Disaster Struck!

Many years ago my three year old son went in to the drawing room where the hifi lived (a room to which my kids were not usually admitted) and decided to practice his scratching technique on my LP12/Ekos/Arkiv, with predictable results.  The outcome was a new lock for the door of the den and a successful insurance claim for a new cartridge - happily.  

I'm also impressed with all of the virtuous (sanctimonious???) reactions to the OP; I was furious. I eventually got over it and I still visit the lad at his adopted parents

Yes, those initial moments after it occurred really did hurt. I've managed to move on in the span of a half-dozen waking hours. Reading the early comments this morning upon waking was cathartic in a way. It's nice to hear about similar plights - even from a much younger Paul!

I really blame myself. I shouldn't have been so damn impatient with removing the skeletal TT from it's protective cradle. Had I waited until I received the custom dust lid this wouldn't have happened. I'm damned lucky I made it through those small child years without my daughter or her friends having poked in an Ariva woofer. Fortunately she never seemed particularly interested in anything that wasn't painted in some bright, vivid color. 

Hopefully now the insurance company will come through.

Richard, your suggestion was a good one. I can probably even get away with picking up something like Denon's DL-103 in the meantime. 

Does anyone have any knowledge / experience with Denon carts and Rega TT's / Phonostages? I guess I'll have to sort through cartridge alignment - never attempted before as I've always had Rega's 3 point carts, which came factory mounted. Then there is VTA for the tonearm base. Maybe YouTube can help here?

tonym posted:

A previous MrsM did something similar and unfortunately I killed her in a moment of pique. I felt a bit bad about it for a while but luckily the judge was a fellow hi-fi owner so I got away with a telling-off.

Thanks goodness nothing was damaged when we visited then!

Paul Stephenson posted:

During the first two weeks I started at Naim, my first job for around a month was learning to set up lp12 turntables to Julian's satisfaction- the result based on listening. I was setting up an lp12, Breuer tone arm and supex top of the range, as I leaned over to make a small adjustment the stylus became caught in my big baggy wolly jumper-shit I could have died, the moment of truth came when I had to confess and tell JV the stylus assembly now in my hand had been destroyed.

he just said you had better fit another one then,smiled and walked off

Wish all bosses were like that!

Reminds me of the time a few years ago when I had two Linn LK140 power amps bi-wired. I wanted to do somthing to the speaker cables, can't remember what, I opened the CDX2 draw which stopped the music and my brain registered this as switching off the system. Proceeded to disconnect one of the speaker cables and the ends touched. There was a spark and then smoke from both amps. Cost over £800 to fix. I did check with the insurance company before repair to see if it would adversely impact future premiums. Fortunately they said it wouldn't. 

I remember at the time wishing I could go back in time just two seconds and think about what I was doing. Now I double check that the system is off before disconnecting any cable. I even say out loud "the system is off" sometimes twice! I know it sounds daft but the kit I have now is much more expensive and my wife wouldn't forgive me if I did it again and I don't want that horrible feeling that I've done somthing I could have prevented by taking a bit more care.

Once you've got the ball rolling on getting it repaired you'll feel better, I know I did at the time and you can look forward to listening to vynl once the repairs done.

Good luck 

Mike

. 

What an overwhelmingly positive forum this is and never more so than in response to ARIC's post.  Well, maybe excepting the murder/divorce suggestions...

I understand the attraction of running the RP8 in skeletal form but I run my RP10 with the outer plinth and lid in place when not in use.  I haven't even dared to try it without - as much from fear of how much better in may sound as from careless fingers.  I thought that, maybe when our younger kids are much older, I might go bare but it seems from everyone's comments that the my wife and I are likely to be the greatest risk to the turntable.

+1 for keeping a spare cartridge safely locked away, though!

I've been reading these posts and there appears to be a mild streak of misogyny running through them.  Not critising anybody but read them back and they do appear to be 'man' looks after the complex hifi which 'woman' couldn't possibly understand.  I know this hobby is male dominated but surely we're above such distinctions. 

Mattnbarns posted:

I've been reading these posts and there appears to be a mild streak of misogyny running through them.  Not critising anybody but read them back and they do appear to be 'man' looks after the complex hifi which 'woman' couldn't possibly understand.  I know this hobby is male dominated but surely we're above such distinctions. 

No we really aren't

Denon DL-103 and Rega 2mm shim (which may not be needed, but the price break MD offered me out of sympathy made it a no brainer) on its way. I've read that Rega tonearms may not be heavy enough to handle the 103 properly, and this sometimes affects the bass qualities, but this is a short term solution so doesn't need to be perfect. I have a lot of music on vinyl that I do not possess digitally, so this solution as Richard suggested strikes a good compromise. 

