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

The German have this saying: ''Wein, Weiber und Gesang'' ( wine,

women and music). I don't like wine but well Serbian plum brandy.

Wheil enjoying my brandy and music I probably fall a sleep but

somehow wake up in bed by the women next door. Sober I would

never dare to try.

Buying a pair of speakers from a manufacturer I like only to find them so inefficient I had to swapped out all my amps or finally swap out the speakers
Selling my Magneplanar Tympani T-I's and replacing them with a pair of Fulton J's. Didn't take me long to realize THAT was a mistake! It's okay---I have a pair of restored T-IV's now.