely sharp carpet spikes to completely penetrate said finger. All this despite being told by the salesperson after purchase that he did the very same thing...

 

[pozz]

Keep 'em coming.

The only one I can think of is one I can't shake even today: obsessive cable arranging so thay they look "neat".

 

[Sal1950]

Walked past the front of my rack while the drawer of my expensive JVC CD player was still open.
Knocked the whole drawer sideways but happily I was able to repair it.

My Ex somehow twisted the stylus and cantilever sideways on my Dynavector Ruby while playing a record?
She's gone now.

Lived for years in an apartment with a cardboard dresser, mattress on the floor, two sets of mismatched dishes (for company), a director's chair in the living room, and a stereo worth more than your car.

Ooooooh! I've done I think everyone of those. Half more than once.

OK, I surrender. You 2 are some very sick puppies.

 

[Blumlein 88]

- lowered a Vandersteen 2CE with stand onto your finger allowing the insanely sharp carpet spikes to completely penetrate said finger. All this despite being told by the salesperson after purchase that he did the very same thing...

Ouch!

 

[Blumlein 88]

Keep 'em coming.

The only one I can think of is one I can't shake even today: obsessive cable arranging so thay they look "neat".

No true audiophile has neat cables. What was wrong with you? A real audiophile is changing things out often enough he can never get the cables neat.

 

[Wombat]

Got married. Not a peep from the missus about the hifi while we were 'living in sin'. After being wedded- nag,nag,nag. It seemed that a Bose Stereo Radio would be too large.

I am single, now, with a room dedicated to audio disc racks and playback gear. My speaker cabs are ~14cu.ft. with big Altec horns on top. Bliss.

 

[maxxevv]

Left the system on continuous playback loop for a week straight because it was recommended that the new speakers needed 100 hours of minimum "burn-in".

Forgot to add, headphones too.

 

[Jim777]

I'm afraid of all the crazy bad things that will start happening to me if I read this thread in detail #subconscious #murphy