I guess CES is going on right now, so I'll have to wait until mid next week when the GM at MD is back in the office so Chris can chat with him about my situation to progress further on returning the Apheta 2. 

The following should provide all the info I need on what's needed. Looks like tweezers are the recommended tool for connecting the tonearm wires to the tonearm pins. And I've got my paper Rega protractor which apparently takes into consideration the 2 null points already, so here goes. 

http://www.audiophilia.com/fea.../cartridge_setup.htm

Really like the plug and play of Rega's offerings and hoped to never get into anything beyond tracking force and counterweight adjustments. Hopefully the back of the Denon won't hit the vinyl so I don't have to bother with disconnecting the tonearm. On an aside, hopefully Rega ship the 2mm shim with longer screws as I don't think the currently fitted ones have 2mm of extra thread(?)! 

Mattnbarns posted:

I've been reading these posts and there appears to be a mild streak of misogyny running through them.  Not critising anybody but read them back and they do appear to be 'man' looks after the complex hifi which 'woman' couldn't possibly understand.  I know this hobby is male dominated but surely we're above such distinctions. 

You could be right although the simple explanation would be that many wifes are not really that interested in stereo equipment. My wife is an exception as she really likes to listen to music herself and she also appreciate the "cast iron look" and feel of the Naim boxes. Speaker was approved to.

My poor wife also managed to bump into one of the speakers a time ago. It fell over and hit the floor. I could hear the bang from downstairs and immediately knew what had happened. I knew she was feeling much worse about it than I did, but I said to myself: be nice! And I was. Fact is it could just as well have been I who did it.

The repair was expensive and both speakers had to be sent off to Denmark. Fortunately I have a great dealer and the manufacturer of the speakers are ever so helpful and I decided to have the speakers upgraded for a fair price. I tell myself that my wife actually did me a favour; I upgraded my speakers and avoided making my wife feel bad about it.

My wife came home very sheepish a few months back.  "Is everything ok?" I asked, "Not really: I had an accident in the car and I am a bit shaken.  The cars got a big dent in the back". I replied, saying how it didn't matter, as long as she was alright, the car is just a lump of metal and we can get sorted.  "I took your car" she replied.  Not happy!!!!

Mattnbarns posted:

...  Not critising anybody but read them back and they do appear to be 'man' looks after the complex hifi which 'woman' couldn't possibly understand...

Most men can't operate a simple streaming home network or NAS if you read the streaming threads in a certain light. My wife knows nothing about any of this multi-room lark, but she knows what she likes to hear and is happy to let me do the cursing, swearing, updating AND the dusting!

GraemeH posted:

Sorry to hear of your plight.

I once had both my kids poke the speaker cones in on my old Proac 1Sc's - fortunately they were easy to replace.

They even look a bit like the kids we had before.

G

Well, this thread proved useful when swmbo managed to kick the glass foot off a speaker (thankfully Q acoustics c40s rather than Nautilus's or something). 

I suspect I just won the 'why we need Momentum 7s with slate plinths' discussion. 

Mattnbarns posted:

I've been reading these posts and there appears to be a mild streak of misogyny running through them.  Not critising anybody but read them back and they do appear to be 'man' looks after the complex hifi which 'woman' couldn't possibly understand.  I know this hobby is male dominated but surely we're above such distinctions. 

Or maybe it's called "a sense of humor." (Or humour, if we're going to overly PC & inclusive.)

I believe kids, house guests, and even hi-fi owners themselves have all been implicated on this thread.

Back in the late 70's I had lugged all my kit into my parents basement where I was staying for the summer on break from college.  I was a bit tired and trying to hurry, so when I picked up my Altec-Lansing 9 speaker, my bottom supporting hand slipped off, and my brain instantaneously computed that ANYTHING was better than letting the entire enclosure hit the concrete floor from 3 feet up.  So I re-actively stuck my knee out to break the fall, and it sank rather nicely into the foam speaker grill as I gently guided it down and regained control.

It took me a good 10 minutes to muster the nerve to look at what had happened by removing the speaker grill (after the obligatory self-flagellation and an appropriate count of f-bombs), and indeed I had torn the woofer cone from dome to edge.  I tried taping it with no success, so the next day I was off to Manhattan for a replacement driver; $89 IIRC, which seems a pittance now, but to a starving college student in the late 70s it was a rather princely sum!

Note: no distaff persons were disparaged in the telling of this anecdote.

Aric posted:

Denon DL-103 and Rega 2mm shim (which may not be needed, but the price break MD offered me out of sympathy made it a no brainer) on its way.

...hopefully Rega ship the 2mm shim with longer screws as I don't think the currently fitted ones have 2mm of extra thread(?)! 

Really glad you're taking the opportunity to check out a classic cartridge and make lemonade out of lemons -- or as my dad would say, 'make chicken salad out of chicken shit'! It should be fun to hear how the Denon differs from your Rega cart. The factory screws will be fine; I had two shims on my P5 at one point -- no problem.

