Creating a good stereo system that can stay out of the reach of children

Phono stage aside, I was going to recommend getting a Qute +/- a NAP 100, and tucking it up out of the way on some shelves that are far out of reach.  

I take it that the speakers will be up on shelves too?  As bookshelf speakers on stands would not be safe with toddlers in the home.

My #2 child, who is now 28, grabbed ahold of my tonearm when he was ~ 2 and gave it a yank.  We also had some foreign matter inserted into the VCR once.  I truly believe that we can only do so much to kid-proof our homes.  "Kids will be kids."  

Some great advice I got from a colleague once, a long time ago, is that you want your home to be a home for the children, too.  Make it a place that they WANT to 'hang out' in once they are older.  I was always happy to have them and their friends at my home, where at least I knew they were safe and relatively out of trouble.  So we had furniture that they could abuse a bit, and replaced it once they went off to university.  If you make your home and contents so "precious" that they are scared of being there, well then you'll never see them once they are teens!

I have this worry to come as well as I have a newborn.  Now here's a suggestion which may not sit well with you aesthetically, but would work if you have space. Put a cage around the audio equipment which toddlers cannot get through - of course I am referring to the audio equipment! You can take the cage down when they are not in the room perhaps fold it away.

That's what I'm going to do.

I'd explain that the Hifi is to be listened to but not touched. We left our system in the sitting room all the while our boys were small. And if there is an accident, that's what insurance is for.  We lost a couple of SBL tweeters, but that was it. 

We have a side room off the sitting room and all the kit except the loudspeakers has always been in there.  It has a wide arch from the sitting room and when the children were small, I had a wooden gate about 6 feet wide and two and a half feet high.  This could be dropped into place or lifted out, depending whether the children were in bed and if it were in place, I could step over it without difficulty.  Anything to be kept out of their range went onto the floor in there.  It was known as "Daddy's play pen".

I have found though that it is much more difficult keeping cats away from my hifi. Eg see my avatar for proof of a recent trespass.

best

David

I think expecting young children to understand and unfailingly follow an instruction not to touch is fanciful - as borne out by the loss of HHs tweeters - and less chance with cats.

i put my rack, including turntable, in a cupboard, with childproof catches ( not that they're infallible). Large holes drilled in base allowed contact with solid floor, multiple large holes drilled in back panel for ventilation, some sound absorbent/deadening sheets on inside of panels to ensure no negative acoustic factors - in fact that reduced acoustic feedback when positioned to the front side of speakers so better than freestanding, and tge whole lot neat and tidy to boot, with very high WAF!

What a good topic! I was thinking about starting a thread on exactly the same subject a while ago.

We have 4 kids, in the ages 0, 3, 7, 9.

I did put my stuff on shelves - as my old house has in-build shelves as well. This helps a bit. My 3 year old discovered half a year ago that you can actually move a chair, and use the back of the chair to stand on. A 2.5 yr old kid can reach to almost 1.5 meter high this way. Kids are extremely attracted to things which are touched by the parents, so they will do anything to touch it as well.

I never listen to my Project Debut Carbon TT when the kids are awake, so they have no interest in it. They simply can't see it since it is at 2.20 meters high close to the ceiling.

As an amp, I have a Supernait (1). A Stageline can be powered from one of the Aux ports. I feel that the Supernait is underestimated a bit. I do agree that separates would be more hifi, but the Supernait is such an extremely flexible amp. It has a dac, can power a stageline and has loads of power to drive almost any speaker. Ideal amp in my intensive family live.

My Supernait is driving 2 B&W cm1's. Small speakers which are equiped with 'preservatives'. I bought 2 steel protection grills for the tweeters. They were damaged by my kids before - replaced and equiped with these 'preservatives'. Bought at one of the regular hifi stores in Kista - Stockholm. Speakers are on shelves. When my youngest kid is 4, I will buy some floorstanders.

Furthermore, I have a CD5i which survived my kids for about a year now. My Technics and Philips cd player were damaged almost instantly but for some magic reason the CD5i survives.

