What was you most expensive accidental damage?

Mint:

Fried a Harman Kardon 3380 receiver ($250) by shorting the speakers wires (#1). While they were here, Sylvester (the cat) clawed out a pair of EPI 100's ($150 - 1979 money) and Vino (the cat) clawed out a pair of KEF Q55's ($600), as well as the motherboard of a PC. With that said, for the longest times my speakers were inside of cabinets and at least 5 feet off the ground. The new guys, Ruby (the cat) and Archie (the cat) tend to leave my stuff alone.

Regards, Rich

Well...........I do have a story. Way back in the late 60s when I was in college my buddies and I would set up a couple of mics and tape record our group playing folk music. One day, at a family party my little cousin came into the room where we had just recorded a song and the mics were live. She put her lips against one of the mics and let out a loud scream. The results were two melted voice coils on my EMI speakers. When I sent them in for repair I got a call from a EMI engineer wanting to know how the hell that happened. He said he never seen a speaker voice coil so totally destroyed. It's funny now, but at the time there were no smiles on my face.

I had the veneer on my speakers crack due to a leak in the roof. To reveneer the speakers it will cost the same as replacing them. I am still working on the insurance settlement. They are eager to take your money but to get anything back is like squeezing 1000 watts out of an inexpensive SET amp.

I remember stepping on a pair of KR 842's! This was about a $700 screw up!

This is going to seem trivial, but I once (accidentally, on purpose) busted up a late 70s vintage Panasonic clock radio.

The Eagles had just lost a game to the Redskins on a field goal in the closing seconds of a game, and I just kept bashing the thing like crazy with my hand. Didn't figure the flourescent display was made of glass or that a metal housing surrounded it, but let's just say my hand was bleeding pretty good and the clock wasn't of much use by the time I got it all out of my system.

That was the best darned clock radio I ever owned. After approximately 20 years, it was still going strong. So far, "Made in China" does not compare with "Made in Japan". But, I've been lucky with my high end gear.

And, no, I don't have those anger issues any longer. At least, I think I don't...