Happy listening!

Joe,

Thanks for letting me know about the screws. I realize 2mm is almost a trivial height, but then our hobby isn't characterized by the "close enough" mindset! 

Yes, I'm interested in hearing the house Denon sound again. My first discrete cd player (not counting my sony boombox I was given in the early 90s) was a Denon CD changer. That coupled into a retro and refurb'd Pioneer tube receiver and on again into Klipsch bookshelf speakers I acquired when I was 16 was my first foray into realizing the importance of better sound. 

The DL-103 may not strike any similarities at all against the changer cdp, but it will be fun to listen to another Denon again. I do have fond memories of those days.

Another interesting tidbit I'm excited to try is the pairing of a relatively expensive and superior TT, imo of course, with an affordable and entry level cartridge. What I've read over the years suggests focusing on the TT first, to truly be able to take advantage of all of a cart's sonic capabilities. 

The deck/cart combo's I've had thus far are:

1) P3-2000 / DV 10X5

2) RP6 / Exact 2

3) RP8 / Apheta 2

So there has been a pretty good match regarding price points here, and it will be very interesting to see how the Denon acquits itself. With any luck, I'll be spinning some tunes by next Wednesday!

Cheers

I had painters in the apartment, furniture in the middle draped, stereo moved into bedroom but thought the TT best in corner of the kitchen under cabinets.  Finally reinstalled everything and needle was missing from DVXX2......

Expensive mistake on my part,  Should have put it in my car and locked tight.

Soon to be moving out to CA desert, my new stereo  man is coming to assess and sell some equipment, I'm trimming out the Hard drive and couple other pieces holding in boxes. And  to box and move all equipment, AND LPs....  I'll trim down some of those also.  That's all before I move only half of my furniture, I'm going spare , but moving from 800 sq ft to 1,750 plus central air, incredible views of golf course and mountains.  My bedroom there is bigger than my living room in LA apartment. It's going to be tough to adjust to all of that. 

Insurance will pay if you have accidental cover, mine did.  Apheta is easy to fit, 3 bolts, can't get it wrong.  Accidents happen. Don't worry about it.

So the insurance company will not pay. The accident wasn't under an approved cause, like Fire. And they refuse to add "Stereo equipment/electronics" under the Personal Valuable policy where other categories are covered, such as Cameras, China, Silverware, Guns, etc. 

Perhaps I was fortunate this incident occurred as I obviously need to find another insurance company that will insure my hifi. For those in the US that may have this type of policy, can I please ask for the company you may use? Maybe an entity like Chubb, etc.?

It just sounds like you've not got accidental damage insurance then. Neither have I. I'll pay for my own mistakes, but I can't afford a robbery or fire, flood, etc...

I here you Count.D. I do for certain items, but my frustration is that my current Insurance company won't take my money to expand the policy to cover additional items beyond those examples listed in my last post (there are more, but you get the gist). Trying to hypothesize on accident scenarios, like hail, fire, something crashing through my roof or walls, etc, or theft of course misses the point on self-induced accidents. It appears finding this type of coverage for the HiFi will be a challenge in the US. Hopefully someone can come along and provide a name for me to investigate.

You think a broken stylus is bad? I came home from college ready to feed the Gold Fish in the little aquarium in my bedroom. Eh, where are the fish? Young nephew appears looking sheepish. Asked him if he knew anything. He mumbled something about the toilet - yep, he'd flushed one down the bloody thing!

So what about the other one? Turns out that he'd dropped that in my brothers tenor saxophone. Good job i was able to fish it out before he came home from work to practise on the thing. He'd be wondering why it sounded odd if i hadn't - haha!

To be honest, my nephew had done me a favour as secretly i'd enough of looking after the fish but couldn't bring myself to get rid of them. 

I might tell my nephew about it one day now he has kids of his own. 

Kids eh? 

The network does not fail when the vacuum cleaner is run - no scratched discs, busted cantilevers, or disheartened looks at the missus. In 2016, vinyl replay is a special activity that, unfortunately, is not nearly as family-friendly (or family-familiar) as it once was.

sorry to hear this. A few months ago I damaged my brand new Hugo by plugging in the charger for my turntable (16 volts) into the Hugo, and it went back to the factory for repair, the whole process took a few weeks. 

Things happen, and although you must be upset, there are always small financial losses and accidents in life, just be thankful it wasn't a major one.

On another note, I would encourage you to ditch the "old fashioned" turntable and get yourself a Chord Mojo DAC instead.

We have too many visiting guests in our home for me to buy an expensive TT, I have a entry level project Debut Carbon with a Ortofom OM10 stylus, this stuff is too delicate....