I always do something stupid...


...I have a pretty nice system and it is important to me. I spend hours researching tweaking and getting it right. I spend even more time listening to it of course. I am a pretty careful and meticulous person in most things.

So...why is it that everytime I get a new piece of expensive equipment or a new cable or whatever, I always manage to do something you are not supposed to do. Like turning off the pre-amp before the power amps and getting a loud pop. Or leaving an amplifier on and unplugging the interconnect attached to it at the pre-amp. Or forgetting that the interconnects to the subwoofer are JUST long enough and trying to move the subwoofer (and thus stressing the interconnects) without unplugging them. Or SIMPLY NOT NOTICING THAT THE $!@*# VOLUME IS UP TOO HIGH BEFORE I PUSH PLAY ON THE TRANSPORT. I could go on.

Point being, I've never really screwed anything up, but it's not from lack of "rying." Is this just me? I realize I've opened myself up to cruelty on this one...
dgaylin
I've had my share of near misses.
Now I take my time.
Then double check.
Then I sit down to listen.
Then I get up and check again.
Then I make myself a drink and wonder how it might sound if I turned it on.
Then I go take a nap.
Mr D- How old are you? I generally call my brain-farts, "Senior Moments", and leave it at that. Obviously- Once a certain chronological point is attained in one's lifespan; these events will increase exponentially(unless one compensates, as Mr_man has so wisely done). Recently- I replaced the two bridge rectifiers in my woofer amp with IXYS FReDs. When I re-connected the amp, I hooked up the Lt/Rt interconnects in reverse. That made the drum kits in my recordings sound decidedly strange(like- spread across the room). I didn't realize what I had done, or what caused that effect, until I started applying Quick Silver to some of my cables today(DUH). We might be glad that it's our brains going first, rather than our ears? Think I'll go hit the Ginkgo Biloba bottle now(before I forget).
Hey Dgaylin we've all made mistakes. I had an integrated in for audition and shorted it out when I hit a speaker cable with my foot and knocked it loose. Fortunately the dealer was a nice guy and did not charge me for it.
My funniest moment (not at the time) was when I hooked up a new pair of interconnects from my preamp to my tuner. I couldn't wait to hear the difference from the old interconnects. I, patiently, warmed up my tubed gear for about 10 minutes and left standby mode, but when I turned up the volume, there was no sound at all! I was beside myself, when I discovered that I had mistakenly hooked up the interconnect on the aux line outlet instead of the tuner line outlet of the preamp. Since the source selector on the preamp was set to tuner, I got no sound. I guess I could have switched the preamp source from tuner to aux and listen to the tuner, but instead, I turned everything off and installed the interconnect to the tuner outlets of the preamp. It was a very frustrating 30 minutes before I got everything right. I am glad I was alone when this happened. I have had other senior moments and am a master at misplacing my house keys. At least, I found the new interconnects pleasing!