Monitors are falling

I know you may find this post perhaps a little too idealistic, but here's my two cents. Ignore at will. I had three kids in four years, all the while maintaining a pretty serious audio rig. They were taught from day one to stay away from my stuff, that was Daddy's and they were not to touch it under any circumstances. Similarly, we never removed all the knick knacks and other stuff the wife likes to keep around, we were vigilant in raising them to respect people's things. Easier said than done, I know. My kids are now 7.5, 9, 10.5 and so far, there has been no damage to anything, including themselves. Why go this route? Well, if you take yer kids to friend's houses, it's hard to expect your friends to childproof their place cuz you wanna pass a few hours there together. Long-winded diatribe on parenting I guess, but, it may be worth considering since yer first is on the way now. Congrats, kids are terrific! Jeff

Personally I think Jeffloistarca above has the best idea, but failing that...

For floorstanders look at the Triangle Antals that I think you can get for $1500 new. They're not too big, and if they meet your aesthetic tastes I'd bet they make a huge improvement in your system.

Another thought if you want to stick with monitors, go hear the Soliloquy 5.0s. I was able to do A/B comparisons with the B&Ws(which are obviously also very good speakers) and I thought they blew the CDM1se away. The other part is that the 5.0s are made to screw into their matching stands, and the stands themselves are ridiculously heavy in their own right and can be filled with sand, which would make these really tough to knock over. I think you can get the 5.0s with stands for around $1300 new. You can see them on www.solspeak.com if you want to check them out.

I agree with the guy above who said this might be the perfect opportunity to upgrade. Hey, if you're stuck with lemons why not make lemonade? Give these speakers a listen and you'll be glad your wife hip checked your monitors.

Tim

Slingshot, you echo the thoughts of what I suspect to be many expecting audiophiles. When my daughter was on the way a couple of years ago, I had already experienced the wrath of my nephew. It went something like this: Stand 6 inches from Apogee ribbon, insert index finger. Ugh.

So, with my daughter on the way, I went on the kid-proof speaker search. Now, as said above, Jeffloistarca has the right idea. Teach 'em, and teach 'em well. As I found, however, sooner or later someone else's kids will come to call. And when they do, you better be ready!

And so I found the most kid-proof speaker next to a bose all-weather...the Martin Logan. Logans, in particular the Aerius and SL3, have metal grilles in front of both the 'stat and bass driver.

Metal grilly = no touchy

Now when the neighbors come with their less than well trained offspring and poke and prod and generally destroy, I relax.

Enjoy.

I want to thank all who have responded!! Unfortunately, 60 year old oak floors preclude any sinking or screwing with stands. The Logans were on my short list prior to this, but I am worried about stability ... any comments from ML A owners?

While Jeff's suggestion is the best (and I will fight the desire to add a long diatribe about parents that overly coddle their kids, never teach them proper boundaries, end up with little monsters and then wonder "where did we go wrong"...) (didn't fight that impulse too hard, huh?), this thread got me to thinking.

The ideas regarding heavy stands are good, but if they *are* tipped over the results could be disasterous to a small child. Same with a speaker falling off a stand. The first idea that came to mind was to suspend the speakers from the ceiling, but that has it's downfalls and really only changes the "tipping" issue to a "swinging" one. So how about this?

Would adding a safety wire (picture a length of piano wire attached to each corner of the stand that is in turn attached to a single wire fastened to the ceiling. It would only be taut enough to take out any slack. This would not only keep stands from being tipped over, if properly designed could also help keep the speakers from toppling off the stands. Sonically it would have little effect (I think) and wouldn't be too offensive from the WAF perspective. Combined with filled stands, Blue Tack, etc. this might be a reasonable solution. Just trying to be helpful.