That's always been a fear of mine, the amps catching fire. Makes a good case for wanting to use a granite or other non flammable amp rack elevated off the floor by a steel spike of some flavor and also keeping the whole contraption plenty of distance away from other items.
What's the worst thing to happen to your rig throughout the years?
- Thread starter treitz3
- Start date
That's always been a fear of mine, the amps catching fire. Makes a good case for wanting to use a granite or other non flammable amp rack elevated off the floor by a steel spike of some flavor and also keeping the whole contraption plenty of distance away from other items.
The maids had standing orders never to touch my audio equipment. This is a crew that we have used for years. Right in front of me and the crew's chief (and owner of the business), one of the maids took a microfiber dusting rag and dusted down my Garrard 301. I yelled at her, but too late, she yanked out the cantilever of my Koetsu Azule with the dusting rag. I was NOT happy. The owner offered to pay for the repair but had no idea that the cost would be an amount he probably could not afford. I ate the cost of a Koetsu rebuild myself. I scored big points with my wife, though, because I pretty much kept my cool over the whole thing. I looked at it like this...I have been blessed in life so far. I have a good job, happy marriage, and healthy children. I enjoy the ownership of some pricey cars and audio equipment. If your gonna own nice stuff, well, things sometimes happen. If you can't deal with that, don't own it. I did tell the crew chief after the repair, however, that "This one's on me, the next one's on you."
Great topic to exorcise the ghosts. About 20 years ago I had a nice little Counterpoint tube preamp bought from a friend. One night I was listening to a quiet baroque piece (Handel?) but the system wasn't sounding right, a little feeble. Suddenly a loud BANG occurred which totally startled me. Then the room filled with black, acrid smoke pouring out of the top of the preamp, as I ripped the plug from the wall. Needless to say, no more Handel that night. The report was a failed regulator which let a capacitor blow up. The preamp ran again but I got rid of it and still don't get too comfortable listening to Handel. Shock to the system.
I'll put my 2 cents in, and worst foot fwds.
Was looking fwd to my dealer coming around to demo the Nat Magnetostat. He's only making a 350 mile round journey.
So I get up in the morning, put my Nat tube amps on, letting them warm up.
20 mins later, half asleep evidently, I walk twds the rig to put an lp on, trip on a pesky Entreq box sitting on the floor, and have 3 options.
1 - go straight into the rack, crashing the whole lot down.
2 - crash into my Zu speaker, taking that out
3 - avoid both and land right onto the 211 tubes of one monoblock.
I take option 3, now w/further sub-options of slashing my leg needing a trip to the nurse to patch me up, Frankenstein-style. Or taking my face out. Or burning myself badly. Or electrocuting myself on 850V across the open terminal.
Luckily I stick to the leg slashing option only.
I'm ok, but my amp still in intensive care.
Was looking fwd to my dealer coming around to demo the Nat Magnetostat. He's only making a 350 mile round journey.
So I get up in the morning, put my Nat tube amps on, letting them warm up.
20 mins later, half asleep evidently, I walk twds the rig to put an lp on, trip on a pesky Entreq box sitting on the floor, and have 3 options.
1 - go straight into the rack, crashing the whole lot down.
2 - crash into my Zu speaker, taking that out
3 - avoid both and land right onto the 211 tubes of one monoblock.
I take option 3, now w/further sub-options of slashing my leg needing a trip to the nurse to patch me up, Frankenstein-style. Or taking my face out. Or burning myself badly. Or electrocuting myself on 850V across the open terminal.
Luckily I stick to the leg slashing option only.
I'm ok, but my amp still in intensive care.
..worst thing would be the time my wife decided to dust my Rega Planar 2 with a Grace 707 Mk II arm and F9E...bye bye stylus
I had become friends with a dealer. He was delivering a pair of speakers to a customer.
For some reason the speaker was mounted on stands with full spikes.I helped load one speaker in the car.
