Access/Use Restrictions-Listening Room

Having anything that's too easily tipped over wouldn't work here in CA. First decent earthquake and it'd go flying. For similar reasons to Angela's I've had house cleaners. It's not that expensive and frees up some time. For safety's sake I use private parties. With a cleaning service it could be almost anyone; with an individual it's always the same person. On day one the cleaner gets a full run down of the "Do Not Touch" items. They seem to like that there are things that will be cleaned before they arrive. Probably takes some stress off them. So far, so good.

The rules for guests vary with the audience and have evolved with the gear and time, but here's the long version:

Bring music to play. The more variety the better.

Please don't turn knobs or push buttons. If you want something just ask. I shudder to think what would happen were someone to spin my "flywheel" volume knob.

Please don't set *anything* on the speakers or equipment rack. Seems like there's always someone who wants to use the speakers as a drink stand.

Don't move stuff. A friend was interested in how heavy my speakers were, so picked one up. He was not impressed when I told him it had been accurately placed to within a fraction of an inch and now had to be reset.

Which brings up one of the most important. Remember that Frank is very anal retentive about his stereo.

It's not likely they'll forget that last one. Don't I wish. For Xmas a couple of years ago one of them bought me a sweatshirt that read in bold letters "Is anal retentive hyphenated?" My response? "Of course not. Otherwise I wouldn't wear it!"

Since my house cleaner years ago, dusted off my record player and its cartridge in the process, the listening area is strictly off limits for all and the mishaps which occasionaly occur are strictly caused by my own stupidity. A much better arrangement, I find.

from the reality files: panic stricken siamese cat runs into the listening being chased by eight year old boy...boy nudges lp's over displacing cinder block bookend from planking underneath...cinderblock tips bicycle resting peacefully against the wall... bike slides down the back of a spiked 60 lb KEF tower, tumbling it onto its face ~wham crash!~ ...KEF makes direct hit on portable tapedeck lying on the floor, smashing it to pieces... would i lie to you? sure i can laugh now, haha. some food for thought :-)

What a great thread Angela! I don't use housecleanerpersons because I am such a perfectionist that there is no one in the world who can clean my house like I can! Yep, that's right I'm the maid in my mansion. This works good because my wife does the cooking (god forbid you hand the spatula to me)and I do 90% of the cleaning. This also serves to protect the Stereo equipment from over zealous scrubbers and lint collectors. I have to devote separate time to primping and grooming the stereo. I usually do this last after the floors are vacumed (stirs up more dust)and the kitchen and bathroom floors mopped. In a way I find it a nice come-down from the main cleaning. I have to be relaxed and not hurried. I previously had my Epos ES12,s mounted on stands without any adhesive between stand and spk. Big mistake. One day while cleaning the windows I wasn't paying attention when stepping back to admire my work and slightly bumped the stand. Had I not whirled around in such a panic to see what I had done, the speaker most likely would have remained on the stand. But, because of my paniced-whirling I sent the speaker crashing to the floor. Tears.....Oh, well. I had quit smoking for about a month, but the disaster was to much to take. 2 small dents now graced the veneered side of my previously "new" speaker! Well, you can pretty much guess...that ended the stopped-smoking routine. I immediately went and purchased an entire carton of cigs and proceeded to smoke them. I have since found the audio miracle blu-tak which will hopefully help me avoid this kind of thing again. If only I had known of this stuff, my spk might have remained on the stand. The other lesson is...Don't screw around, clean around, hang around, etc. by the stereo!!! This is my only rule and it's mainly needed for protection from people like myself. Natural born clutz!

Same rule. Housecleaner not allowed. All clening in listening room done by yours truly. Siamese cats (I have 3) allowed only when I'm there...otherwise they sit on the BAT preamp (it's warm!). Worst moment...female Siamese cat trying to clear hairball from throat right on top of BAT preamp. I beat her to the punch..by a fraction of a second. For the most part, the cats behave..and they are impossible to keep out of the room in the Winter (all the tubed gear makes it nice and toasty after a couple of hours)