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.
128x128mitch4t

Showing 2 responses by rockadanny

Neva! I explained to my super cost-conscious wife that just turning the components on/off in the wrong order can cause damage. She has yet to ask what the proper order is and apparently just prefers to use the portable boom box if I'm not around to supervise, lest she blow something up forcing me to purchase yet another audio gem. Fine with me.
Onhwy61 - With all gear powered off, is it OK to power on your giant ss amp first, then your preamp (volume high from last night's party) and then source? Or how about once your preamp is on, minutes later accidentally bouncing the power toggle switch (off/on) on your tube amp? Is this OK to do? Or how about during the party, as it gets louder, friend A pushes the volume up. Then later, party louder, friend B pushes the volume higher. At this point the voice coils are overheating. You don't notice because the party's going strong. Is that OK? Or how about someone less knowledgable flips on your amp without looking and doesn't see a tube flare? OK to just let it ride? I think the more hands that touch the system the more opportunity for accidents. I am not calling all of these people stupid or incapable of following direction. Its just that some people are careful and attend to detail well and some don't. I do, and only I fully comprehend how much effort and cost it has taken me to assemble my system. Therefore, it is likely that no one will take more care of it than me. And since I can no longer afford to replace broken gear I am even more cautious than ever.