Costliest Brainfart

Thanks all for sharing your stories.

mariddock - I like your line of thinking.

Cheers, all.

The expression s--t happens started somewhere and this could be one of those instances where it started or at least where it gained great popularity. Totally unsatisfying experiences seem, periodically, to be a part of this hobby -BUT there is always a way back to system satisfaction. Unfortunately, money is VERY often that way. Sorry to hear of your misfortune.

Hello, Please do not put a claim on your home owner’s insurance for $2k. You will just give them an excuse to raise your rate prematurely. Not sure of the condition of the platter and plinth. If those are salvageable you can go back to the dealer and see what they can do for the arm and cartridge. Sometimes they have a trade in deal or maybe they will be really nice and give you a really good discount. Like $30%. As for the arm if you have to use that arm then get another. If you can choose an arm then get something you might really want like a Kuzma 4 point 11. I am really sorry this happened to you and I am sure one way or another we have all had our bad audio days. 

I thought my turntable arm was up. I was cleaning a record and pushed it counterclockwise. There went my sumiko evo 3

Oh yeah…dropped speakers…lowered tone arm/stylus  on the part of the platter that has the speed calibration notches…turned volume up…up…up still no sound? Oh yeah, I hooked up to speaker B this time, turned speaker selector knob without lowering volume- BOOM. 
Done worse (imo). Parked car with a new Pioneer super tuner in shady part of Brooklyn. Sure nuff it was gone when I returned 15 minutes later. Damn these guys are good, clean uninstall with out breaking anything on the dash. Next day had to visit same neighborhood and couldn’t do without tunes so Used another family car. Parked in same spot. Same result.

I could go on but the audiogon community’s impression of me May drop too much.

My house cleaner decided to clean my phono cartridge. She rippled the stylus and cantilever out of the $3500 cartridge. I asked her if she would avoid touching it in the future. No point in yelling at her or upsetting her. Stuff  happens.

I entered in my acoustic journey the day 23 years ago when my wife decided to clean the Beyerdynamic T990 i used from 1980 till 2000... My wife used his aspirator with a sudden inspiration toward cleanliness seeing my headphone... It suck up one of the driver...I did not divorced... 😁

My acoustic journey begun when i decided to try new speakers for my desk ( My tannoy were too big) and new headphones one after the other with no SATISFACTION ...

When i stumble on a decent not too big speakers , frustrated by my 9 headphones purchase, i begun to experiment with room acoustic... It takes me 5 years to succeed ...

I enjoyed my dedicated room for almost 2 years...

But i lost it selling my big house one year ago...

In the new small house happily i optimized the only headphones i was really in love with and some small box speakers...

AKG K340 and M-audio AV 40 speakers in a dedicated acoustic corner ...

I am happy again and heaven...Thanks to the Dr. Gorike who designed the K340 hybrid and to the chinese engineer behind this M-Audio active speakers marvel model AV40  at peanuts cost...

Audio related in that I had music on @15 feet away while I worked.  Tubes aglow.  I’ve been working on our living/dining room ceiling for several years. Tongue and groove pattern board to 34 x 14 space with high pitched ceiling.  To finish the last few feet at the very top I need another 2 feet of height added to this bakers scaffold.  I fabricated 4 leg extensions to bolt on and receive the roller wheels.  By myself as usual.  I blocked up one side enough that I could bolt new metal on with wheels in place.  Stable.  That wasn’t too bad.  Other side, I didn’t block up.  I lifted, attached one extension/wheel and lowered it to the floor.  So, 3 legs on a really tall scaffold.  And heavy too.   It seemed to roll over in slow motion.  I could see instantly where the next few seconds were headed and the physics made me a bystander at that point.  I think I may have been smiling as it slow rolled,,because it was so obvious.  Hit a pricey contemporary glass hanging light fixture and ended on its side on the dining room table. Huge noise, light fixture unbroken but swinging wildly.  
In my long life of “fixing things”, I’ve been aware of getting 2 warnings. One while you’re thinking about how this might go wrong but feel like you’ll manage. Second happens milliseconds before the explosion when you realize “bad call on this one”

After a 6 pack of IPAs, I tried to clean a small tuft of dust off of my stylus with a can compressed air with the small tube still connected to the can of compressed air. I thought it would work best if I pointed the contraption of doom right at the stylus. You guessed it. The tube went flying out like a dart and took the stylus clean off. $900 down the drain. Lesson learned. Drunk maintenance generally does not work out.