1950’s Vinyl Slip-Covers
https://www.amazon.com/108-Clear-Vinyl-Furniture-Protector/dp/B01EKHBHOQ
Born in 1948, I lived thru that era, happily my mother never wanted them.
Never forget to remove them!!!
How to prevent visitors from touching your system
It’s amazing, no matter if it’s your friends or just anyone else walking into your listing room, what is the first thing that happens? They have to reach out and touch something. Like this is the first piece of real equipment they have ever seen. Has anyone else had this experience? What can be done to prevent this except posting signs or telling people every single time? Gets kinda frustrating.
60 responses Add your response
Laser Beam Sensor Detector Alarm
Install in front of your system across the room, link it to a pre-recorded message playback box. |
My friends have their own hobbies. They for the most part understand that entering my listening room doesn't equal an invitation for them to touch everything. They might touch a speaker to feel the finish or pick up an album from my rack but they aren't turning knobs and pushing buttons. It goes both ways. I wouldn't go over their house and touch their stuff either. |
When I got my first JBLs, Dorian S12 we had a cat. He liked the grills a bit too much. Being the 60s and in Chicago there were tons of plastic furniture cover makers. Had 2 flat bottom bags made of clear vinyl. Put over the speakers. Worked like a champ. Cat tried a few times but all he did was slide so he gave up. |
They need to learn respect for other people and their belongings. I have a seven year old nephew and he understands not to touch it. I explained what all the equipment does and also how a turntable works. Although before I could explain records, he grabbed a brand new one with his whole hand. One side now had a nice thumb print, the other had four fingerprints. He thought of it as a large CD/DVD, I was mad, but once I explained how to handle records and it's been no problem. Besides, it was a just a record, my nephew is more important. So, if a seven year old understands it, I would hope your adult friends can understand it. If not, use it as a teaching lesson - what it all does and how to use it. |
It's not cool to touch someone else's gear... My lady won't touch my system but she doesn't have to. She can pick up my Tablet and play anything she wants Years ago we had a party, actually we had three events back to back so I picked up a $50 pair of Klipsch so I could put my Revel stand mounts out of harm's way. Wouldn't you know it, one of my ex's friends put his plate full of food on the speaker and started to eat off of it .... I looked at him and said. " Really? You are using my speaker as a table? The dining room is over there " What a jerk. So ignorant
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Over more decades as a musician and audio geek than I care to admit I've never had an issue with anybody including friends, kids, friend's kids, hippies, vandals, or simply anybody mess with any gear I've owned. A drunk wife of a friend did fall on a nice guitar that then needed some repair...that's it. I consider this to be a parallel universe topic. Weird. |
*L* @magnuman, sounds like the scene in "Where The Buffalos' Roam"... 2:22 > 2:28...ignore the rest... Dr.HSTs' *ah* 'rants' in Rolling Stone helped me through the Nixonian Error.... I had a couple of p/back copies of 'F&L>LV' stolen from me.... J. Depp's movie of same disappointed....should be reshot w/contemptuous modern CGI with all the disgusting 'frothing' now possible.... I wish his ghost could be linked to a 'puter to comment on DJT. 'nuff said. |
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@dabel You jogged my memory. My wife once had a playgroup daily in our basement. My rig for both HT and 2 channel audio we in one corner of the basement. I installed a Roman shade to block off all the gear. The only thing I had to move was the seating. When I got home at night, just raise the shade and push the seat back. Worked pretty well, actually. Now, with my Man Cave, guests rarely venture anywhere near the gear. |
I believe part of the enjoyment is liking your equipment every time you look at it then use it. My audiophile friends know what they are looking at, might touch something to sense it's weight/quality, never a problem. My TT, 3 tonearms, 3 different cartridges mounted (MC; MM; Mono) I show or have shown them each tonearm's features, my method of very lightly removing paper dust, my center weight. then they can put or flip an LP. IOW, they know what they are doing, but need to understand the unfamiliar. Non-audiophile friends: the 3 arm TT is the jewel, I walk up with them, they say "why three?", I give a simple answer, they don't touch anything. btw, another reason to have a dust cover for your TT. Kids: if they get close, a short 'very important to me, please don't touch, or, if older and interested, a quickie this does that. |
The last intruder was served in a soup...😁 And anyway nobody want to try my old vintage tools on their head....Especially my modified Headphone AKG K340...😁
And i dont need an opinion about it...They are top of the chain and i know why..... Alas i am old (72) fool and retired and almost all my friends were all around 18 and 40 years old...With change in life circonstances we lost touch, save by mail... Most of them were anything save audiophiles.. The musicians i had known dont bothered themselves with audiophile sound or acoustic dedicated room, except before a concert where they think for themselves the hall is such and such etc ... 😁😊 Musicians generally dont study acoustic they study their partitions ...