Off hand I mentioned sarcastically some people use hand trucks for this. He replied thanks for reminding me. I just purchased one. He retrieved it and loaded it on the hand truck upside down spikes exposed. When reached the car he made a sharp turn. The speaker fell to the ground.
On its way down the spikes made two nice lines down the side of the car. Bare metal was exposed. I stood there speechless.
For some reason the speaker was mounted on stands with full spikes.I helped load one speaker in the car.
Off hand I mentioned sarcastically some people use hand trucks for this. He replied thanks for reminding me. I just purchased one. He retrieved it and loaded it on the hand truck upside down spikes exposed. When reached the car he made a sharp turn. The speaker fell to the ground.
On its way down the spikes made two nice lines down the side of the car. Bare metal was exposed. I stood there speechless.
Does a cat vomiting a generous amount of unwanted matter through the grills of an very expensive Panasonic state of the art TV (for the era) count?
On the audio side of things, I have a tale which I am still exceptionally sour about 6 years down the track. I will not mention names or dealers but when the Goldring 2000 series came out, I forked out for the top-of-the-line 2500 model. I removed the stylus itself during the tonearm install (for what I felt was a simple safety precaution) and went to replace it after installing the body. At this point I should have stopped and called the dealer right away, even though the styluses on these cartridges are clearly intended to be user-replaceable as they are supposed to be a simple pull out - push back in arrangement.
But there was some sort of dark, dampening absorbent type material that tightly surrounds the receptacle where the stylus mates with the interior of the cartridge. It was sort of like a very high density spongy, rubberised compound. Now I don't know if was due to a temperature change and / or humidity change, but despite my best efforts, the stylus would not go back into the cartridge body some 30 minutes after being removed. It had been a tight fit to begin with and I did notice that as soon as the stylus was removed, that spongy, rubbery stuff seemed to actually visibly expand, making the existing receptacle smaller than it previously was. I was a bit perturbed but thought to myself, well, Goldring must know what they are doing as these styli are replaceable - supposedly by anyone...
But I pushed lightly...double and triple checked I was properly aligning the thing but it wouldn't go in. I thought to myself should I try more pressure or ring the dealer. I tried more pressure, thinking to myself that Goldring must have just engineered the thing for a very tight fit and that it would push back in with sufficient pressure. But since this is a fail story, you can imagine what happened next. Damaged stylus and damaged receptacle in the cartridge body.
I immediately contacted the dealer. I explained thoroughly and concisely step by step what had happened. I explained that even with the utmost care and patience, the stylus would not return to the cartridge body and that I regarded this as a manufacturing issue since there was no possible way I could see anyone returning that particular stylus to that particular cartridge body without damaging it. I was also at pains to explain that upon removing the stylus, I noticed the dense rubbery surround actually expanding over the opening and was wondering why that should happen given how tight the fit was to begin with.
To cut this story short, I got nowhere with the dealer even after protracted emails, phone calls and complaints. To this day, I don't believe I did anything unreasonable and that the cartridge - well at least my particular one - was to blame - specifically that the surround is some rubberised compound that has very high levels of friction to begin with and secondly that it noticeably expanded over what was already a very tight opening as soon as it got any breathing space (by way of the stylus being removed in the first place). And from an engineering point of view, the rear of the stylus was not a tapered fit as you might expect if you have to push it through a very narrow, high friction opening, but was open and square ended - the worst possible thing. This is the reason why injection needles are not designed with a square end and sharp edges at the end where it goes into your skin!
This was the one and only mishap I have ever had and obviously that means I have handed cartridges countless times and never had the slightest issue. I don't think the dealer did the right thing by me, nor did the importer when the exact circumstances were taken into account. To me it is almost the same as a car that has an external rear view mirror that decides to get twice as big when you are moving into the tight garage or parking spot!
