As I'm sitting here typing this, I'm still shaking my head in dumb amazement. One month ago I received a brand new Rega RP8 / Apheta 2 combo. Purchased from a good US online dealer as I'm a six hour drive from civilization. The RP8 replaced my previous RP6 on the top shelf of my 5 shelf Fraim. TT's have been residing in this position now for years. ADMITTEDLY, they have always been the complete rectangular plinth with dust cover variety.
INSTRUCTIONS TO WIFE: "I'm leaving the TT in it's native, skeletal form. A custom acrylic cover will be along one of these days, but until then, please don't clean (i.e. dust) the top shelf of the Fraim. I will handle this duty."
Normally I replace the stylus cover. For some inexplicable reason after last night's session (i.e. The Last Session) I failed to do so.
Pearl Jam's Backspacer was rotating. I decided for some reason to turn the bright, overhead light on and inspect things before cueing the arm. To my utter HORROR, the stylus was bent back well over 90°
WAILS OF GUTTURAL CRIES ENSUED: "What? What has happened? What did you do? Did some small child play with my Tonearm earlier today?"
WIFE: "Huh? (Hurries over) What are you talking about? No, there were no kids here!"
GNASHER OF TEETH: "Then how did this HAPPEN?" Points at grotesquely mutilated stylus bent back on cartridge. This was easy for me to see as I was sunk despairingly back on my knees.
WIFE: "I just dusted under there today with a Swiffer©!"
SHELLSHOCKED, FLEETINGLY SMALL ME AS SANITY FLED THROUGH AN OUT-OF-BODY-EXPERIENCE: no words could me made. My jaw clicked open and hung, stupefied
I feel somewhat better having typed this out, but truthfully, not much. I realized several things within the span of microseconds: 1) this is an expensive problem, 2) I'm not going to be able to listen to vinyl for probably a couple of months now, 3) even if the stylus cover was on, because it's flexible plastic under the stylus tip, chances are it would still have been bent with whatever dragging force was applied to it - so whether 90°+ or 10-20° it was certifiable toast, 4) wives don't listen about all important stereo related instructions.
What I need now are solutions. The wife will call the insurance company tomorrow; commence holding breath. I don't have a shipping box for the Apheta 2 as it was factory mounted by Rega and they don't apparently send the protective box in these circumstances. I assume Rega's quote for factory trade-in price for a used Apheta 2 ($1395) would be applicable in this case? Better than a new one, at $1895, which of course I didn't pay for to begin with as it was bundled. Then what is the expected timeline to ship the damaged one off to England, wait for my place in line to fix what was a brilliant sounding cartridge, have it shipped back to distributer/dealer and then on again to me? How sensitive are the phono leads to the back of the cartridge? Is removing the leads a delicate operation best done with a special tool?
I'm thoroughly depressed. Thanks ahead of time for any recommendations, instructions, or advice!
Aric
Posted on: 12 January 2016 by Aric
This of course shows my age, but the irony is that vinyl, since I'm a late adopter, is particularly revelatory wrt tactile qualities not encountered in other mediums, has the prospect of enjoying album artwork a little more easily, encourages one to be a little more mentally involved (waiting for a side to end, gotta get up and switch quickly), and of course as sonic qualities go, I find I prefer vinyl over similarly priced digital versions.
I had a Uniti and a 172XS a while back and without the Unitiserve, I found the whole network experience a workup of constant peeves. I don't for a minute discount what a great digital experience the Unitiserve/NAS/Streamer/DAC experience could be, but I don't have room, not even for just a Serve / Streamer. Not without getting rid of the TT, and until my knees creak and my hips ache, I'm going to keep getting off the couch to flip the record. And I even have a solution for when the latter happens!
Posted on: 13 January 2016 by jon h
I run a product test lab. A few years ago, I needed to check the part number on an Intel processor which was mounted in one of those "pull the lever to release the CPU" mounts. Of course, it was a top of the range as-yet-unreleased prototype CPU on loan from Intel to the company concerned. Worth zillions.