Streaming is key. My SN takes an Airport Express and a Chromecast Audio which are used mostly (Spotify).

I will post some photo's soon in the system photo thread.

Very good to combine your personal interest with family live. That builds enduring relations. Sure that your kids still consider you an interesting guy when they are teenagers ;-)

I recall this post a while ago

https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...85#53519507272208985

 Yes, that's a 552/500 system 

Very interesting comments.

Bart:  Yes, the speakers will be up on the shelves too.  Putting them on stands would be like waving a red flag in front of a bull!

Consciousmess:  Erecting a barrier is a sensible idea, but personally speaking I can't tolerate the aesthetics.

Hungry Halibut:  Good point.  Again, just personally speaking, my patience gets tested so much I don't want to expose myself to the conflicting feelings of my loved ones damaging something that gives me so much joy.

Ardbeg10Y:  How did you settle on the AirPort/SuperNait combo as opposed to one that may at least superficially seem more balanced, like a Qute/100?  I totally agree about wanting to combine personal life with personal interests.  I want to expose them what music is like when it sounds great.

Does anyone know which Naim products (aside from the power supplies) can power a phono Stageline?  This is an important point in the decision tree for me.

NGarritson, since my speakers are in my living room (about 50 sq meters), the room itselve is the limitation. My living room is really a living room and before the music arrives my ears, it needs to pass a large dining table, fire place, piano and probably some duplo / lego railways, towers of wooden blocks, stacks of books, three wheeler, toy kitchen. Not joking here by the way. So the room is the limitation. When I tidy up my living room, put speakers on the dining table in listening position, put the chair in rhe right position, I could hear a difference between the dacs of my Chromecast / Apple TV / Airport Express / Supernait / TV. I consider the optical connection (digital) from the Chromecast to my SuperNait as the best since I like Android. The DAC of my SuperNait is doing the work here. This difference is maybe 3% of the total sound quality.

Both the original SuperNait and the SuperNait 2 can power a Stageline. In case you get a Supernait, you are in a more flexible situation compared to a Qute / NAP 100 with regards to upgrades. To a Supernait, you could simply add more boxes to upgrade. You could add power supplies to both the SN and the Stageline, and the obvious upgrade would be a Dac V1 (doing the D - A conversion instead of the Airport Express). The SN is having loads of power.

However, Qute / NAP100 is a very nice combo as well. If I had a smaller living room and no plans to upgrade my speakers in about 4 years, I would choose the Qute / Nap 100 combo since you can use the Naim apps as well to control the Qute. In your specific case, you would indeed need a flatcap or hicap which gives you 4 boxes (Qute / Nap 100 / flatcap / Stageline).

Supernait setup is only 2 boxes (1 fullsize + small Stageline) and puts you in pole position for upgrades.

When our 2 were young the system was in a glass doored cabinet and LP12 on a wall bracket ( and it still is).

Later when the kids understood not to touch the system  came into the real world, on any number of supports, the latest being Isoblue.

I have the Uniti2 and I think it's a brilliant little unit and does everything I need it to do from an evening listening to music through to AV centre. It would also be ideal for the next few years of your life in my view, as it would cover everything you say you're looking for in the one box whilst allowing you to get through the early years. If it really doesn't do it for you in another 8 or so years then it can become an AV centre.

It can go virtually anywhere at a push and has TIDAL and Spotify native too. There's a fair amount of snobbery about things on this board, but Naim make good equipment throughout their offerings. If you think you can do without an inbuilt CD then the SuperUniti becomes a further option. If I were in your shoes I'd do the sensible thing and audition each of the options you've noted to see if any suit you - yours are the only ears on this forum likely to hear them. 

Hungryhalibut posted:

I'd explain that the Hifi is to be listened to but not touched. We left our system in the sitting room all the while our boys were small. And if there is an accident, that's what insurance is for.  We lost a couple of SBL tweeters, but that was it. 

100% agree.