I am still mightily peeved years after this happened. That was $500 US down the drain and to add insult to injury, when the cartridge was returned to me, they had damaged it even more than I had. The only thing that makes me feel any better about this is that I gave the director the company a heck of a serve and do not regret any of the choice words and expressions I mouthed his way after all the patience with him and over-and-over again explanations over emails and phone calls officially lead to nothing (I was polite all the way until he said they would not do anything about it). Furthermore, when I told him he lost my business forever, it does make me feel better considering the many thousands I have spend since on equipment and records from dealers other than that one since then.
On the audio side of things, I have a tale which I am still exceptionally sour about 6 years down the track. I will not mention names or dealers but when the Goldring 2000 series came out, I forked out for the top-of-the-line 2500 model. I removed the stylus itself during the tonearm install (for what I felt was a simple safety precaution) and went to replace it after installing the body. At this point I should have stopped and called the dealer right away, even though the styluses on these cartridges are clearly intended to be user-replaceable as they are supposed to be a simple pull out - push back in arrangement.
But there was some sort of dark, dampening absorbent type material that tightly surrounds the receptacle where the stylus mates with the interior of the cartridge. It was sort of like a very high density spongy, rubberised compound. Now I don't know if was due to a temperature change and / or humidity change, but despite my best efforts, the stylus would not go back into the cartridge body some 30 minutes after being removed. It had been a tight fit to begin with and I did notice that as soon as the stylus was removed, that spongy, rubbery stuff seemed to actually visibly expand, making the existing receptacle smaller than it previously was. I was a bit perturbed but thought to myself, well, Goldring must know what they are doing as these styli are replaceable - supposedly by anyone...
But I pushed lightly...double and triple checked I was properly aligning the thing but it wouldn't go in. I thought to myself should I try more pressure or ring the dealer. I tried more pressure, thinking to myself that Goldring must have just engineered the thing for a very tight fit and that it would push back in with sufficient pressure. But since this is a fail story, you can imagine what happened next. Damaged stylus and damaged receptacle in the cartridge body.
I immediately contacted the dealer. I explained thoroughly and concisely step by step what had happened. I explained that even with the utmost care and patience, the stylus would not return to the cartridge body and that I regarded this as a manufacturing issue since there was no possible way I could see anyone returning that particular stylus to that particular cartridge body without damaging it. I was also at pains to explain that upon removing the stylus, I noticed the dense rubbery surround actually expanding over the opening and was wondering why that should happen given how tight the fit was to begin with.
To cut this story short, I got nowhere with the dealer even after protracted emails, phone calls and complaints. To this day, I don't believe I did anything unreasonable and that the cartridge - well at least my particular one - was to blame - specifically that the surround is some rubberised compound that has very high levels of friction to begin with and secondly that it noticeably expanded over what was already a very tight opening as soon as it got any breathing space (by way of the stylus being removed in the first place). And from an engineering point of view, the rear of the stylus was not a tapered fit as you might expect if you have to push it through a very narrow, high friction opening, but was open and square ended - the worst possible thing. This is the reason why injection needles are not designed with a square end and sharp edges at the end where it goes into your skin!
This was the one and only mishap I have ever had and obviously that means I have handed cartridges countless times and never had the slightest issue. I don't think the dealer did the right thing by me, nor did the importer when the exact circumstances were taken into account. To me it is almost the same as a car that has an external rear view mirror that decides to get twice as big when you are moving into the tight garage or parking spot!
I am still mightily peeved years after this happened. That was $500 US down the drain and to add insult to injury, when the cartridge was returned to me, they had damaged it even more than I had. The only thing that makes me feel any better about this is that I gave the director the company a heck of a serve and do not regret any of the choice words and expressions I mouthed his way after all the patience with him and over-and-over again explanations over emails and phone calls officially lead to nothing (I was polite all the way until he said they would not do anything about it). Furthermore, when I told him he lost my business forever, it does make me feel better considering the many thousands I have spend since on equipment and records from dealers other than that one since then.