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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
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.
ausjoe
98 posts
 
Onhww61 I'm gonna make a "Danger Will Robinson!" for my turntable with the label maker. Priceless!
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
3,575 posts
 
Audphile - Oh my God! When you have such guests you should not only protect your stereo but also TV, microwave, kitchen mixer and perhaps even iron.
goatwuss
875 posts
 
Anyone I have over is more than welcome to use my system, with or without my presence. It's pretty well automated with the universal remote.

I did make the mistake of leaving my turntable out during a party once, and afterwards, my Denon 103's cantilever was pointing to left field... oh well, though. It was a fun party.

Other than that, I've never had a problem. I'm kind of surprised about all the "hands off" policies. Other than turntable cartridges, or people turning volume knobs all the way up (common sense?), what's gonna break? Nothing
mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t OP
1,486 posts
 
Audphile....I was rolling on the floor laughing my guts out reading your post regarding your buddy's girlfriend.

That one goes into the hall of fame.

For those of you that suggest removing my turntable when entertaing guests.....I don't think so. It's much easier to say don't touch than to take down and set up again.

No one so far has been offended when I asked them to not touch. If someone does get offended, I probably wouldn't want them back as a guest anyway if they couldn't be respectful and understanding.
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