2. misc-audio
  3. 1244512091

I always do something stupid...

...I have a pretty nice system and it is important to me. I spend hours researching tweaking and getting it right. I spend even more time listening to it of course. I am a pretty careful and meticulous person in most things.

So...why is it that everytime I get a new piece of expensive equipment or a new cable or whatever, I always manage to do something you are not supposed to do. Like turning off the pre-amp before the power amps and getting a loud pop. Or leaving an amplifier on and unplugging the interconnect attached to it at the pre-amp. Or forgetting that the interconnects to the subwoofer are JUST long enough and trying to move the subwoofer (and thus stressing the interconnects) without unplugging them. Or SIMPLY NOT NOTICING THAT THE $!@*# VOLUME IS UP TOO HIGH BEFORE I PUSH PLAY ON THE TRANSPORT. I could go on.

Point being, I've never really screwed anything up, but it's not from lack of "rying." Is this just me? I realize I've opened myself up to cruelty on this one...
dgaylin
trelja
3,223 posts
 
Not seeing the allen bolt inside a common six - sided nut that Magnepan uses on their binding posts, I took a nut driver to try to tighten down my loudspeaker cables. Came off right in my hand in about 1 second.

As my boss's boss's boss told me when I first started my current job back in 2000, and hung the system for about 2 or 3 hours and Rodman9999 echoed, "The only people who don't make mistakes are the people who don't do anything."
ptmconsulting
1,000 posts
 
Rules for an aging audiophile tweaker:

(1) It always pays to take your time.
(2) Keep alcohol away when you are doing something with fragile equipment.
(3) It very foolish to have an amp that pushes out 1000W of power, because someday, inevitably, you will do something to blow up your speakers. (Like dropping the stylus, or shutting down something without muting first, or any number of stupid things.)
(4) Use a multi meter to double check continuity whenever you use solder.
(5) Don't trust your memory to remember left from right and + from -. Mark those cables and diagram those jacks.
(6) Double check everything before turning it on.
(7) Measure twice, cut once & use your glasses (if you wear them).
(8) Plan ahead and inventory before you start a project.
(9) If life interfears, like the dinner bell, don't push your luck to rush and finish. Go eat dinner, then come back, or a costly mistake may ensue (with the equipment or the wife or both).
(10) Take your time (did I say that already).
tobias
1,534 posts
 
Message to you kind folks who wished my mistreated amplifier well at the shop: fergawdsake, it was the *selector switch*. Amp survived the incident fine in every other way.

I have no idea why the selector went west. It was on the other side from the iceberg.

Rodman99999, Dgaylin, Calbrs03, thanks again :) only four years later 8P
courant
119 posts
 
Hmm... I think my issue is more rooted in mental illness than hearing loss.

I have this reoccurring delusion that if I take a a system that produces GOOD SOUND, and then throw money at it via periodic upgrades and tweaks, that the yield will be BETTER SOUND...

What's sad is that, more often than not, the yield IS BETTER SOUND, which in turn reinforces the delusion...
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
advice:

improve your focus and concentration skills by exercising your brain.

how ?? anagrams, brain teasers, math problems and crossword puzzles.

hopefully you will become more observant and eliminate some of the "mistakes: you have mentioned.
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