When I worked in the trade there was a constant stream of units coming in with child damage. 90% of the victims were speakers and not a weak went by without seeing the results of pencils and biros rammed through the drive units. But insurance does cover it and different kids do behave differently. I wouldn't want to exile the hi-fi to an inconvenient location or vice versa. Eventually, that way you end up either resenting the impact of the child or the child the impact of daddy's boring expensive toy.

Much easier to live with both and see what the outcome is. There is always a chance that they won't much with it. My toddler shares the lounge with 3 racks of gear. My concern isn't so much that she'll hurt the gear is that she'll knock a speaker onto herself. The gear is all replaceable. So far, the only things I really need to watch out for is educating her that the lead on HD800s is not a pull toy.

Growing up, there were turntables and stuff and home when I was a toddler and the gear was treated with such reverence that I was afraid to touch it until I was older. Children = disaster is not a foregone conclusion.

Insurance may cover - assuming you have accidental damage cover and depending on whether there is an excess - but you are nevertheless bound to try to avoid incidents occurring, while the hassle of having to organise and wait for repair, or source replacement if no longer available, is another factor, so steps to try to minimise the risk to my mind are approriate, and whilst that certainly doesn't mean not enjoying your music, it does go beyond expecting a young child to indefinitely remember and obey the command not to touch. My aforementioned efforts were primarily to protect CD drawer and arm/cartridge. My speakers had grilles, which both hid the enticing delicate parts behind an uninteresting black face, and provided a first-line defence against at least minor contact - speakers without grilles admittedly are indeed harder to defend.

Innocent Bystander posted:

Insurance may cover - assuming you have accidental damage cover and depending on whether there is an excess - but you are nevertheless bound to try to avoid incidents occurring, while the hassle of having to organise and wait for repair, or source replacement if no longer available, is another factor, so steps to try to minimise the risk to my mind are approriate, and whilst that certainly doesn't mean not enjoying your music, it does go beyond expecting a young child to indefinitely remember and obey the command not to touch. My aforementioned efforts were primarily to protect CD drawer and arm/cartridge. My speakers had grilles, which both hid the enticing delicate parts behind an uninteresting black face, and provided a first-line defence against at least minor contact - speakers without grilles admittedly are indeed harder to defend.

This is also true. The grilles only come off the speakers after little hands that can fling food and such have gone to bed  There is a difference between living with kids and actively inviting disaster.

After the 'tweeter incident' we attached the SBL grilles with black elastic to prevent them being removed. The good thing about wall hugging floorstanders is that they are out of the way. Children will always hurtle around and I'd be very concerned about small speakers on stands, out from the wall, as they can easily fall off and cause injury. But with sensible precautions, children and Hifi can coexist happily. 

FZ, Flinging of food is something I didn't experience. If living accomodation dictates the same room as eating, then if possible adequate distance from the table would be the answer - unless the little ones are Olympic shot putters in training. 

HH, I've always been concerned about small speakers on stands - floorstanders take up no less room and have a chance of playing the bottom octaves. 

Hi. The Qute is the obvious solution. Trade the Stageline in on a Rega phono stage and use the analgue input. That only leaves where to place everything. The turntable would be the challenge. I recall saying "use everything, have fun but touch the turntable and XXXX" (enter consequences of your choice). You could always go to the SuperUniti one day ..

@Bystander, open plan unfortunately (the scourge of modern living and fad that should die). Technically I have 3 racks in a kitchen. But precautions implemented though they may be, nothing has taken a direct hit... yet.

@CSBOY, I can't agree. I think the obvious solution is to put the main system back in the lounge and just sit back and enjoy but maybe get an ND5XS, and start reducing the items with moving platters and pucks.

feeling_zen posted:

100% agree.

When I worked in the trade there was a constant stream of units coming in with child damage. 90% of the victims were speakers and not a weak went by without seeing the results of pencils and biros rammed through the drive units. But insurance does cover it and different kids do behave differently. I wouldn't want to exile the hi-fi to an inconvenient location or vice versa. Eventually, that way you end up either resenting the impact of the child or the child the impact of daddy's boring expensive toy.

