Your worst gaffes


I thought it'd be fun to share our embarrassing experiences, or gaffes we committed with our equipment over the years. I hope that they all ended up ok, but feel free to share those that didn't as well... I'll start.

I had an outpatient foot surgery last year, and they administered a strong painkiller intravenously, and gave me a Vicodin on top of it after I came out of a full-body sedation. When I got home, I felt so good that I had a few shots of vodka, at which point I felt REALLY good. Well, of course I couldn't wait to listen to my records so I proceeded to my listening room and grabbed a record. Not a good idea!

Completely unaware of what I was doing, I lowered the lift lever before I cued up the tonearm so that it dropped onto the record. After a brief confusion, my heart stopped! Luckily, my Lyra Delos appeared to come out unscathed! Did I rest relieved? Of course not. I proceeded to "see" how far the tonearm dropped and whether it could have possibly damaged the cartridge by holding it with my shaky fingers with the lever down. I dropped it twice more...

A few hours later, a few vodkas later, and enough time to contemplate my stupidity, I was listening again, and thought that the anti-skating device on my Classic looked weird as it made the fishing line too taut (as it's supposed to do). As the record was playing, I flicked it for a reason I'll never understand. It sent the tonearm flying across the record with a loud scratch and off the platter. How it did not hit the side of the platter completely destroying the cantilever, I'll never know. I think what saved the cartridge was the fact that flicking the anti-skating mechanism literally sent the tonearm flying rather than drag it across the record, and that it was barely a minute into the first song. The craziest thing was that my Delos again came out unscathed! No bent cantilever, no damage to the stylus. Almost a year later, I still cannot believe it and count myself very, very lucky.

The next day I decided to read the discharge papers. In caps, it stated that the sedation significantly affects judgment, perception, and coordination for hours after the surgery. Oh, really you idiot! Lesson learned...
actusreus
I don't feel so all alone now. Minor by comparison. Recently, I couldn't understand why things were sounding so "mono". Listening to a well known CD. Shocked to hear part of the music MIA. Almost like 1 track of a 4 track mix was no longer being picked up. Ran a diagnostic CD. No right, no left, just center. Changed CDP. Same thing! Belatedly, figured out I'd connected my right and left channel amp inputs to pre-amp output 1's right channel and to the right channel of pre-amp output 2. "Living Mono". Things sounding much better now with things corrected. Lesson learned? Go by sight, not by touch.
Syntax,
That sounds so extreme. Would you be able to share more details why the ultimatum was made?
Letting my brother in law change record on my Maplenoll ariadne signature. I ended up with a great record with a horrible scratch and a rebuild of my airy 3.