I Hate Moving
Regardless of looking a little dumb for posting such a topic, I was wondering if others had advice when it comes to moving a stereo from one apartment to another. My landlord died a couple months back and I received a letter from the estate attorney telling me to vacate the house that I’ve been living in for eight years. The apartment I’m moving into is actually nicer but smaller and I’ll have someone living above me. My amplifier weighs about eighty pounds and the two power supplies and battery take up a good amount of floor space. I do have the original boxes for everything except my Quad 2905 ESL’s, which I wrap in bubble wrap and carefully lay on an inflatable mattress in the back of my SUV. This method works well, I did this whenever delivering the speakers to my Quad technician. Anyway, it’s just a pain.
Advice: friends, pizza, and beer. Close friends will take care of your stereo equip as they know how much it means to you. Supervise carefully the Quads. Warn them ahead of time of the amp weight and rent a dolly and or a hand cart. Note: a child's Radio Flyer wagon will not adequately support the amp's weight, nor score you any sanity points with passersby |
I do have a hand truck and friend who's willing to help. Pizza, beer, that's the plan. @carlsbad2 Yeah, bubble wrap is slippery so thanks! @ghdprentice When I inherit my folks house, that's my only hope. |
@simao My martial arts family will be invited for a house warming party. No fighting inside! |
I feel your pain, OP. I am about 4 years away from relocating overseas after 34 years in the same home. Add to all the anxiety: Import duties and restrictions, "professional" packaging, and the risk of putting my precious hi-fi and LPs on a cargo ship, with over land truck transport on both sides of the move. Then there's the issue of voltage, since I am moving to a 220 country. I do plan on wiring the new man cave for 110, though. Plus, after 34 years of having a quiet basement man cave, my new listening room will be in an apartment building with apartments above and below. Yikes. I am planning on rather expensive renovations to prevent sound leakage. Good luck on the move! |
I also am in the process of moving, so I feel your pain. I have half of my equipment at one house, and the lighter stuff is at the new house. I am hoping my son will be up this weekend, so I can move the "monster" pieces (amp, speakers, subwoofer, etc...). No fun, that’s for sure. My only recommendation would be to save the beer for AFTER moving your equipment, and having a hand-truck never hurt. |
I’ve got a 3rd meniscus tear from lifting my 80lb McIntosh MC2250 from a low shelf in a tight space. Watch 2 strong friends do it for you! Some delicate things, like a TT, can go in the car with you. When younger (i.e. poor, moving myself) I always packed the sound system last, and remove/set up part of it first, get some music going during the pack/un-pack. Keeping an all in one boom box may be smarter. |
I feel you. Currently having to move twice so on the second move I decided to upgrade my system using this time as an opportunity (insanity) to ship all my equipment that is going to be replaced to the vendors rather load them up to my new place first. Did I say opportunity...I meant rationalization to spend more money. |
@bondmanp 'I cried because I had no shoes, then I saw a man with no feet.' Wow, your situation is difficult to say the least. Thanks everyone for your input, it feels better knowing that I'm not alone. I believe Sunday afternoon will be move the stereo day. |
If you go to a Budget rent-a-truck location, they can probably give you the number(s) of guys that only load and unload trucks. This saved me last moving day. Also helps if you move everything to the room closest to the exit door. Finally, hand trucks are great as are floor dollys (medium and small). Not too expensive. P.S. when packing amps, preamps, DACs, etc. always put the front in first (into the usual big plastic bag). If you don't, there's a chance you could scratch the front, cutting the tape that is sealing the bag. |
It's funny, we haven't moved that many times since adulthood, but in some ways I find it cathartic, even though it leaves me exhausted. If you are anything like me, you throw stuff in a box that makes its way to the basement. Ten or twenty years later, you find that you never bothered to open the box! So much for keepsakes. I've done moves literally around the corner and virtually across the country. To some degree they all involve the same amount of work. We tend to pack our own high value things-- much like you would your hi-fi gear. My point, if there is one, is that it is a good opportunity to "deaccession" or dump stuff you don't need. Not all may be junk- it's just that it outlived its usefulness for you. We downscaled on our last move, partly b/c we didn't want the upkeep, cost or running expenses of a big house. That required even more careful planning in terms of what to keep and what to get rid of. Many things made their way to friends, so I viewed that as a positive- not just increasing the size of the landfill/dump, but giving away things that people actually appreciated. May also be a stage of life thing. I'm at a point where I want less- I like quality, I like good things, appreciate a fine rug or a piece of art, so some of this stuff will probably remain until they haul me off to the nursing home or burning pyre. But, the process of sorting through the artifacts of your life can be liberating in a way if that makes any sense. Good luck on your move. |
I have a similar situation. I am moving out of state to a much smaller place (retiring). I have 18 pieces of original equipment, everything from a Thorens TD-160 turntable, to a Sansui 7070 receiver, to a Monitor Audio 5-channel speaker setup, to a Marantz SACD player. I am the original owner of it all. I am starting to post here on Audiogon. Not sure how it's going to go as it is the first time that I am doing this.
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@perkri yeah, stereo is first. Me and a friend are taking care of that by ourselves. Then a couple of days later, the movers are taking things, heaviest objects first. I can only afford three hours of movers so after they leave, then whatever is left is on me. I have absolutely no idea how I can set up my stereo while giving the Quads a distance of eight feet from the wall. And guess what, no high end headphones so my listening hours will be in the afternoon. |
@fred60 Sorry you have to sell. You should keep the Thorens, you’ll only get a couple hundred dollars for it. |
I like moving as a general activity....try to do some everyday, unless SO has something else in mind... If I can move discretely out the door and into the street, there is that temptation, but has a tendency to be complicated later... If it's monoblocks and you object to a hand truck, I'll listen to someone else's vertebra squeak ('old war wounds"..."You're not a vet..." I will be in a moment...🤨...) *L* Only if one promises to help move mine.....but when they see That, they move out of state....(cowards....). Good luck, and don't dro...*clunk*....that.... ;) |
I "feel your pain". We moved about three years ago, twice. We sold our house immediately in early 2020 and our new home wasn't ready until around Thanksgiving that year. In my case I kept all the original boxes and with help from my son & friends, boxed all the components up and moved them to a climate controlled storage unit, part of "decluttering" our former home. When the movers came to deliver our stuff to the new home, they carried all that heavy stuff up the 15 steps to my bonus room. My son helped me unbox and setup the system in its new, and permanent home! Good luck with the move. I'm not doing that again! |
When my wife and I decided to finally renovate -- i.e., gut -- our house in 2021, I had to make one of the most painful decisions in the history of my hobby: getting rid of boxes of magazines. GRAMOPHONES from the late 70s on, TAS and STEREOPHILE from the 80s on. The GRAMOPHONES didn't hurt as much as I had expected because I have every issue available from 1923 on through my digital subscription. The others? Yes. Still, it was painful letting go. |
Well folks, everything has been relocated to my new apartment. I’m sore, tired and relieved all at the same time. Now I have the dilemma of setting up my stereo and Quad 2905’s and I need to make it happen with considerably less space than I had before. The ESL’s are going to be tricky because I can’t space them eight feet from the back wall as sometimes recommended. Anyway, I believe I can make it work. And thank you for all your kind words. |
@mr_m Yeah, wish I had a great pair of headphones. Neighbors are moving in on August 1st so we’ll see. |
