Great thread. No one touches my 'alter' unless I'm standing next to them showing them how I do it, step by step...and unless it's a very trusted and competent friend who assures me of his deepest respect for it, he won't be handling anything more than the remote anyway. There are no 'parties' in my listening room; parties are an abundance of people listening to music in a background mode. In my listening room the only sound is the music and an occasionally brief pause for a few comments between songs or discs or albums if I'm sharing my beloved sweet spot with some astounded lucky guest. There is no other reason to be in the listening room, but to listen. I keep a better-than-average secondary system available separately OUTSIDE of it for all other music purposes including social events or entertaining. Generally speaking, one does not let someone use their most prized possessions, be it a Harley, their ultra rare 1970 hemi Challenger (a dream car on my short list) or in my case, my prized speedboat that 99.9999% of the experienced boat owners of America couldn't safely handle for 10 seconds without wiping out...But I digress. Besides, after the sequence of un-muting the pre-amp,the Dac, turning on all 4 amps [of my tri-amped system] (monos included) and powering up my sub there's still a half hour worth of tube warm up period before I cue up the first disc. I agree with Mitch4t and Rockadanny on this one, I don't touch yours and you don't touch mine. With equipment this specialized, sensitive and expensive, it's just common sense and common respect. Happy Lissn'n.
