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Do You Allow Anyone Else To Operate Your Rig?

No one touches my system...period.

At a dinner party about a year ago, I had a cd playing in the background. When the cd finished, I was busy in the kitchen and entertaining guests. After about 15 minutes of no music, a guest felt that he should start the music up again. I looked up and saw this guy pushing buttons and turning knobs trying to figure out how to get the system going. I must have given him a frosty stare that would have made Medusa proud. My 11 year-old son saw my expression and felt sorry for the guy and went over and told him, "sir, no one is allowed to touch my dad's stuff".

Do other family members play your rig? Do you allow guests to operate your system?

Sorry, but no one is allowed to touch my stuff and I don't apologize for it. I don't even allow anyone to dust it off. Once the housekeeper dusted off my turntable and bent the stylus, ruined it....$500 bucks gone just like that. I never said a word to her about it, I just told her not to ever dust of my equipment again.

In another incident someone tried to play an LP while I was not watching. He got the turntable going but couldn't figure out how to get sound from the system. When I went over to see what was going on, he had the volume turned all the way up to maximum but still had no sound...of course he had no idea what a phono preamp was and of course it was not turned on. Had he turned the source knob one turn to my tuner which was switched on, he probably would have done serious damage to my speakers and scared the heck out of all of my guests with a loud blast. I politely told him not to ever touch my stuff again.

I've never had a guest over that was an audiophile.
mitch4t

Showing 1 response by kjweisner

kjweisner's avatar
kjweisner
291 posts
 
I've lent out my Lotus and even let one friend take the controls of my Lear. . . but touch my rig??? You've got to be kidding! Okay, I'm awake now. . . I guess I must've been dreaming there for a moment (and it sure was nice!).

Seriously, I've encouraged friends and even a couple of house-sitters to use my gear after brief instruction. So far, no casualties. Maybe I've just been extraordinarily lucky!

Along the way I've created a few "converts" so I feel good about spreading the love and having old friends enjoy a new experience. I get a vicarious lift whenever they get a fine piece of gear or discover a great piece of music, and enjoy the discussions we we get to have around our common interest. I guess for me it's kind of a karma thang to share. I'm a bit selective about who I think would be interested in, and respectful of my gear, although I probably err away from the side of caution. I hope my luck (or Karma) holds out.
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