Should we care if a piece of equipment comes from a pet-free, kid-free, smoke-free home?

We may have this all wrong. Perhaps someone has done an A/B SQ comparison with/without cigarette residue, with/without pet hair or dander, with/without sippy-cup drippings on the knobs and cabinet So many details to test!

There may be another business opportunity here. I can see it now. Mpingo St. Bernard dander in .005 oz packets, $350 per packet…and 6 packets proven to lift the “veil” from your audio experience. Or perhaps .2oz bottles of Cuban cigar flavored mist to reveal detail and transparency at a new level.

It actually does matter in some cases.  A friend recently told me that his Audio Note M 8 linestage had developed a problem with turn-on—it would frequently blow a fuse when the switch was thrown.  The problem turned out to be caused by a massive collection of cat hair inside the linestage chassis—the warm linestage was a favorite sleeping spot of the cat.

When I wanted to sell my Acoustat 1+ 1 electrostatic speakers to a use equipment store, they would only buy it if I took off the outer sock so that I could confirm it was used in a smoke free environment.  Smoke is attracted to the charged diaphragm and leaves a thick sticky deposit that degrades performance.

I highly recommend to stay away from vinyl stored in a smoking environment, simply gross. 

So many variables.

Almost bald cat upstairs, never in basement < long-haired cats sleeping on amps.

One happy spliff < pack and a half of smokes a day for twenty years in the home.

Et cetera.

PS. I don’t smoke anything

@normb You got the cat dander right. They are disgusting.  I never eat cakes made by folks with cats.

Bought a leather couch once the owners of the store smoked on it.went to get my djnsurance they asked me how much I smoked. The couch was like a nicotine patch my blood test came back positive for nicotine. I always felt a calming effect on that couch.then in med school did a drug study to get enough money to fly home for Christmas it was double blind test latter found out it was the nicotine patch.never could get into the viagra double bind test it was too full.enjoy the music