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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 kurt_tank

kurt_tank
1,188 posts
 
I prefer to not have anyone touch my gear, especially anyone who does not have a stereo system themselves.

That being said, I do have a couple of friends whom I have turned into budding audiophiles, who have their own systems now. They have operated my system occasionally, usually with my permission, while I am out of the room, cooking, mixing drinks, etc. (Although the last time one of them did, he almost damaged my cartridge. As he was returning the arm to the rest, he pushed slightly down on the arm, and the stylus was dragged across the record. Needless to say, he got evil eye for that one, and he no longer is so quick to touch my system!)

My wife used to use the CD player on occasion, but as my system got more complex (i.e. monoblock amps, remote controls, etc.), she seems to have lost her desire to use it.

If I train someone to use the system, I am okay with them operating it, as long as they understand my policy is "You break it, you bought it!"
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