How to prevent visitors from touching your system

Proper signage is always important...

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It’s been six weeks since my 17yo started to take her friends into my listening space and so far nobody has touched anything other than the power button on my integrated.  My KPop daughter, without my influence, has started to listen to jazz and rock from late 50s onward.  Having her touch my system has yielded results that I never expected.  I believe that there really isn’t an issue as long as they stay with streaming and don’t play around with the turntable.

Place axe next to stereo system with sign, "Hands Off Audio System".

“I stream most of my music and teach friends how to run the apps.”

Perfect!! And guests in each room can play their own favorite music. We have six different Bluesound Nodes so we can keep them all separate or link as many as we want.

Simple people in my circle know not to touch my motorcycle , stereo and nbq grill.

1)Don't you have a dedicated room?

2)Don't invite anyone over!

3)Display a sign that reflects your thoughts on touching your system! 

I stream most of my music and teach friends how to run the apps. They control the systems and have no reason to touch anything.  The housekeeper is an entirely different problem.  Ripped the stylus off of the phono cartridge with a cloth. 

Why i it a big deal. Music is to be enjoyed and shared…and everything can be repaired. Friendships and relationships trump stuff. Besides, I would rather them touch a vacuum tube and learn they can get pretty hot…and I would rather them touch an amplifier than an 80 year old painting…but again, its jsut stuff.

Buy yourself some Covers.  Not affiliated, just a satisfied customer, Digital Deck Covers will make you anything you want.  Wouldn't surprise me, that they'd make you some custom fit covers for a pair of JBL 4350's.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Smear your gear with a greasy, foul smelling substance.

Most non-audiophiles do not know that your expensive components are easily leading to expensively damaged.  Curiosity is human nature so touching is not abnormal.  So you cannot expect them to “automatically” know, you have to advise them and maybe take steps to protect your gear.  

When expecting guests, I take that day's poop that I've picked up after walking my delightful Mitsy and instead of dropping it in the trash can, i artfully place it on top of the turntable dust cover.

Velvet ropes. And a sacred/holy Persian rug on the floor that nobody is allowed to step on. Except you (after you bow deeply.) Have an airhorn standing by in case you see someone trying to blaspheme your system.

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).

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.

I have a cage of barely visible chicken wire around my rack which has the same voltage as my 300B vacuum tubes, i.e. 450V. When folks touch it they get really shaken up, which triggers a trapdoor right under them, landing them on a heap of old cassette tapes in the crawl space.

Friends to touch my audio gear, who needs friends when I have records to fondle er ah play. Aaaaaahhhhhh vinyl.

No, no, no, is that a Scratch what to do, what to do, no,no,no,no.

Records to die for, equipment to touch. 

Everyone I know does not touch, they may look and admire. I believe they respect the fact that it is not theirs, so no touchie touchie....

With so more kindness i only can say thanks...

And wish more than only my best for you...

@mahgister So happy you are back. I appreciate you.  

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.

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!".

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.

@mahgister So happy you are back. I appreciate you.  

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.

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)

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.

@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.

None of my friends have ever reached out and touched my equipment even my 17 year old grandson who has had to touch everything else in my house. He has asked me about it though..... 

Gosh they might actually become interested in hi-end audio!  And we wouldn't want that, would we?

I used to keep a couple of charged condensers sitting on my tool cart for those people who just had to touch other peoples stuff. Typically it took just one time. 

....am I a 'true audiophile'?

Well....I still smile most of the time, when asked that.

It's because 4 of the 5 voices in my head are stone crazy.

The 5th is the one that smiles and hums quietly....;)

".....touch my coffee....I will slap you So hard that even Google won't be able to find you...."  😒

*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.

Re:  Deadhead 1000 and people touching my things.

"Besides, it was a just a record, my nephew is more important."  So obvious, but so true.  

Are you sure you are a true audiophile?

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.

Tell him you're Doberman will rip their balls off if they do lol, mine is trained to do that.

Ever heard of a company called Invisible Fence?

Buy extra collars.

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 

I just told them once and they remember

On the way into the listening room everyone has to pass two full size racks for (electric) power supply and compressed air. Both are covered in meters, dials and lights. I tell them how much energy is controlled in each cabinet, and for some reason they scarcely even want to look at the equipment.

I used to have a do not touch sign above my turntable.

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.

All my friends know me and my audio equipment, they know if they touch I keep that hand, so far in 45+ years of audio ownership I haven't had to put any hands into my collectibles.

As long as they don’t mess with the tonearm I really don’t care or see what harm they could do.  (I’m assuming they won’t be reaching around back and messing with cables😂).

Life is too short.  Let them touch, supervised, and clean it later. After the first time they handle it they will have their curiosity satisfied, especially if it’s little kids. 

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.

House of stereo.

They get it.

No touch.

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.