Music or any qualities perceived from one or many " sound sources" in a soundfield cannot be understood by physical acoustic, even not by psycho-acoustic.. How do we explain to someone that a fruit (sound source) is ripe with ONLY acoustic science as information ? Usually we decide by a perceived quality of the sound source felt first through tapping the skin of the fruit and after the necessary experienced learning analysis of the different quality modalities of sound coming with this sound sources put first in vibrating mode and expressing its body... Ok i diverge from the question (alzheimer wandering of thought ? ) ... The only person i want to give a try with my audio system would be an acoustician to impress him 😁...Because i need to be alone anyway perceiving music... But my most glorious and precious musical pleasurable moments were with a more intimate friend when decades ago we compared together different pianists interpreting the same pieces together for some 5 years in once a week encounter... It is the reason why i evaluate pianists with few bar listening... Ectasy can be partake with intimate friends...Alas! i did no more encounter with friends...They are too old or too young and busy now... My wife never like music and love silence and anyway need hearing aids..😁 And anybody who see my low cost dedicated acoustic room wanted to put me in an asylum... They changed😁 idea in all case only after listening the soundfield... Now with headphone is is no more convenient to listen with someone and anyway, even if less crazy, my system did not appear in a very orthodox way to humble average mortals..
Acoustic did not matter anymore, till the time you put it under control... Before it is a very destructive power...It is like a woman... ( i joke here) |
In early 2021 I took delivery of a pair of Fyne Audio F502SPs. I set them up wearing gloves and no human hands had touched them for over a year until one night in the dark I walked into one and had to grab it to stop it from falling. Not touched again by a human hand until a few months ago when someone was admiring the wood finish and rubbed his hand all over the top and side of one. I really could not say anything without looking like a nut job, so I cringed and wiped them down when he left. |
@mahgister So happy you are back. I appreciate you. |
Only trouble I have had is people thinking the premium-finish floorstander nearest the entry door is a bar table for their drinks. The solution was directing traffic quickly away from the audio equipment wall. Visitors tend to be intimidated or incurious about industrial-looking electronic components. Turntable interests some folks, but it sits nearly 6' high, out of their reach. Of course, no cats or toddlers allowed. |
Unfortunately, this method would definitely negatively impact sound quality. However, a bank of 5-foot-high sandbags and an M60 machine gun would do the trick quite nicely. On a more practical level, just tell people what you would tell you kids: "Don't touch anything!" You could add: "This stuff is very expensive. "You break; you pay!". |
I’ve had two instances of “hi-fi invasion”. In the first case, a visitor mindlessly set a bunch of heavy stuff on top of my turntable, deeply scratching the plexiglas dust cover. Another time, during a family get-together, I was away for a few hours to pick up some groceries. When I returned, my 20-something nephew commented how great my tube stereo sounded. He had taken it upon himself to turn everything on (and it was a complicated high value multi-component system) to play music for the crowd! No damage, I suppose, but it left me feeling invaded. |
With so more kindness i only can say thanks... And wish more than only my best for you...
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The worst are children - tell them not to do something and that is exactly what they will do. I had a friend over who was one of those 'my kid can do no harm' types and they walked into the room where I keep my main system. I instantly told him to keep the children out of the room and he said they wouldn't do any harm and if they did he would pay for it. I told my other friend who was there that he was a witness that friend 1 had accepted all liability for the kids. Friend 1 asked how they could break things - I told him that the delicate phono cartridge they were heading for would leave him out of pocket around $5K....and he immediately grabbed the children and took them outside. I have never understood how parents equate saying that the kid who destroyed something was young and not responsible also means that they don't have to pay for their child's damage. |
All systems in our house include Bluesound Nodes. We have only a few visitors so it’s not much trouble to introduce them to BluOS and Qobuz so they can choose their favorite music in whatever part of the house they happen to be in. It’s been a real pleasure to see them enjoying themselves with it. We don’t have a dedicated listening room - we’re immersed in music all over the house, inside and out (closest neighbor is almost a mile away). |
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