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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
mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t OP
1,486 posts
 
Phd......I was one input click away from the same thing that happened to you. Four monoblocs each rated at 1200 wpc uleashed at maximum volume...I still shudder at the thought of what I would have heard and the potential damage that could have been caused.

I feel better now about my hands-off policy. I knew I couldn't be the only person that felt that way.
phd
1,008 posts
 
Mitch4t, hands-off is a good policy. Wow! 1200 watts per channel, that is considerably more power than my meager 125 watts per channel but my speakers are highly efficient. Yes, you would of definately set them speakers ablaze!
springbok10
708 posts
 
Absoutely not. I am on my third cartridge (1 broken suspension, 1 broken stylus) thanks to third parties. So, that is $1,100 down the toilet. CDs, maybe, but turntables? Never!! Amps on, preamp on, phono-preamp on, mute button on, start tt, tt motor on, vacuum cup on, manually place stylus on LP, mute off.........my wife can't remember the sequence, so how can a guest know? It's not a reasonable expectation. And no dusting - ever - by a "lay" person.
springbok10
708 posts
 
See - I even typed the wrong sequence - preamps on first,,,,,,,,so if I got it wrong, imagine a guest?
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
1,368 posts
 
the only other person that uses my system is my wife. She knows how to operate it and that is why I don't have a problem with it.

I once had my buddy over with his girlfriend, who thought that the Nautilus tweeters are karaoke mics and had made and attempt to remove it. Good thing I turned my head in time because I sensed something was going to go wrong when she was hanging around the speakers for more than 30 seconds, and saw her grab a tweeter. Man, I must have yelled "don't touch that!" so hard that she jumped up. I scared the hell out of her, but saved my speaker. Now I just make it a habbit to tell people not to touch the speakers when I see them headed towards the system. For most that also means don't touch any of the components.
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