2. speakers
  3. 154723-231

Guest suddenly takes it upon herself to move my speakers

Has this ever happened to anyone here?

You have your speakers positioned just as you like them, and then a guest takes it upon themselves to suddenly move your speakers?

Obviously I’m not going to get any sympathy from anyone in the non Audio world, so I thought I’d post my frustrating experience here.

I also imagine that many of your speakers can’t simply be slid out of position due to spikes or carpeting or sheer weight. Probably a good number of you, who like me have speakers on hardwood floors, have some marks in place to be able to return speakers to their exact position. (Which I didn’t)

But a recent female first time guest was sitting on the floor positioned between the speakers as we listened and for some reason decided that they should be pointed directly at her. Now some people might think “how obnoxious,” and others might think, ‘hey, a woman who wants the toe in angle optimzed for her seating position! She’s a keeper! Let her handle whatever she wants!”

And while I did like the enthusiasm, there was a supertweeter precariously balanced atop each speaker fireing rearward that could have easily toppled off and broken. (And no, there are no kids in the house).

I still haven’t found the exact sweet spot I had them in. For a long time I felt like a bit of an audio slacker since I never installed the factory spikes or rounded cones TAD provides for the CR1’s. Until a few months ago I read on another forum that many CR1 owners choose to just keep the stands on the floor, or haven’t found a benefit to using the spikes/cones on hardwood.

Obviously I’ll use the incident to try and eventually find an even more optimal positioning than they were in, but it still irks me that someone would just assume it’s okay to move a sophisticated audio setup that they truly know nothing about.

emailists
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,875 posts
 
People like to touch things. Go to any car museum, show or display and despite all the Do Not Touch signs displayed in full view, people will touch the cars.

I used to go to a lot of auto shows and it always amazed me. The same goes for museums. If guards and crowd ropes aren't present, people will go right up to a centuries old painting and touch it, knowing they shouldn't. 

Ignorance abounds and it's nothing new to anyone here so the onus is on the host to let it be known that no one touches their system. Don't let that little voice in the back of your head tell you you'll be considered weird or eccentric and hope against hope that your guest will behave. They won't. And, you know it, so some proactive measures have to be taken on your part.

I had a friend who'd intentionally touch, tweak and manhandle things just to inflict damage. He was jealous of anyone who had it better than him. It could be anything, a book or magazine, some stereo gear, or even a car and he'd mess with it. It taught me that there are myriad reasons why people do stupid things and not to trust them. Don't even try to figure them out.

All the best,
Nonoise
glupson
7,842 posts
 
prof,

I get it. I may simply be lucky as none of my adult guests ever tried to (semi)intentionally damage anything. At the same time, the last thing on my mind would be resale value. I would be more concerned about hanging out with people who enjoy damaging anything. That would be a wake-up call and price of the damaged speaker may be worth paying to find out this unacceptable personality trait. However, if you place a glass on the speaker, be my, well, guest. It is just a speaker and it is just a glass. For some reason, nobody ever did that. Instead, I put things there all the time. It may help that I do not sell these things so resale value is really not on my personal radar. Moving speakers would be even less important, as far as I am concerned. I do not know if I am a chill friendly host, but, yes, those who get angry about people touching or accidentaly damaging their equipment are uptight.
jakeman's avatar
jakeman
78 posts
 
If she is a friend with benefits , that's allowed. otherwise show her to the door , lol.
hshifi
572 posts
 
Hello,
it sounds like if we are chill and are OK when accidents happen then that person is Ok when things go wrong. I respect that and wish I could be like that. For the rest of us who are a little OCD like myself it sounds like we need to do our do diligence and take safeguards. I even understand that your date might have thought you were coo coo for coco puffs and said see ya. You have to decide what is more important to you. 
uncle_monkey's avatar
uncle_monkey
56 posts
 
Hahaha, yeah I’ve had idiots move my speakers. My drunken ex had a bunch of drunken friends from her HS reunion over. There might have been around 50 or more people at the house. My listening room was upstairs, looking down on the great room kitchen area where most people were. I had tunes going so you could hear throughout the house. At one point, a bunch went upstairs, moved my Thiel 2.2’s (on spikes) table and sofa so they could dance.

A spike fell out of one of the speakers (they just sort of slide into holes in the bottom) so it was listing to the starboard. No doubt they tried dragging first, but they were planted! Luckily no damage done to (70lb) speaker or carpet. I was cooking outside so I didn’t know what was going on, just one of my discoveries cleaning up late that evening.

And yes, I've got other horror stories over the decades. Luckily nothing severe.
More to discover