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.

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Showing 2 responses by arksound

Get a can of hi contrast spray paint, mask-off the bottom of your speakers and spray liberally around the base. This will mark your floor* with an outline of your speaker's base.  You will be able to return them to the exact position with no trouble at all.  
Now, if she changed the tilt, you will need to bolt a laser pointer to the back of each speaker (best done when set to your liking) and note the position of the dot on the ceiling. Using a ultra-fine point Sharpie put an almost invisible dot on the ceiling where the laser dot is.  Since this may be hard to see, get a can of orange street marking paint and put a large circle around the tiny Sharpie dot.

If you think that these thing are too much to deal with , then this phrase may help
"GET OVER IT" or no one will want to spend time with a person who takes the time to complain about this.

* works well with any flooring type.
It's Saturday morning and the time it took to type this seems to be the same time as it takes for the coffee to finish dripping.
I repair audio gear for a living and have been at it for nearly 50 years. I have one client who has a small child who likes to push in the DIAMOND domes of his daddy's B&W loudspeakers.  After it happened the first time, I made a few suggestions like putting a heavy low obstacle in front of the speakers to prevent him from getting close.  Oh, he'll never do it again. I had a long talk with him about this and he says he'll never do it again.  At 5 years of age, these words meant nothing.  I have replaced 4 tweeters in less than a year for this man.  These tweeters are over $1100 each plus labor and tax that comes to just about $1300 each time.
I guess he really like that kid!  Or maybe the college fund will be down to community college by the time the kid is ready to go.