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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 5 responses by prof

prof
3,491 posts
 
She was being obnoxious.

I can’t imagine taking it upon myself to just move around someone else’s furniture or speakers in their own house, without asking (and having a darned good reason!).

The closest I get to that is the fact that my 2 channel listening room doubles as a living room/home theater room, so there are often guests over.

I’m amazed how many guests have no respect for, or idea of, valuable speakers. Usually. my speakers are fairly striking and of obvious high quality finish (I like good aesthetics) and yet guests constantly lean on the speakers, place their hands on them while talking, and even sometimes put their drinks on the speakers! These people are still stuck in their animal-house-dorm idea of what stereo equipment is - speakers are as much ash tray holders as music producers.

I don’t care WHAT piece of furniture or equipment I was aware of in someone else’s home. Especially if it looked expensive I’d be CAREFUL around it.


prof
3,491 posts
 




Guests are allowed to do anything. Otherwise the host is not that great.


Thats ridiculous. So if a guest wants to place his drink on top of an expensive speaker possibly marring the nice finish and also lowering its resale value, I should just suck it up and not ameliorate the situation because “the guest is always right?”

Sorry, no. I think you are looking at this from only one side. I wouldn’t want to incaringiy ruin anything my host owns when I’m invited somewhere. And I don’t teach my kids “you can do whatever the hell you want at someone’s house because your the guest.” Do you?
prof
3,491 posts
 
glupson

I understand the mathematical point. I truly do. However, having some kind of attachment to humans rather than to some inanimate object is what I am talking about. It may be whatever kind of difference, but I had people put glasses all over the place and I never got upset. It is simply that once I invite a person, that one is welcome to feel at home. Including opening refrigerator, moving speakers, etc. What kind of host restricts guests? Again, maybe different world and values we all have.

I think you are imagining some false dichotomy. You, the chill, friendly host, me (or others) uptight, breaking in to some party-pooping anger.

No. Someone puts their drink on my speaker, I solve the problem by getting a tray or coaster and putting the drink on that for them. People feel very at home in my place. I host people all the time (I have guests coming tonight to watch a movie, had guests a couple days ago watching movies), my place is the de facto gathering place for certain big sporting events (I have a great home theater room with a big projection screen) and everyone raves about the experience.

But, for instance, there is a speaker covered in black velvet (to disappear in low light near the projection screen) near the room entrance. I will sometimes point out to new guests the presence of that speaker so they’ll know not to bump in to it by mistake and possibly knock it over.No one’s time is spoiled by this and usually they thank me for letting them know.

I don’t want my equipment to be ruined; my guests don’t want to unknowingly ruin my equipment either. This is not some non-negotiable situation that can only mean me being a prick or their being made to feel unwelcome.

Again...do YOU not care about ruining anything in someone else’s home? If YOU as a guest decide to put out a cigarette through the speaker grill of the host’s expensive speakers, do you really see that as your right, and that any consternation from the host is their fault?

If so, you’d be a truly rotten guest. If not...then I don’t know what you are going on about this "a host should let a guest do whatever he wants and everyone should be fine with that."





prof
3,491 posts
 
Let's not move on the the horrors caused by cleaning ladies.
Turntable owners know this best.
prof
3,491 posts
 
uncle monkey

Yup.

When I upgraded my turntable a couple years ago I took the plunge and spent a whopping amount on a Transrotor turntable which came with a really expensive cartridge. I didn’t even set it up for the first month or so as I re-built my equipment rack with an isolation base during that time.Finally, just before we went away on a week vacation the rack was ready, I set up the turntable and had time for about 1/2 hour listen just to make sure things were working. Yay. It sounded glorious.

Came home from vacation, went to listen to a record and...wha? The cartridge was hanging off the arm at a wild angle! Aside from being alarming it was completely perplexing? What the hell happened?

Then I remembered: The Cleaning Lady! She had come while we were away!

I called her and sure enough, yes, she remembered that big new shiny thing in the corner of the room. She was cleaning around it with a cloth and heard a sudden "bang!" Said she notice the long silver thing (arm) hanging at a weird angle. "I guess it caught on my cleaning cloth when I moved my arm." She placed it back like she thought it supposed to be and went on none the wiser. Yup, her cleaning cloth had snagged on the cartridge needle, yanking it off the arm and slamming the arm off the table on to the platter.

Half and hour. Just half an hour of listening to my new expensive turntable is all I got in before the cleaning lady ravaged it. Sigh...

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