I learned the hard way


I thought, (secretly hoped) some of you have had some hard luck stories to tell from your audio adventures that may have provided some benefit from sharing here so others may benefit..

I waited years until recently to try some Lyra SPT stylus treatment. The other weekend I opened the little top on the little bottle and turned it to an angle for application to it's little brush. The bottles' contents began spilling on my countertop. WTF! I then noticed/realized that there are two tops. The lower top came off when I unscrewed the smaller upper top. I just watched as $30 drained on to my countertop. I then made sure the lower top was extremely tight going forward. 

The good thing is, half a bottle will still last years.


128x128slaw
@williewonka - This amplifier/ high capacitance speaker cable issue is discussed by Roger Russell (former Macintosh designer) in the attached URL below.  Scroll down to the "Amplifier Stability and Amplifier Performance" section.

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#silverwire
@mikexxyz - Exactly so.  Pathological cables connected to pathological amplifiers may well cause sonic (and electronic) problems. Put another way, cables designed to affect the frequency response (i.e. tone controls) and/or amplifiers designed to have a particular 'sound' (i.e. a tone control with gain, versus a straight-wire with gain approach), will indeed affect the sound, and/or result in liberating smoke previously trapped within the electronics...
@mikexxyz - I took a read of the article and stopped when I got to...

It can be solid, stranded, copper, oxygen free copper, silver, etc.--or even "magic" wire--as long as the resistance is kept to be less than 5% of the speaker impedance. There is no listening difference as long as the wire is of adequate size.
The statement is flawed and he really shows his ignorance about the nuances of cable materials and geometries.

This statement trivializes the scale of the issue...
Unfortunately, in addition to sounding different with a small amount of overshoot, a few unstable or borderline amplifiers can even go into oscillation.
NAIM, Ayre, Gryphon are three I know of that suffer fron oscilation and I would not consider any of them "borderline"

Sorry - but then that's just my opinion :-)
 



@williewonka - I totally agree with you that NAIM, Ayre, and Gryphon are not borderline designs.  
I was using stylus cleaning gel on my Lyra Skala after every record played. During one listening session I lifted the arm from the gel, lowered it onto the lead in groove & watched it skim across the record... The gel had pulled off the tip.