Kids & Hifi don't mix

Hi Steve

So far no serious damage, but one near miss from my Sister's little darlings. They descended on me en-masse one day from darkest Wales , & one of the girls decided to re-enact King Kong, ascending my speaker-stand to get the full panoramic view from atop my SF Signum... Luckily I spotted her in time so was able to rescue the little "darling..." Almost got a brownie point from Sis for the save until I pointed out that I was actually rescuing my "baby" not hers...

J

Surely there's an easy answer...either a music room with a lock on the door, or just don't have kids!

-- woody

My kid has, so far, has only poked in a tweeter dome on a visit to the high fi store, and caught one stylus on his sleeve (no more dynavector, but not completely his fault). He can change cd's on his own with the rega planet though. I think I will keep the rega until he is able to work with a puck. Those with kids know they don't have a lot of control over the issue, unless you want to lock up the stereo.

She Who Must Dust once pretzeled the stylus on an Asaka. Linn straightened it out--free of charge no less. The SECOND TIME she did it, they pronounced it beyond repair.

I put the dust cover on the LP-12 once my oldest could walk, and I took it off when my youngest was three or four and knew better. No damage from the kids in 11 years, but watch out for people who think your TT needs dusting!

In general is a tt like mine (Rega P25) going to be messed up by dust?

I've had to move my rack (new fireplace) and now it's a pain to have the lid on (bookshelf above is too low!)

-- woody

I have had TWO cartridges ruined. Once by the 'trouble and strife' and once by a wee rascal.
Thank god insurance covered the replacement both times - The Rohmann is $2400 here in NZ.

My two beautiful children love the hifi. At 2 1/2 years old they love to dance and sing.

No issues thus far, but my boy did run at one of the speakers at bump it a wee bit but no damage done.

I insisted to them from very early on that the kit was as much theirs as mine so look after it.
I think they have more respect that way, since they feel like they own it.

All children are quite different of course so observe them carefully and find out what works best for their personality type.

Joe90

Years ago when my son was younger, he and his friend decided to play Hip Hop (scratch) DJ with my Rega Planar 3. Completely destroyed the cartridge.

quote:

---

I insisted to them from very early on that the kit was as much theirs as mine so look after it.
I think they have more respect that way, since they feel like they own it.

---

Joe my thoughts exactly. The day my dealer installed my new NAIM set, I showed them how to use it and what to do/not to do. Works fine for me and both are still quite young but reasonably responsible.

My view is that as long as they only press buttons that were designed to be pressed, the equipment should be able to take it. As to speakers, simply warn them off or else...

Jeroen

Returned from a business trip to find my JBE Diamond 3 speakers sounding absolutely dreadful. Removing the grilles revealed the reason: my then 4 yr old son had seen some blasted Jackie Chan film and decided to practice his karate kicks on a convenient target.

The good news is that these were an old pair of speakers that I had connected for nostalgic reasons - so my 'real' speakers escaped damage. The bad news is that I can't find replacement drive units anywhere.

Both offspring now seem to have got the message about respecting property and both have learned to use the kit properly and responsibly ... fingers crossed.

Yikes,...all these horror scenario's.

Than goodness, I don't have kiddo's.
I know that, especially tweeters, are like very interesting little buttons that children want to push.

That's the nice thing about my speakers.
They are more or less 'kiddyproof'.
Them little toddlers CAN see the tweeters, but they CAN'T touch 'em.
(because of a metal grill covering the units)

regards,
Alco

Sorry Steve

My tweeters are inverted titanium domes but I do worry about kids and electricals. I've got two under three and one must be careful.

I have had to put my spiked stands in storage and have mounted the speakers onto 100kg+ plinths. The speakers themselves are about 30kg each so they weren't exactly safe on a metal stand.

No pun intended but the stands are rock solid and the speakers do not wobble at all.

An unfortunate accident occurred in Sydney a few years ago where a top rugby league player's child pulled a 68cm CRT on to himself and died. The poor mite was only about two and one of my best friends who is a detective had the unfortunate task of visiting the scene.

I teach my kids to be gentle with DVDs and videos. My son who is 17 months loves to put in his favourite Wiggles on by himself. Doesn't sound to bad through a 42.5/hi/110

Dave

My LP12 went into the loft after finding the arm off its rest and sat on the turntable a number of times. Also one little witch (who does not frequent our abode any more as a result) apparently stood on it - I was out at the time.
Like others here, my family know that the hi-fi is mine, and that it cost a lot of money.
I did catch the kids playing deejay with my CDX the other day - squabbling over which track to play. I told them they had to put in a CD and listen to it through.
However, I often find that things have shifted on their shelves, and it ain't because of a poltergeist.
My kids are age 10, 7 and 4.

Paul

our kids are not allowed anywhere near my sistem, they know it was very expensive and I will be very unhappy if anything happens to it.

However that didn't stop our youngest kicking my drive units, our eldest trying to push a key through my tweeter unit and someone pouring water over my Roksan Xerxes.

As a result my Roksan now sits in my office well away from them. It has moving parts and I am not prepared to take the risk!


Regards


NB

When Seagull junior was small he used to play with the power switch on my 110 (nice and large, like they have on many toys). I had to leave the hi-fi unplugged because of this. We eventually bought a fireguard to place around it.

Mrs S occasionally looks after a friend's toddler who has managed to knock one of my speakers over (glad I haven't got SBL's). They are quite heavy but seem to be a little unstable if leant against from the side.