Much easier to live with both and see what the outcome is. There is always a chance that they won't much with it. My toddler shares the lounge with 3 racks of gear. My concern isn't so much that she'll hurt the gear is that she'll knock a speaker onto herself. The gear is all replaceable. So far, the only things I really need to watch out for is educating her that the lead on HD800s is not a pull toy.

Growing up, there were turntables and stuff and home when I was a toddler and the gear was treated with such reverence that I was afraid to touch it until I was older. Children = disaster is not a foregone conclusion.

Very sensible advice.

I have 2 lads (now 6 and 8) and they have always been fine around the system. I did not have a TT for a few years, as that might have been too tempting, but otherwise, we just kept on as before. Neither of my children ever "attacked" it and nor did any that came to visit. 

Tbh, I am not sure that a couple of racks of naim is actually all that alluring to children - too black and boring. The only thing I would really worry about is standmounts being knocked onto a small person running into them. We had SBLs at that time, so no worries there.

What did cause problems was my schnauzer cocking his leg and lavishly spraying one of the racks...but that is another story!

oscarskeeper posted:

 

 

What did cause problems was my schnauzer cocking his leg and lavishly spraying one of the racks...but that is another story!

ROFL

What was the dog reviewing?

feeling_zen posted:

oscarskeeper posted:

 

 

What did cause problems was my schnauzer cocking his leg and lavishly spraying one of the racks...but that is another story!

ROFL

What was the dog reviewing?

He's never been a fan of my choice in music, but had never been driven to "speak out" before!

I had a custom AV cabinet complete with locking doors made for me a few years back. Ventilated and with room for the equipiment racks to dwell inside. Now the children are older the gear is on new Quadraspire SVT racks and the cabinet has been adapted to house my LP collection. Perfect!

Having two youngsters in the house and already experienced the loss of a beryllium tweeter I've also made a few changes to my system set up to better balance between having the music on hand and giving the kids space to play. Like others I've put my system in a custom cabinet with children's locks on the doors and have moved the speakers to sit on top of the cabinet with some large granite plinths beneath them to try and reduce the vibration a bit. Streaming is great as I've been able to move all of the CDs out of the room to make space for the toys.

Sound is certainly not as good but at least I can still listen in the evenings and every so often the kids will be out and I can stick the speakers back down on their stands for a longer listen.

Main tip would be to make sure all of the cabling is shielded as that seems to attract random yanks from little hands. 

I took a far more risky approach and decided that children need to be educated rather than restricted - stair gates and play pens to my mind are for protecting them not my possessions.

So from day one - almost - we left the hi-fi as it was - played them music on  it, they had their own CDs and tapes, - and we never had a problem. Okay we were lucky perhaps but I genuinely think that by restricting children you in turn inhibit their understanding. 

Sorry very PC I recognise.

Regards,

Lindsay

PS: As David says the cats when we had them were completely - destructive sods!!

With the arrival of the grandkids, and their transition from crawling to walking, I soon realised that I was less concerned about damage to the hi fi, more worried about damage to said grandkids, (have you felt the weight of a 555 power supply, for example) !!!!

The whole system is stood on Fraim, which is not really resistant to an accidental shove, or having a toddler stumble into it in a moment of over excitement.

It's all in a separate music room along with a couple of guitars and amps, so with the addition of an electronic drum kit, for the benefit of the eldest, who's six, we seem to have succeeded in turning visits to grandad's house into something special for them, where they can "participate in the music", and the distraction thus provided seems to have relegated the hi fi to being part of the background.

I agree that restricting kids isn't the best, and we seem to have found a happy balance with the above, though, as a grandparent, that's easy to say, since, of course, we probably all give our grandkids much more freedom than we ever did their mum or dad!

Having such a set up when my own kids were this age never really came up, as disposable income at that time seemed to channeled into more important areas!

Fingers crossed!