And then there's the guest that grabs the remote and turns the volume up to the point of doing damage to the speakers.
How do you stop house guest from damaging your speakers?
Over the years I have had many adult guest coming to my house and curious about my speakers though I never mention to them I’m an audiophile. Most of the time they will lean close to the speaker, looking at the driver, maybe occasionally touching the cabinet or knocking on the cabinet. But in other times I’ve had guest touching drivers gently as well and I usually just tell them to stop to prevent them from damaging the driver when I see them doing that.
Yesterday I had a little sit down with a few guests and one of them wanted to play my Blade 2. Out of nowhere, while the music is playing he stood up and walked to the speaker and knocked on the side driver woofer and asked “are these speakers too?” It was probably 3 or 4 consecutive hard knock on the woofer while the woofer is playing, and you guys can already imagine my facial expression. I don’t want to blame the guest as the blade’s woofer doesn’t look like regular woofer and I can’t expect guests to have knowledge of how not to damage speakers, but man, that really hurts when I saw that happen.
I inspected the driver afterward and it seems like all is good and the driver survived. I don’t remember if I heard distortion while the music is playing but to my knowledge this would easily fall into the abuse category for an audiophile.
I’m wondering, do I attach a label to say do not touch on those drivers? Do I tell guests not to physically touch the speakers?
122 responses Add your response
We have a lot of people in and out of our house and I host parties quite often. I system isn't nearly as expensive as a lot of folks on here have - My primary listening setup is worth around 20 grand but I have some pretty expensive exposed tubes. One guests come into the room, I always mention to them to not touch the system. When there are kids, I usually keep everybody out of the room unless I know the adult is in charge of their child. 90% of the time - I have the speaker grills on to protect the drivers anyway. |
I can imagine that unexpected knock on a driver also knocked all the air out of your lungs. Glad to hear all is well. Funny story…I had B&W N803 years ago and I lost count of how many people made attempts to pick up the “microphone” on top of the speakers. I learned quickly there’s no shame in politely asking people not to touch anything. If you have an option not to let anyone into your listening space, exercise it. Otherwise just let them know it’s ok to look but not ok to touch. There’s just no upside in demoing your gear to someone who doesn’t generally care about high end audio. |
@mapman +1 |
Hey, I'll let anybody and everybody look at my stereo, sit in the sweet spot and to listen to their choice of tunes. They can pull an LP from my shelf if they so wish but I politely tell them to please keep the LP in its sleeve. Naturally, I try to lure them into listening to one of my 3D imaging spectaculars. |
Who are these people you call friends? I wouldn't have a friend if I couldn't tell them point blank not to do something and chew them out if they did. Are these your wife's peeps also? That could definitely add a huge wrinkle in that approach. Another approach is just have a nice boombox for tunes - seems like they have no appreciation for what you've created so why have them listen to it? Like several comment here, my listening space is off limits (they don't even know I have one), and I don't tell them either... |
As Big Twin mentioned, my listening room is also my sanctuary. It's for me and no one else... Sorry if that sounds selfish but I don't want anyone rapping on my speakers either. My girlfriend has pretty bad hearing so it's lost on her. Only a few people in my circle have been in this room. There's a reason for that. |
I’m pretty direct, especially around cleaning people. "STOP!" is a word that comes out of my mouth pretty easily. :) Education however works best. Before they get the chance to I point out that there are expensive and very sensitive parts not to get near. Certainly not to put a vacuum cleaner near, or their fingers. :) It does drive me crazy that I've had so many people immediately want to touch what they see as unique. The center plug on ring radiators for instance, but it's so natural that I have to just prepare for it when letting people near. |
Definitely tell any visitors not to touch any of your equipment. I guess I would preface this with mentioning, you have a really unusual and delicate equipment.
But I am also on the side of @bigtwin. In twenty years I think I have had seven or eight people in my audio room… most other audiophiles. My system is for me. Most people don’t know it is one of my pursuits. For a long time I would mention I was an audiophile and I would hear. “Oh, I (or my husband is)… I (he) have a Bose system…” the shock and disgust I would experience was difficult to contain. I would try and explain that was not an audiophile system without being condescending… but it would leak. I finally just stopped telling any one I had a high end system. |
Stop allowing people into your listening room, who clearly don't share your passion for high end stereo equipment. Maybe it's just me but my experience with people in general is that very few own high end systems, and that the majority who don't are mostly interested in "what did that cost you", and then they think you're crazy if you tell them the truth. My listening room is my sanctuary and I only share it with those who already understand what they are looking at. Didn't used to be like that but it is now. |