I'll preface this by saying my two young children (girl, 4 and boy, 7) have been nothing more than stellar about the stereo, better than most roommates I've had. That is until a couple of nights ago. Suddenly from the next room came a resounding crash, and there was my four year old with a Kef Ls50 face down on her foot, still blue tacked to the heavy, cast iron, sand filled stand. Fortunately the bowl of yogurt that was in her hand stopped the fall, and not the totality of her foot or other body part. No damage to the new oak floors, but the driver in the Ls50 was toast with a gaping crash - the speaker totally shattered the bowl. A couple of small gouges to the front plastic baffle but otherwise speaker unharmed. Pic of it making the rounds at Kef HQ now I guess!
I wondered how the bowl could end up so centered on the driver. Upon further questioning, it turns out she was trying to feed the speakers because they were so hungry. "No sweetie, amps only (Naim preferably)." She must have tried pulling it closer and over it went. The Ls50's are incredibly heavy speakers, as well as the stands. It could have been a trip to the emergency room. I always worried about this potentiality, but as my kids were always so disinterested in them... My biggest fear was that it would be somebody else's child.
So, I'm now the proud owner of new pair of factory second Rega Rx3's for almost half price (can't figure out what's second about them), and couldn't be happier. Took the spikes off, backed them up to the wall with a bit of toe-in, and blu tacked them straight on to the new oak floor (new sub-floor as well). Sound absolutely freaking amazing and can take a good knock before going anywhere. Sad thing is the Ls50's were never really right for the room and amp, and I was considering trading them on anyway, but first needing to convince wife, who loved the look of the 50's, the Rega's not so much. Now need to pay for repair and take a big loss on selling (they were mint before). Oh well. Just glad she didn't get hurt. So that's my warning - if you have small children don't get too blasé - you never know when they might have that momentary psychotic break or brain fart, even if the original intention might have been well meaning.
Posted on: 11 September 2016 by charlesphoto
Children and their feelings ( and their self confidence ) and way more important than our audio gear.
Sometimes these things happen...
njoi the Rega's !
Thanks! Ls50's should be a fairly simple fix and not too much $ but will take a beating on resale sadly.
The Rx3's are sounding superb. The Ls50's had more shivers up the spine qualities, but in my room, so close to the wall, it was only on certain tracks, and it actually rendered many more unplayable, awash with lower blurred out bass frequencies, and i poorly recorded forget about it. No tingles with the Rx3's, but they are fantastic all rounders, and not that fussy about placement or amp (NAP 110 in my case). Very fast, detailed, and bring out all that toe tapping Naim goodness and make just about everything sound good. Really over the moon with them (esp for $1300 brand new!).
Posted on: 11 September 2016 by Judge
I am glad to read your daughter wasn't hurt, at the end of the day she is not replaceable.
Does your home insurance cover accidental contents damage? That might mitigate the financial impact, although you'd probably have to have another pair of ls50s.
Posted on: 13 September 2016 by Phil Harris
I'm surely a selfish and arid man but I've had my first stereo system at thirteen and haven't been able to live without one in the subsequent 50 years, but have never, in half a century, felt any urge or desire to have children. Too many things would daily challenge my moral obligation to love them.
My Ex-GF's kids poked in the tweeters for my Allaes and Axent but I was able to suck them out (to much ridicule from my ex) ... If I had kids of my own I wouldn't be able to have the HiFi I have now ...
That particular ex was retired after I got myself a pair of DBLs and she announced that they were never coming into any house that we might have together. :hehe:
I have a Godson who I think the world of but I'm too old and too selfish now to do the kids thing myself I reckon. 
Phil
Posted on: 13 September 2016 by Mr Underhill
Hi Charles,
Glad everybody is OK.
When we moved to our current house many moons ago my only specification was to have a separate living room that could house my HiFi, with a closable door. I had a semi-cupboard built in - it is two doors so it can open completely flat to the wall, but can close to protect the equipment from animals & children.
When I had my first job I left my HiFi at home as I had nowhere to keep it. I came home one weekend to find the dust-cap on one speaker looking less than pristine. My parents had lent my bedroom to a young cousin who couldn't resist pushing it in. My mother had used the vacuum cleaner to pull it back out; I didn't feel I could ask for the cost of a proper repair!
