Catastrophe!!!

Ouch! Truly a situation that Kevin Hughes can relate to. I saw what was left of his Xerxes after it pulled a similar stunt, it looked like a bomb had hit it.

Did you have new for old on the insurance?

Tony.

John

My condolences.

This happened to me a few years ago. My Audiotech wall shelf came off and LP12 was dangling suspended from it's wires. But after taking the deck to Robert Ritchie, all the components after servicing (even the Aro & Troika) were proclaimed as fine.

Hope everything works out.

regards

Dev

John

I know you must be bloody fed up and I thought long and hard about writing this letter because it may compound your troubles.

Is your insurance " all risks" and is the TT specified under the list.

I am now playing devils advocate and I am not taking their side but preparing you for their response.

You are OK if the TT is covered under all risks.

If not.....its odds against. They will argue that a propriety support such as Mana is designed to be fixed to a wall and if properly fitted will stay there for years.

So why did it fall down.....answer probably ineffective fitting by a keen DIY er, claim dismissed. Either the unit was at fault, or it was incorrectly fitted or the wall was not strong enough.....all grounds for rejection.

I wish you well in your claim but I think you will have a fight on your hands.

Regards

Mick

John,

I'm very sorry to hear this - I'd be very worried about bearings in the LP12 (arm / platter). Make sure they're checked by Linn, since they are such tight tolerance items the dealer can only spot major faults (stiction etc.). The subchassis could distort also.

It's at times like these that a dealer can be invaluable. Mine offered lots of advice with regard to valuations for insurance purposes, and will probably offer assistance with smoothing the process.

Insurance companies often need some persausion / explanation when it comes to claims involving specialist valuable equipment - your dealer can often help with this.

Looking forward to it's replacement, did the fixings fail on the shelf, or did part of the wall give way?

If it's a brick / breezeblock wall can I suggest you investigate expanding sleeve bolts when refitting the shelf. They're a bit excessive looking, but if properly fitted the wall will come down before the shelf. I've used these to support my LP12 having had fears of what has just happened to you.

Andy.

Andrew L. Weekes
alweekes@audiophile.com

You have paid your insurance premiums, you have had a genuine accident & I sincerely hope that you will be fully covered/reimbursed. I must say, like Mick that forewarned is forearmed.

18 moths ago I had an accident with my LP12 whilst going to phase 2 Mana, ( now fully 'Huttered' so no probs from now on ). The top glass plate skidded off the spikes & dumped my deck sideways.
After diagnostics at Audio Ex the Ekos bearings were found to be damaged. I contacted my insurance company and told them that the arm of my record player needed replacing.

At first I could tell the guy on the phone was thinking ' why is this chap making such a fuss about needing a new arm for his record player' then I told him that we were looking at a 4 figure sum.

His pregnant pause followed by asking me to repeat the amount told me that he was not ready for that one! Anyway the reason that I was fully covered was that I had had an accident whilst moving my treasured deck, not because it had fallen from an inadequately fixed wall shelf. On reflection you may wish to be a trifle economic with the full facts. Good luck.

Bob.

John

Contact your dealer first - he will give you the correct phrases to use with the insurance company.

I can't remember if this is the case - if the Asaka was the top of the line cartridge at the time, then the ArkivB is the equivalent today (if you want one). If it wasn't the top of the line, then it would be the Klyde.

Normally, the insurance people will simply send the dealer a cheque to cover the replacements. Then you can do the dem thing and get what you like from him.

Regards,
Frank.

What a disaster! As a point of information, the Asaka was below the Karma and its replacement would be the Klyde. If you can swing it though, pay the difference and get the Arkiv B.

Paul

John

With the insurance money you could now get a decent turntable - a Well Tempered. Easy to set up, no springs, sounds brilliant, makes any LP12 sound broken and works well without expensive equipment supports.

Go on, you know you want to.

regards,

Dev

John,

I feel sad that the ARO you got from me might be damaged now.

regards,
Hartmut

I offer my sincere condolence to your plight John.

I had been thinking of ordering a Mana wall shelf for my old Thorens TD318 (which weighs an absolute ton incidentally) untill I followed your link to the Mana website and saw that John Watson has advised against installing a wall shelf on a cavity wall..though yours wasn't cavity?

