Long distance move - Trust moving company unpack

I wouldn’t trust movers to set the boxes down in the right rooms.

This question comes up from time to time. The consensus, as millercarbon notes, is to never trust movers. However, your lady friend could direct them to place the boxes in the right room. Then, she could also direct a hi-fi audio dealer to uncrate and install, assuming you cannot when you get there. No one else understands this stuff. Especially if you've a turntable. Hint, bring the arm and cartridge with you in your carry-on.

My big move was fraught with paranoia over my various precious components. I packed the components myself, lavishing enough care to drive my wife to distraction. The SOTA turntable, of course, was by far the trickiest. It weighs a ton. Lots of springs to damp and immobilize. I used zip-ties to make sure the tonearm would never stray from its rest. Because the turntable needs lead shot to properly balance the tonearm, I festooned the moving carton with "This Side Up" arrows to keep the shot from spilling out into the carton if the carton wasn’t upright. The original SOTA carton, of course, was long time gone. The move demanded a fairly long ocean voyage to a tropical port, so I endlessly fretted over how much heat warpage my thousands of vinyl records might sustain. It didn’t help that the LPs and the stereo had to be stored at a non-air-conditioned storage facility for several months before they had a new place to live. I made sure they were tightly packed within their boxes.


Anyway, the stereo steamed its way into port and baked at the storage facility. Yes, the turntable box wound up sitting on its edge. When I eventually opened the box, a good amount of lead shot was rattling around loose. I filed a claim with the company that handled the big move and arm-twisted a pretty good settlement out of them. Bottom line, all’s well that ends well. The stereo works and sounds wonderfully. Only a few LPs sport new warps.

Trust is a big word. I would consider it more like risk management.
So many variables but to head off disaster, you or somebody you actually know and trust needs to be present to perform or supervise/monitor packing, loading, unloading, and set-up of your stereo system.  If you decide to have movers do some or all of that, I suggest calling ahead of time and asking for their crew with the most experience with that type of thing and then I would be ready to pay them for the extra service.  I like your idea of contacting a reputable local stereo shop to assist with set-up, if you need the help.  However, I would want to be there....who knows, you might learn something and have some fun.

DO NOT TRUST THE MOVERS!
Signed, One who knows...