M
Posted on: 13 September 2016 by Massimo Bertola
@Phil Harris.
Phil,
I have a nephew and a niece (my wife's sister's children), a boy of 6 (the one who's waiting for my death to have my Naim system) and a girl of 9. I saw each first a few minutes after they had left their mom's womb, and looked like blind moles, all wrinkles, like they had no skin yet. And I followed their growth; I am extremely fond of them, they are lovely, clever, amusing children. This is only to say that my selfishness and my aridity don't prevent me from loving them; but having children of one's own must be a completely different thing. I am perhaps simply relieved not to have any – especially when I think of the world in which they would be grownups. Yes, this too is selfishness.
In my heart, I hope I can believe that if Giacomo, age 6, when he was transporting my right hand Sat to its stand, with the most serious, factual, committed look in the world, would have dropped it, I'd have been able to say nothing, and still find him the loveliest little kid I know.
M.
Posted on: 13 September 2016 by charlesphoto
The only time my son (now seven) did anything like this was when he was four, and on the second day of our Hawaii vacation I watched as he pushed my Leica lens off of the coffee table onto the tile floor with his foot. And yes I was angry! Only a $400 repair.... due, when all is said and done, to extreme tiredness and hunger from a long day in the surf. I really don't think most kids at this age do these kind of things on purpose or with malicious intention. There brains can go a bit haywire at times (mmm, like Trump's perhaps?) and we all have to remember that every single one of us was child at one time, and probably far from always perfect. Perspective is everything....
Posted on: 13 September 2016 by charlesphoto
And then there was the time a year ago when I got very angry on a phone call, threw my phone across the room, intending to hit the sofa, and got the floor instead. Phone bounced on its edge in a Body Glove hard case and broke the front window above the sofa. Kids, wife, and myself all in shock. Great teaching moment in why we need to control our emotions, and never throw anything that isn't soft in the house. Thank god for the lifetime no questions asked warranty from Milgard. Phone was fine.
Posted on: 13 September 2016 by David Hendon
The best thing about having kids is that one day they have kids and you get to have them around you for short periods, after which you hand them back. So all of the delight but only a portion of the aggravation.
I have a child-induced fallen speaker story too, but it is outclassed by Richard, Phil et al so I will refrain from boring you all with it.
best
David
Posted on: 14 September 2016 by Et in Arcadia
There seem to be more girl-based stories here than boys, or is that just my impression as a father of two girls?
The only time I have bought a MC cartridge, my younger daughter (aged about 2 1/2 at the time) decided it looked interesting and crushed it in her tiny paw; then did the same to the replacement two days later.
I know I should have secured it immediately after the first incident, but I'd told her not to do it again; her older sister had always complied with such urgent instructions. Naiveté in a parent is invariably punished. Velcro on the TT lid solved the problem thereafter.
I've never been able to face a MC since; fortunately Goldring make good MM's.
A friend of hers, many years later, managed to step on a speaker cable with such force that she sheared off the banana plug (cleanly). I hope she never took up Taekwondo, she'd have been deadly.
Posted on: 14 September 2016 by feeling_zen
I never worry about the hifi so much as that kids might hurt themselves. Nearly all the customers I knew with kids came in with either a screwdriver, biro or pencil through a drive unit and tears in their eyes. I'm always amazed that some kids are just drawn to that stuff and others seem to know to be careful with the hifi as if my telepathy. I don't think me or my brother or sister ever were once told to mind the hifi growing up and I know for a fact we never ever played with it in the wrong way. I may be the only generation XY old enough to be in that rare group that actually had their own little toy (but real) record player when they were barely out of nappies. Records that narrated story books and stuff.
I've always avoiding standmounts for a variety of reasons. Knocking off stands being one reason and more recently, not being a good idea on the 30th floor of a quake prone country with kids around being another. Floorstanders can fall over but standmounts can become projectiles. The hifi is insured. The little angel isn't.
It is when grown adults play around with and treat the hifi wrong that bothers me much more. I had a lodger evicted once because the hifi room was off limits and I found they had sneaked in to watch my Laserdiscs and scratched one.