Miss S. learnt from an early age how to use the puck on the CD5, I have only had to fish it out once.

But it seems I have made the mistake of inviting The Riders over so we'll see if it survives the week-end.

My little darling likes to twirl the NAT01 tuning selctor - she seems to have a preference for finding 92.4FM. She also likes turning the Armaggeddon on and pressing the record mute, mute and mono buttons on the 252. As yet she hasn't worked out that the Fraim is actually quite a good climbling fraim (!). I'm actually not bothered, it's only a hifi not a piece of jewellery

When my daughter was at the baby-walker stage we noticed that the wooden knobs had been unscrewed from the cupboards leaving sharp screws sticking out. When asked where the knobs were she giggled and pointed to the Epos speakers. I thought "no sign of them there" and continued searching. Then it dawned on me - the reflex port at the back - the wee rascal had plonked them in there. The speakers now rattle when shaken - doesnt seem to affect the sound though some day I should attempt a disassembly job.

Mike

you should all read poor old ron toolsies thread entitled OUCH . wouldnt be a bad idea to show kids the pain the damage can cause! very impressionable are kids. might make em think twice!!
those pictures should be x rated. bloody shame i think. be lucky, scotty

My son is just over 7 weeks old, so he's merely listened to the system (and seems to enjoy it). I'm sure that for a period I'll have to lock the room that houses my kit. During that time, I'll train him to use stereos with some of the lesser systems in the house. Once I can trust him with those, I'll introduce him to "daddy's stereo".

I'm hoping that the few buttons on my Naim gear will pale in comparison to the myriad doohickeys on the Sony CD+clockradio in his room, and the Panasonic boombox that will eventually move from our room to his (when he becomes dissatisfied with the volume from his Sony).

BTW, I refuse to play "kiddie" music for him. He gets grown-up music from Day-1. It's the only way that I can stay sane.

-=> Mike Hanson <=-

Two near misses from the same child:

1) Age 2 and a bit, last seen feeding some very young kittens into the nice big slot on the video. Followed by a jam sandwich.

2) 4 years later started busily prodding the nice spongy surrounds of the speakers I'd had reconed - and had returned the previous day.

No malice intended of course, just curiosity...

M.

Quote:-

wouldnt be a bad idea to show kids the pain the damage can cause! very impressionable are kids. might make em think twice!!
________________________________________________________________

It wouldn't make any difference, kids don't give a s**t what damage they cause!

Regards


NB

3 stories from Payette-land...

1. Similar to Martin's story, our 2nd son - then 4 or 5 - feeded the VCR with a peanut butter sandwich. The repairman couldn't believe it.

2. A "near miss": our elder son - then about 18 months - darted a knitting needle through the grille of a Pierre-Etienne Léon M3, missing the woofer/midrange by ½ an inch or so.

3. Said PEL M3's have been rocked into walls at least three times. No impact on the speakers, but I got tired of repairing the walls...

Thank God, the "kids" are now 17, 16 and 13 and all I have to care about is teenager problems!

my dog " removed " my syrinx pu3 from my Lp12 and completly destroyed my stax head phones but probably the worst thing he did was- and this is true! i found a dead cat out side our house and decided to bury it in the garden maybee 2 feet down and put half a paveing slab over the top of it.a week or so later me and my better half were watching tv and heard groweling and "thumping" comeing from the hi fi room (the room opend on to the garden and being the middle of summer the doors were wide open) we ignored it for about 10 mins then my missis got up to make a cuppa she opend the door andfroze in terror i jumped up thinking some one was in the house and ran to the door to see my delighted staffy with the bloated maggot filled dug up cat in his mouth there was soil ,fur, maggots ,etc all over the listerning room .the thumping noise was the cat hitting the ceiling and then being jumped on and shook when it landed!

When my girlfriend (now wife) first moved in she thought she'd brighten the place up by putting a plant on top of one of my Heybrook HB3's and then watered the plant and the Heybrook. Water mark anyone?????

Andy

quote:

---

Originally posted by okyknot:
Years ago when my son was younger, he and his friend decided to play Hip Hop (scratch) DJ with my Rega Planar 3. Completely destroyed the cartridge.

---

We used to do this all the time at the Junior House of our Blind School - particular favourite was turning the bass to full and recreating a thunder storm by turning a record by hand REAAAAAALLLLLLLLY slowly.

Alternatively, we'd get our mate Bren "done" by spinning a record round HORRENDOUSLY fast, then putting the needle on the record and turning the stereo ON so huge high pitched volume ensued; we'd run away very fast and the poor git'd get the blame...

I did this once round my mate Vince's on his dad's Dynatron turntable - a 12 inch of "You little thief" by Fergal Sharkey. Vince's dad was, err, none too thrilled, and I stopped that bad habit there and then.

The karma's come back at me - I've written off 3 stylus'/cartridges (one was the Dynavector 10x Gold High - one of only 50 in the world).

My Rega Elas only cost me £50 as the previous owner's kid had pushed in the tweeters and kknocked one speaker over; so kids can be cool sometimes.

That said, my worst fear would be having a girl tell me she was pregnant. That would scare the living poo out of me, as there's no way in this life I want to be a dad...

__________________________
Don't wanna be cremated or buried in a grave
Just dump me in a plastic bag and leave me on the pavement
A tribute to your modern world, your great society
I'm just another victim of your highrise fantasy!