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We've all heard stories about "someone" tearing the cantilever from their cartridge body, but what other disasters have you guys experienced? I had one years ago with a B77 reel-to-reel.The machine had every option, with the two-piece dust cover, elapsed time counter, aluminum editing hubs and the cabled remote control. The remote control was almost a necessity, as it was the only way to get a locking pause button. The pause button on the machine had to be held, and if you pressed stop the drive motors would drop out and leave an audible gap if mid-track.
The only problem was that the pause on the remote would drop out the drive as well. I was taking the machine and remote in for service, still well under warranty, and was carrying it down the back flight of stairs from my apartment to the parking lot.
At the top of the stairs, just starting down, the handle on the top of the machine breaks in half and the reel-to-reel gleefully bounces down the concrete steps and lands on the bottom with a big crash. It was one of those surreal moments, like just before that car you're watching in the rearview mirror hits you.
The machine was still in one piece, but a lot of the plastic bits were in pretty rough shape. I left everything at the dealer, with a promise they would call me soon about a warranty claim. Imagine how thrilled and delighted I was to be informed that "you shouldn't carry it by the handle!"
I had done a lot of business with the dealer, and they worked out a deal with Revox to replace the busted plastic parts. Amazingly enough, the machine still worked perfectly and the only damage was cosmetic.
Follow Ups:
In my college dorm the guy in the room across the hall had his roommate's Sony dual tape deck booom-box thingy leaning against a half open window. When he bumped it, it fell seven stories (!) into a bush (He *just* missed grabbing the power cord). After he retrieved it, it worked perfectly, although it had a few scratches and rattled when moved. Of course, the roommate eventually found out and we got a good laugh out of it.
Sony could have used this in their commercials!Seven stories!!
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My friend's German Shepherd was killed by a titanium dome that zinged off of a tweeter during a Wagnerian opera being played loud. Very loud. The dog was deaf and liked to stand near the speakers to feel the vibrations.
I did some further investigation. Turns out it was a highly compressed MP3 file. The player was an iPod and the speakers were JBLs. And that, as Paul Harvey would say, is the REST of the story.
I've snapped cantilevers off $8K phono cartridges, what a sickening feeling. Last week I was demoing speaker cables that were so stiff that they snapped the binding posts off of my Jeff Rowland amp.The horror..the horror.....the horror...............the horror.....................................the horror......
I swapped one pair of interconnects for another between my recently acquired Sonic Frontiers Line 1 preamp and my DAC. Trouble is I forgot to power down the components. Now the Line 1 is stuck in 'Mute' mode -- bugger!!
Bill Bailey
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See my stereo config ... but always looking for cost effective improvements
Many moons ago back in 1980 or so, we were loading up my entire system to take to a party. I had a friend help me who was as careful as I with my gear. Actually, he was more careful than I.Since I was the only one who could lay a finger on my B&O 4004 turntable, I was the one who would be irresponsible for putting it it the car.
Well, we're all loaded up...let's hit another toke for the road and head out. As I backed out of the driveway I hear a crunch. WTF? I get out for a look and just beginning to go under one of the rear wheels was the 4004. Lucky for me, it was in the original package (bouble boxed). When I opened it up, there was absolutely no damage.
My three year old VPI turntable with an SME 309 arm got knocked off it's table by a wayward roll of carpet that was destined to go through the living room, up the stairs, into a bedroom that was getting "freshened up".It landed upside down, breaking the dustcover, bending the platter's spindle and the arm tube of the tonearm.
SME fixed the arm, the platter bearing and spindle had to be replaced as well as the dustcover.
The cartridge survived somehow?!?!
Many other cartridges have been broken in my possession with far less drama!
--
Al G
I once dropped a Krell integrated down two flights of stairs. Not even the company's legendary build quality could withstand that. Don't ask me if it was accidental or not. You might think worse of me. :)
A while back, I got a pair of beautiful Jensen 15" field coil drivers for a tube-powered sub project. They were sitting there in the storage room when my wife decided to clean it and free up some space. So she piggybacked them one into another, and on top of the upper one crammed an old Christmas tree stand.On another occasion, I was playing an LP, with my cat sitting nearby. I noticed that the cat started behaving as if she saw a mouse or a bird. I looked at what attracted her attention, and it was the headshell. The record was slightly warped, so the headshell was moving up and down a little bit. I rushed to intercept, but cat's reaction was better than mine.
One more. I picked Marantz 2325 at the garage sale. It is a big and heavy vintage receiver. Not my kind of gear, but it was free, so i couldn't pass. I checked it up quickly, and everything looked OK. I just happened to finish a pair of speakers with expensive Scan Speak drivers at that time, so I hooked them up to the Marantz. Everything was fine for a while, but then the right channel started wild subsonic oscillations. The driver's cone violently sucked in, then popped out and froze in that position. Unlike the two previous stories, this one ended well. I managed to put the voice coil back in its place and the driver worked fine ever since.
... ended in some magnificent and horrendously loud tube frankensteining, followed by me doing a belly crawl across the floor to yank the power cord from the wall as my wife watched, her head shaking from side to side and that certain look that says, 'Man, you are an idiot. Again.' Then open the windows to get the acrid blue haze from fried resistors and toasted caps out of the house.
I was at a stereo store a few years ago,and asked to hear a pair of Thiel speakers.Don't remember the model,may have been the top of the line. To connect the cable,the salesman tipped the speaker a bit forward to reach the terminals.Actually,it was a bit too much,and BAMMM!!!it fell face first on the floor...ouch!
When I was in college, moving in to a new house. Set the turntable (IIRC a nearly-new Technics DD) down in a safe corner on the floor. Somebody who shall remain unnamed (OK it was me!) later hung a heavy potted plant from a hook in the ceiling - directly above the TT. You guessed it - five minutes later thre was a huge crash as the hook pulled out and dropped a terracotta pot and about 5kg of dirt right onto the center of the TT. Everything in splinters. aarrgghh!
...does flaming out the ribbon mid/tweeter on my piega c-10 ltd after applying a well known contact enhancer count as a disaster?...
tinnitus
Reb - I'm assuming you are speaking of yourself. Were you exposed to loud noise in the past - rock concerts, jet engines, military service? People who develop tinnitus have often had such exposure.
My condolences.
ssia,i think...
nt
...lovingly cleaning and polishing my mint Voyd .5 reference/Cyalene/AN-J I/oII with pride; up-ending the deck and buffing each side of the beautiful mahogany plinth, finally picking it up so gently, to place it back on the stand... tripping up like the clumsy oaf that I am, and letting go of the deck... Bearing, motors, arm, cartridge, deck w/o.So, when did you last weep over hi-fi?
Well... I was new to record decks, I should be forgiven? But, as one door closes, another one surely opens.
Enjoy the journey
FW
> > Amazingly enough, the machine still worked perfectly and the only damage was cosmetic.Far from a disaster; that's more like a miracle.
æNormal is just a setting on my dryer.
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