Can I ask how heavy is a phase 6 Mana support and an LP12 and how had you fixed it to start with?

I'm sure your Insurance assessor will want to know as well perhaps?

Again

Keep your chin up eh

These things etc.....

Regards

Pete

John -

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

BTW, do you have a cat? Given recent threads, perhaps the accident was a Cat-astrophe

- GregB

Insert Witty Signature Line Here

This is as depressing as hell. I bet the world stopped when you walked into the room.

Wall shelves? Never again eh? I would never use them for these same reasons.

Let's hope you get a shiny new LP12 and Aro.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
2B || !2B;
4 ^ = ?;

John,

Look on the bright side, you might get a (almost) free upgrade. As Tony pointed out above the same thing happened to my Roxy about 10 years ago, deck, arm and catridge all totaly trashed. The insurance company were very good and paid in full (new for old, all risks, sufficuent cover), they did send someone round to have a look but they were far more intrested in checking out whether we were underinsured. I ended up with a better deck at the end due to some upgrades over time.

I always suggest a very carful read of the policy documents before making any report to any insurance company.

Good luck.

Kevin.

I broke my asak stylus once by knocking it with the vacuum cleaner hose. My insurance coughed up £250 for replacement stylus based on a letter from my dealer explaining what was broken and repair cost. I put together the extra money & got a Karma which I still have today.

Tim

...not wishing to sound "wise after the event", but there was an excellent article in HiFi+ about fixing wall shelves using Hilti JIT-HY adnesive mortar, in conjunction with threaded steel rod. This is in issue 10.

Since your mishap was likely to have been caused by a brick giving up under pressure (primarily from a tensioned, and therefore expanding, anchor bolt rather than the total weight supported, I suspect), the Hilti method makes admirable sense.

Best with the insurance co.!

Mark

(an imperfect
forum environment is
better than none)

John,

You might also like to get the latest copy of HiFi+. They do a comprehensive review of your Crimson 640 and say that a top performance Crimson preamp will be released towards the end of this year.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
2B || !2B;
4 ^ = ?;

Andrew, I caught the review - I'm looking forward to hearing the new preamp (hopefully with remote) although I feel they weren't particularly fair to the standard one, which I think is superb at the price.

Packed the LP12 and bits up today - will have to take it to the dealers tomorrow or Thursday. Hopefully they will pronounce it DOA, as I'm not so keen to keep it if it's compromised in any way. Perhaps I'll use this opportunity to listen to other comparable turntables - don't know what yet.

Main thing is getting something to play my vinyl on ASAP.

Oh, Hartmut, I had a good look at the Aro and apart from a rewire and probably a new bearing, I think it's in remarkably good shape. It appears to have been thrown clear of the 'crash' and used the Asaka as a brake, which is definitely a goner...

John

TC

read of your situation lurking on the mana forum. Bummer man, sorry to hear about it. Still, as most say, at least you are insured.

before re-assembling all, weigh all of the shelves you plan to site atop your wall shelf. Then add to this the weight of the componentry. Ensure that the strength of the fasteners or fastener system you plan to use with support the whole lot in the wall material of your choice (I'm sure mana will provide assistance here, as the design of the shelf comes into play here). My laymans guess would be that the fasteners are in tension? If in doubt re strength of the wall, what about some jusdicious strengthening/re-bricking of the area?

Also consider Ramset Chem-set fasteners ( I suspect these are similar to the Hilti system mentioned by Mark, above). Expanding sleeve fasteners are not really the go under these circumstances, stressing brick or concrete may not be desireable.

Rico - all your base are belong to us.

Wall shelves only drop when not secured properly, as I found out when my Rega shelf carrying my P25 dropped to the floor leaving "nice" big scratches on the side of one of my Rega Naos speakers, as well as damage to the screws attaching the frame of the TT to the plinth and a smashed lid. Four-inch metal coach bolts, as opposed to rawl plugs are effective. Fortunately, in my case the bearings were OK, and the turntable is now restored to mint condition. Tony Lonorgan knows about this plight of mine last Xmas.