So I pulled the lever, and popped out the cpu. It would have helped somewhat if I had turned off the power before trying to do this. I hastily turned the power off, put the chip back into the socket, and hit the power button. Deader than a dead thing. Told client that sample had failed and that we needed a second one. A few months later, after many beers over dinner, I confessed to what I had done.
Posted on: 13 January 2016 by tonym
Having managed to secure a nice pair of DBLs, I set them up, listened with a single passive 500, and good though they sounded, the itch to go active soon arrived. I already had a spare 500 from my active SL2 system and, to tide me over, I bought a 250 from my dealer which I decided to put on the bass driver. Falling over myself with excitement to get up and running, I laid the extra run of cabling in the the underfloor trunking, wired up, switched on...Something sounded a bit odd. Couldn't figure it out so an emergency call to Signals and Andy came zooming over, blue lights and sirens going. Took him about two seconds to diagnose the problem - I'd wired the bass and treble amps the wrong way round and comprehensively blown the tweeters, despite me thinking I'd labelled things correctly.
The insurance paid out the full amount without quibble, but I felt such a complete idiot. Act in haste and all that.
Posted on: 13 January 2016 by Graham Clarke
Wow! This is becoming a deepest, darkest confessions thread. As a duly ordained minister in the Church of All Things Hifi and Wifi I grant absolution to these and any even more sinister admissions. Who can top Honeyball? C'mon, have a few beers!
Don't think this tops Jon's but here's my embarrassing story.
Many moons ago I used to run a system of 30+ Novell NetWare 3.11 servers for a reinsurance company. Our finance department had two proudly on display. They were IBM PS/2 Model 80s. They were right next to each other with both monitors and keyboards on a desk and the tower units directly underneath.
One day one of them abended (crashed) so I was called to come and have a look. Not a lot I could do apart from reboot it. After looking at the crash message on the left hand monitor I reached down and flicked the power off for the left hand tower unit immediately below. At this point, the right hand screen of the still running server went blank...
Yep. The left hand server was connected to the right hand monitor and keyboard and vice versa. So, at this point the whole network for our finance department was down.
You can imagine the dirty looks I gave to the IT person who'd set them up this way because it wasn't me...
Posted on: 13 January 2016 by David02
wow, you've got a wife that cleans the house! you're a lucky man, never let her go...
when I unpacked my new rega RP3 my son (3 years old) immediately grasped the needle! Before I ever heard it!! Kids...
Now I learned the kids (3 & 6 years) how to switch on the Naim, go to Phono, switch on the Rega, unpack a record (they 've got their own small collection) and place it on the TT... They consider it some kind of honor and are always very careful!
Posted on: 17 January 2016 by Clive B
I read this thread about a week ago and immediately empathised with the OP, shared the feelings of rage and guilt and laughed at some of the more humorous responses in near equal measure. It must have been about the same time that I dropped an album, having just lifted it from the turntable to turn it over. I heard it hit something on the way to the floor and immediately recovered it from the carpet, checking for scratches etc. but apart from dust picked up from the carpet it seemed fine. A spin on the Okki Nokki restored it to its former glory; actually, it was only a cheap secondhand album from my local record store, so it wouldn't have mattered if it had been scuffed all over.
Then I started inspecting the Fraim shelves to see if they'd been marked. I was relieved to find all was fine and just assumed that the record had hit the glass of the top shelf.
Now, over the last year I have been gradually upgrading my LP12. New Aro tone arm, Kore sub-chassis and new walnut plinth last May, Karmen top plate and Radikal and Urika in November and I'm expecting a new Keel for Aro in April, by which time it will be at the performance level I've dreamed of.
Yesterday I lifted the lid of the turntable to play a record and saw the slice which that bloody record had removed from the edge of the plinth and suddenly I was back at the start of this thread cursing like the rest on here. How could I have done it? I have never dropped a record before that one. How can I now have a Keel installed on an inferior looking plinth? TBH it's only a small ding, but it has removed the surface of the wood and it seems quite visible as it's lighter than the finished wood surrounding it.
I have counted to ten several times, including every time I go anywhere near the turntable where I can sense the dent/slice/ding/imperfection yelling at me, "Hey look at me!"
